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Methane emissions from the 2015 Aliso Canyon blowout in Los Angeles, CA

S. Conley, G. Franco, I. Faloona, D. R. Blake, J. Peischl, and T. B. Ryerson
Science • 25 Feb 2016 • Vol 351, Issue 6279 • pp. 1317-1320 • DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf2348
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The magnitude of a major methane leak

The Aliso Canyon underground gas storage facility outside Los Angeles, CA, houses enormous natural gas reserves. One well at the site experienced a blowout in late October 2015 and began leaking gas until it was sealed in February 2016. Over the course of 13 flights in the region, Conley et al. sampled the air column and determined daily release rates of methane (a powerful greenhouse gas) and ethane throughout the leak. The methane release rates were nearly double that of the entire Los Angeles region combined. Thus, single vulnerabilities can have major implications for state and federal climate policy.
Science, this issue p. 1317

Abstract

Single-point failures of natural gas infrastructure can hamper methane emission control strategies designed to mitigate climate change. The 23 October 2015 blowout of a well connected to the Aliso Canyon underground storage facility in California resulted in a massive release of natural gas. Analysis of methane and ethane data from dozens of plume transects, collected during 13 research-aircraft flights between 7 November 2015 and 13 February 2016, shows atmospheric leak rates of up to 60 metric tons of methane and 4.5 metric tons of ethane per hour. At its peak, this blowout effectively doubled the methane emission rate of the entire Los Angeles basin and, in total, released 97,100 metric tons of methane to the atmosphere.
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Supplementary Material

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Materials and Methods
Figs. S1 and S2
Tables S1 and S2
References (37–44)

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References and Notes

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Volume 351 | Issue 6279
18 March 2016

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Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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Received: 11 January 2016
Accepted: 17 February 2016
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Acknowledgments

The first two Scientific Aviation flights were funded by the California Energy Commission through University of California–Davis project #201401201. Subsequent flights were funded by the Southern California Gas Company, the operator of the Aliso Canyon storage facility. I.F. was supported in part by the California Agricultural Experiment Station (Hatch project CA-D-LAW-2229-H). J.P. and T.R. were supported in part by the NOAA Climate Program Office and the NOAA Atmospheric Chemistry, Carbon Cycle, and Climate program. We acknowledge the contributions of M. Trainer for scientific input and K. Aikin and S. Wolter for time-critical technical support. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not constitute endorsement by their funding agencies. Data used in this report are posted at esrl.noaa.gov/csd/scientificaviation.

Authors

Affiliations

S. Conley*,†
Scientific Aviation, 3335 Airport Road, Boulder, CO 80301, USA.
Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources, University of California–Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
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G. Franco
Research and Development Division, California Energy Commission, Sacramento, CA 95814, USA.
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I. Faloona
Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources, University of California–Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
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D. R. Blake
Department of Chemistry, University of California–Irvine, Irvine, CA 92617, USA.
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J. Peischl
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado–Boulder, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA.
Earth System Research Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, CO, 80305, USA.
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T. B. Ryerson†
Earth System Research Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, CO, 80305, USA.
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Notes

*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Lingering impact of Methane Emission from Aliso Canyon Using Satellite Data
Ramesh SINGH
  • Professor
  • Chapman University
Sudipta Sarkar
  • Scientist
  • 2NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA and Science Systems and Applications Inc.

Lingering impact of Methane Emission from Aliso Canyon Using Satellite Data

Ramesh P. Singh1 and Sudipta Sarkar2,3

1School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Schmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University, One University Drive, Orange, CA 92866, USA

2NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA and
3Science Systems and Applications Inc., 10210 Greenbelt Rd, Suite 600, Lanham, MD, 20706, USA

Corresponding author [email protected]

Chemically-instrumented Mooney aircrafts made 13 flights for measurements of methane (CH4) and ethane (C2H6) during 7 Nov 2015 to 13 Feb 2016, which revealed atmospheric leak rates of up to 60 metric tonnes of CH4 and 4.5 metric tonnes of C2H6 per hour (1) from Aliso Canyon underground storage facility. The Aliso Canyon storage facility is located in the San Fernando Valley 40 km northwest of Los Angeles, CA. The storage facility has emitted methane (CH4) unto about 97,100 metric tonnes of methane from 23 October 2015 until 18 Feb 2016 (1). Methane has short life time, but it can be converted to CO as (2)
CH4+H2O => CO+3H2
CH4+CO2 => 2CO + 2H2
CO has a lifetime of several months (4), methane leaked from the Aliso Canyon can be converted to CO which pollutes air that has a serious human health impact. CO is an important atmospheric trace gas, itself being a toxic molecule, and also involved in producing harmful tropospheric ozone. Although the Aliso canyon storage leak is sealed on 16 February 2016 (5) but the CO emissions is still showing increasing trend.
The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) a high spectral resolution spectrometer with 2378 bands in the thermal infrared (3.7 - 15.4 µm) and 4 bands in the visible (0.4 - 1.0 µm), one of the six instruments aboard NASA's Aqua satellite, part of a constellation of satellites that make up NASA's Earth Observing System measures methane, CO, CO2 and ozone. We have analyzed daily CO volume mixing ratio measured by AIRS. Daily CO volume mixing ratio anomaly is derived from the AIRS sensor onboard EOS Aqua platform shows an increasing trend (blue line) starting from 1 October 2015 until 27 February 2016 (Figure 1a), the CO concentration in the atmosphere is high and the CO gas currently dispersed in the south-west south-east direction depending upon wind direction. The raw anomalies (black) are overlaid with the 5-day running average (red). The linear trend of high concentration shows an increasing trend from October when the well blowout occurred connected to Aliso Canyon underground storage facility (1). High concentration of CO volume mixing ratio anomaly (Figure 1b) is clearly seen over Aliso Canyon and surround area and seems to disperse over the continent and ocean. High concentration of CO has serious impact on the human health, health of ocean and marine life, and also the tropospheric ozone. People living in and around Aliso Canyon are already suffering with health problems (information through resident in the locality).

Acknowledgment – The authors are grateful to NASA Giovanni team for providing AIRS data.

References
1. Conley et al., Science 10.1126/science.aaf2348 (2016).
2. Charles O. Hawk, Paul L. Golden, H. H. Storch, A. C. Fieldner, 1932, Conversion of Methane to Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen, Ind. Eng. Chem., 1932, 24 (1), pp 23–27, DOI: 10.1021/ie50265a007.
3. Buchholz, R. et al., 2016, Source and meteorological influences on air quality (CO, CH4 & CO2) at a Southern Hemisphere urban site, Atmospheric Environment, 126, 274-289.
4. SoCalGas, press release (18 February 2016); www.alisoupdates.com/1443738511730/press-release-doggr-confirms-en.pdf

Figure caption
Figure 1 (a) shows time series of CO Volume Mixing ratio anomaly calculated at 850 hPa pressure level. This data is from AIRS daily CO VMR Ascending mode. The daily anomaly has been standardized by dividing the deviations by the standard anomaly. (b) shows daily anomaly map of CO volume mixing ratio based on median value of the anomaly since October 1st 2015 until 27 Feb 2016

RE: Discovery of Leak
William Richard Corcoran
  • Expert Witness
  • On Call

The article states:
"On 23 October 2015 a major natural gas leak of indeterminate size was reported in the Aliso Canyon area and was later identified as originating from SS-25, one of 115 wells connected to the subsurface storage reservoir. "

This conceals the important fact that the leak was discovered by luck, not planned monitoring.

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