First aerial infrared imagery of the release from a ruptured natural gas well in Los Angeles County. Credit: Earthworks/EDF

Invisible Disaster

The worst methane leak in memory is a wakeup call on gas storage

The damaged natural gas storage well in Los Angeles County has forced more than 2,800 families from their homes and released 4.6 billion cubic feet of methane into the atmosphere, a blow to efforts to reduce this powerful greenhouse gas.

The community of Porter Ranch lies a mile south of the Aliso Canyon Gas Storage Field, where a massive methane release from an injection well is in its seventh week. 1,800 families have been relocated and1,433 more have requested relocation. Dec. 8, 2015 Megan Wood, inewsource
Homes in the community of Porter Ranch lie less than a mile south of the Aliso Canyon Gas Storage Field, where a massive methane release from an injection well was discovered Oct. 23, 2015.  Megan Wood, inewsource

A primer: Massive methane leak is worst in state history

Ingrid Lobet | December 14, 2015 

A giant stream of potent climate-warming gas — methane —  is blowing hundreds of feet into the air in Los Angeles County for the seventh week. The release cancels out hundreds of smaller efforts over more than a decade to clamp down on escapes of the gas, a priority because in the short term, methane is a far more powerful climate-warming gas than carbon dioxide.

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Partnerships

inewsource provided Marketplace from APM and All Things Considered from NPR their first stories on the unfolding events. Both programs are heard on hundreds of stations. It did this through a partnership with Inside Energy, a multimedia collaborative which also posted inewsource stories and distributed them across its western network and throughout Texas via a radio program called The Texas Standard. We look forward to continuing these collaborations to get you maximum journalistic heft.

Hear the stories

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