The Aliso Canyon blowout, the largest gas leak in U.S. history, sparked hundreds of lawsuits, government penalties and, much to the anger of residents, a single misdemeanor criminal charge.
The settlements and fines from the disaster cost the gas well’s operator, Southern California Gas Co. and its parent company, Sempra Energy, more than $2 billion over the last decade.
An agreement with the state prevents it from recovering those costs from ratepayers.
Those payments include:
$1.8 billion in personal injury lawsuits. $119.5 million to settle city, county and state government claims. $4.3 million to settle the county’s criminal case. $105 million to the California Public Utilities Commission, including $34.1 million in greenhouse gas mitigation funds.In 2021, the bulk of the payouts — a massive $1.8 billion — settled the consolidated lawsuits of more than 35,000 people whose lives, health and homes were impacted by the 100,000 tons of methane and other toxins uncontrollably released into the air near Porter Ranch and its surrounding communities beginning on Oct. 23, 2015.
Residents at the time reported nosebleeds, dizziness and respiratory problems, and since then one study has found that pregnant women within 6.2 miles of the blowout had a nearly 50% higher-than-expected chance of having a low-birth-weight baby, a condition that can lead to a lifetime of health issues for the child.
SoCalGas denies wrongdoing
The full impact of the disaster, which is believed to have also released benzene and heavy metals, is still being studied to this day. SoCalGas and Sempra, as part of the various settlements, have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and have maintained there is no long-term health risk.
Almost immediately after the leak became public, lawsuits flooded in from people who lived in the area, and later from those who responded to the disaster, including firefighters and a state investigator.
“You had people who had to relocate, schools were closed, pets were killed or affected by the chemicals,” said Brian Panish, whose firm, Panish Shea Ravipudi, represented more than 7,000 clients in the litigation. “People had physical and emotional injuries and it was devastating for the entire community.”
Plaintiffs ‘didn’t give up’
The litigation, led by nine law firms, dragged on for six years before SoCalGas agreed to settle.
The plaintiffs in the $1.8 billion case took the depositions of 470 witnesses over the course of 585 days of testimony. A judge awarded an additional $5.7 million in sanctions after determining SoCalGas, Sempra and their attorneys had withheld more than 150,000 documents through discovery.
“If they didn’t keep covering it up and accepted responsibility, this case could have been resolved much, much sooner,” Panish said. “It took a lot of work from a lot of lawyers and a lot of plaintiffs that hung in there and didn’t give up.”
The settlement wasn’t the justice they deserved, but the money helped families move on with their lives, Panish said.
“It was a long, torturous journey for the victims,” he said.
The Parris Law Firm, alongside Panish in some cases, represented families, dozens of firefighters and a state investigator sent to monitor the work on the gas leak.
“We had deaths, we had multiple myeloma cases, it just went on and on,” Parris said. “They misled people as to the dangers they were facing.”
File photo of the escalating urgency over the leaking gas well above Porter Ranch, 300 protesters gathered on Saturday, Dec. 12, 2015, and demanded an immediate shutdown and a transition to renewable energy in the next two decades. They gathered near the SoCalGas Aliso storage facility entrance in Porter Ranch. Residents across Porter Ranch have complained for weeks about the health effects of a widespread natural gas leak that has sparked calls for local, state and federal action. (Photo by Dean Musgrove/Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)Dozens of firefighters sued
Parris represented some of the 55 firefighters who later sued SoCalGas. They alleged they had been exposed to hazardous levels of benzene and formaldehyde. One of the plaintiffs, retired firefighter Daniel Mehterian, alleged in 2018 that the gas company “put us in harm’s way without giving us the chance to warn others.”
“They robbed us of the chance to help save lives further, and instead chose to hide the truth and cover their own butts. Now we are all suffering intense nosebleeds, severe headaches, nausea, dizziness and more,” he said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the gas company denied the allegations at the time.
That lawsuit followed one filed by Kenneth Bruno, a longtime employee of the California Public Utilities Commission who was assigned to monitor the capping of a well at Aliso Canyon following the gas leak.
Bruno developed a rare type of leukemia that his attorneys attributed to benzene exposure.
The lawsuit alleged Bruno was exposed to dangerous levels of cancer-causing chemicals during the gas leak because he was not properly advised by the company to wear a respirator or protective equipment beyond “appropriate footwear and a hard hat.” Bruno was in charge of hiring Blade Energy Partners, which investigated the root cause of the blowout, on behalf of state regulators.
That investigation determined the cause of the disaster was the rupture of a corroded well casing. Blade Energy Partners’ report found that SoCalGas did not have real-time continuous pressure monitoring systems in place and had not conducted failure investigations on more than 60 leaks previously detected at Aliso Canyon dating back to the 1970s.
The firefighters, and Bruno, later settled their cases against the gas company. The terms of those agreements are confidential, Parris said.
Payouts to government entities
On top of the personal injury lawsuits, SoCalGas paid out more than $200 million to government entities, including a $4.3 million settlement with the Los Angeles County District’s Attorney’s Office in connection with the utility’s no-contest plea to a misdemeanor charge for failing to promptly report the gas leak.
The settlement with the district attorney in 2016 resolved the county’s criminal case and required the gas company to use the funds to adopt new reporting policies, mandate additional training on notification procedures and install and staff pressure and methane monitors at Aliso Canyon.
Advocates criticized the payment as a “slap on the wrist” for a company with $10 billion in revenues at the time.
Two years later, the company agreed to pay out a $119.5 million settlement to the city and county of Los Angeles, the California Air Resources Board, and the state attorney general’s office. Of that, $64.8 million went to the county. In 2022, L.A. County used the funds to give a $21 million grant to UCLA to assess the short- and long-term effects of the disaster. That work, scheduled to continue until 2027, found the connection between low birth rates and the gas leak.
The rest of the county’s portion went to cover attorneys’ fees, greenhouse gas mitigation, buying electric school buses, increasing air monitoring, cleaning up lead paint near Exide, and installing air filtration systems in schools, according to an infographic released by the county. The attorney general’s office tracks the status of some of the projects on its website.
The California Public Utilities Commission adopted a $71 million settlement with SoCalGas in August 2023. That agreement also recognized an additional $34.1 million that had been previously paid by the company to offset the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the leak.
The CPUC’s agreement blocks SoCalGas from raising rates to cover any of the settlements and requires the company to file attestations confirming it will not raise rates for that reason until at least 2028. About $1.5 million of the settlement covered the regulatory agency’s investigation and litigation costs, while another $18.2 million was refunded to customers affected by the leak.
The environmental watchdog group Center for Environmental Health reached its own settlement with SoCalGas in 2022 that required the company to set up additional monitors in the area and to immediately notify nearby residents if the levels of methane or benzene exceed certain limits.
Parris, one of the attorneys in the personal injury lawsuits, criticized how the settlement funds paid to government agencies were allocated. The funds went toward projects that would have been funded regardless, he said.
Related links
SoCalGas, parent company Sempra agree to $1.8 billion Aliso Canyon gas leak settlement ‘Root cause’ report blasts SoCal Gas over massive 2015 Porter Ranch gas leak More LA firefighters are suing SoCalGas over 2015 Aliso Canyon gas leak SoCalGas admits slow Porter Ranch gas leak reporting in $4 million settlement SoCalGas settles with environmental watchdog group over Aliso Canyon facility‘Government failed the people’
Not enough was done to hold SoCalGas and Sempra criminally accountable for the disaster, he said. Residents were unable to get restitution in the criminal case because of the plea deal, he said.
“The reality is that the government failed the people of Porter Ranch and they’re still failing them,” Parris said.
Aliso Canyon continues to operate today because state regulators say it’s necessary to keep energy costs down. But residents, advocates and attorneys like Parris believe the facility poses a health risk and should be shut down.
“Instead of causing massive damage in a year or two, it is going to take 30 years before it kills you, but it will kill you,” Parris said.
Related Articles
10 years after Aliso Canyon gas blowout disaster, families still live with uncertaintyHence then, the article about socalgas paid out more than 2 billion in settlements from aliso canyon gas leak was published today ( ) and is available on Los Angeles Daily News ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( SoCalGas paid out more than $2 billion in settlements from Aliso Canyon gas leak )
Also on site :