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■ I JT "A By Justin Worland THE COMMUNITY OF PORTER RANCH LOOKS LIKE ANY other prosperous Los Angeles suburb: green lawns, tree-lined streets, three-car garages. But in the hills behind houses that might have sold for a million dollars just months ago, an es- timated 65,000 lb. of methane gas per hour is spilling from a 7-in. hole in the ground, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes and polluting the climate—and it's all invisible. The rupture in an underground pipe linking one of the country's largest natural-gas storage reservoirs, known as Aliso Canyon, to the earth's surface has created one of the worst en- vironmental disasters in recent memory. And the leak, which began in October, will take months more to fix. Children in the area have experienced headaches, bloody noses and vomiting. The Federal Aviation Administration declared the area a no- fly zone out of concern that an aircraft might ignite the highly flammable invisible natural gas. California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency this month. The accident may be unique in its enormous scale—one day of the leak warms the climate at a rate equivalent to driv- ing more than 4.5 million cars for a day—but it's just one of thousands of leaks plaguing the country's vast natural-gas system. Wear and tear on the system has worsened in re- cent years as new fracking technology has greatly expanded the area being drilled. The boom has generally been a good thing—natural gas burns cleaner than coal, and the promotion of gas has been a key part of Obama's climate program. But natural gas's green credentials are diminished by leaks. And new research shows that leaks are uncomfortably common. It's not clear what caused this leak. industry experts point to the age of the Aliso Canyon storage facility—it's more than 6o years old —as well as equipment that, while meeting regu- latory requirements, has not been updated in decades. What's clear is that the Southern California Gas Co. was slow to rec- ognize the scale of the disaster after it discovered the leak in late October. The company first tried to plug the leak by fill- ing the well's shaft with fluid. But the pressure of the gas as it pushed up from the ground was simply too strong. The company acknowledged in December—after an esti- mated 50,000 metric tons leaked—that it had no alternative but to drill a relief well. The process, similar to the method ulti- mately used to stop the 2olo BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, involves drilling a new well that curves around and intercepts the leaky well deep underground. Engineers will then fill the relief well with mud and fluid intended to seal the original well. Southern California Gas says the operation should be done by March. "We share everyone's concerns about this leak's ongo- ing impact on the community and environment, and we are working as quickly and as safely as possible to stop it," says Gil- lian Wright, a customer-service executive for the company. That's a time frame that pleases no one. Porter Ranch resi- IRFAN KHAN-LOS ANGELES TIMES /AP "Phis dents say they've experienced a slew of is die short-term illnesses they connect to the begirvining, gas spill. Property values have plum- We'r(? meted. Environmentalists warn that the longer the leak goes on, the bigger goirig to the impact all that methane—a more (?e this powerful greenhouse gas than carbon a ,..1 o ve dioxide - -will have on the climate. the pleAce." But the gas company argues, and R. REX PARRIS, engineers who work on drilling proj- attorney for ects agree, that there's simply no way Porter Ranch to fix the well faster. "This is very big residents and complex," said Timothy O'Connor, director of the Environmental Defense Fund's California oil and gas program. "Does that mean you get a free pass be- cause your leaks are very difficult? Or