Neighborhood leaders support continued operation of natural gas facility
By Gary Walker

SoCal Gas Co. may close up to a third of the gas monitoring wells at its Playa del Rey storage field
Google Photo by Andrew Mass
As Los Angeles County leaders and Porter Ranch residents fought tooth-and-nail to keep the Southern California Gas Co. from reopening its Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility, Neighborhood Council of Westchester-Playa members were getting ready to show the company some local love.
On Aug. 1 — just three days after a state appeals court ruled that SoCal Gas could resume natural gas injections at the site of what’s widely regarded as the worst natural gas leak in U.S. history — Westchester-Playa leaders sought to pass a resolution to “fully endorse the Gas Company’s continued safe and efficient operation of its Playa del Rey storage location.”
Instead, a parade of local residents and a couple of board members who weren’t sold on the timing of the resolution convinced the council to host an informational community meeting with SoCal Gas representatives sometime later this year.
More than a dozen speakers lobbied for the council to defer voting until Los Angeles City Council committees complete an analysis of local oil and gas regulations and decide whether SoCal Gas should build a 2,500-foot buffer between its Playa del Rey gas facility and homes in the bluffs overlooking Culver Boulevard.
“This [motion] seems very premature,” said Stephanie Tatro, a social worker and Playa del Rey resident among those who argued that it would be more responsible for the neighborhood council to let policymakers finish their work.
Neighborhood council member Michele Cooley-Strickland said a community meeting, possibly even coupled with a tour of the facility, would allow residents to directly interact with SoCal Gas staff and ask pointed questions.
“As a homeowner and parent who can see the plant from my windows, I had concerns about potential accidents affecting local homes and wetlands until I became much more knowledgeable about this specific facility, its history, operations, and the role it serves in energy supply for California,” Cooley- Strickland said. “The public would be better served by firsthand education and dialog with SoCal Gas experts than a letter from the board endorsing the Gas Co.’s operations in Playa del Rey, particularly as the letter was written.”
Playa del Rey residents have expressed growing concerns about gas leaks since the October 2015 leak at Aliso Canyon, with a grassroots campaign to close the facility picking up steam earlier this summer.
The Playa del Rey storage facility is much smaller and much less active than the Aliso Canyon facility, however. There are 114 gas wells in Aliso Canyon, compared to 54 in Playa del Rey.
SoCal Gas has already convened community advisory councils and activated a community telephone, text and email notification system for neighbors of both the Playa del Rey and Aliso Canyon facilities.
Neighborhood Council of Westchester-Playa President Cyndi Hench said she was happy the council will set up a community meeting with SoCal Gas.
When activists campaigning to shutter the Playa del Rey facility held a town hall meeting in June, Hench circulated a letter warning locals not to fall for “misinformation” about the Playa del Rey gas storage facility.
“The community needs to understand the facility and its operations better. That was clear from the misinformation that was shared in public comment and the comments from the board,” Hench said last week. “No one benefits from misinformation.”
We were walking on the bluff trail just last night, almost directly above the gas plant, and the smell of natural gas mercaptan was very strong. It is not unusual to smell natural gas in the air while walking on the streets above the plant, so there must be leakage. Sometimes the smell has been so strong that I have almost called the gas company emergency line. As for the Neighborhood Council being “community leaders”, it is time to shine light on this quasi-government group that is, falsely, held up by the city to be representative of the community. Rather than being elected by a significant number of neighborhood residents, It appears that the neighborhood councils are self-appointed, by edict, to represent the neighborhood. With a population of approximately 50,000, only 244 Westchester-Playa del Rey residents voted in the 2016 Westchester-Playa del Rey Neighborhood Council election ( https://empowerla.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/NCWP-2016-Official-Canvass-of-Votes.pdf ).
Don’t trust these Sempra/SCGCo people…In 2013 they said it was 1 flaring but with two flames, did not allow Fire Dept on site, then blamed a bad operator error (but operator said NO), then they said the flares occurred due to a spark…but explosive gas facilities should be fully GROUNDED…no sparks…. looking thru their records…GCo did a lot of activities then put in permit application which the state approved for everything done for >10 years before… They write that they have SubSurface Shutoff Valves in some wells but GCo wrote that they had them in Aliso wells…oops…GCo took them out in 1979 too many operating problems….including the well that blew out for >110 days
If you can’t trust them…NEED more, better oversight…and real enforced regs….GCo lied about purchase of 13+ Montebello houses because of blowouts into the houses – never fixed…abandoned/demolished…
The headline for this article is surprisingly misleading. The motion passed by the Neighborhood Council was as follows:
Los Angeles residents, business, and industry depend on a reliable source of affordable, abundant and clean burning energy to fuel our daily needs and way of life. One way this is provided is through natural gas.
Currently, the Southern California Gas Company (“The Gas Company”) supplies this necessary energy not just to the aforementioned, but to local electrical generating utilities as well. Essentially, helping to “keep the lights on” in our area.
The Playa del Rey natural gas storage facility is an integral part of the metropolitan Los Angeles energy infrastructure, serving a vital role in the delivery of this much needed resource.
With safety being a principal concern for all, the Neighborhood Council of Westchester- Playa (NCWP) requests The Gas Company conduct community outreach by the end of 2017 to educate the public on the measures it is taking to promote safe and efficient operation of its Playa del Rey facility.
Cindy, my question to you is: why here and why us?
The Gas Company is a key player in our community. I grew up with the smell of gas and my kid played on the ball field in Playa del Rey. It is an old facility that has been poorly maintained, much as the one in Aliso Canyon. Apparently they had no idea that was dangerous, and our facility is 30 years older, built in the 1940s before the population was so large and developments were so close to the facility.
You state that this facility is crucial to our use of gas, which is not true. It stores gas that is rerouted to and from other states.
I ask you and my community members, if there is a controversy about safety, why is the Gas Company asking for a letter to assert the council’s support? When there is a disagreement about what is safe, I wonder what most community members would want the council to do: make sure the facility is safe and possibly move the gas somewhere else, or believe the company’s own representatives?
This specific issue was not even on my radar until Aliso Canyon happened. If we don’t watch the canaries, we may be next.
As someone who was present and made public comment, it astounding that this article doesn’t mention how all the residents were subject to a 2 minute timer and how Socal Gas PR person Mike Harriel was allowed to give comment way beyond 2 minutes because the neighborhood council president turned the timer off when it he spoke. The article should ask the obvious question: Is the neighborhood council working for SoCal Gas or the neighbors that they are supposed to represent? Some investigative reporting is in order here.
Safe? Really?
2013 Gas Plant Explosion at Playa del Rey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz1kV7Xcodk
Frank Snepp – “Burning Questions” – 2005 Peabody Award Acceptance Speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-XSCxcPEEw