February 6, 2016 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - California Attorney General Kamala Harris has filed a lawsuit against
the gas company responsible for the methane gas leak near Los Angeles,
calling it a “monumental environmental disaster.” Over 30 suits and
probes related to the disaster are pending.
On Tuesday, Harris joined both Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer
and Los Angeles County in a revised civil complaint filed against
Southern California Gas Company (SoCal Gas), a subsidiary of the San
Diego-based Sempra Energy. The California Air Resources Board,
represented by Harris, also joined the lawsuit.
A methane leak from an underground gas storage facility in Aliso Canyon was first detected on October 23 last year, but no official cause has been given for the event that has forced 6,600 homes in the Porter Ranch area of Los Angeles to be evacuated.
“This gas leak has caused significant damage to the Porter Ranch community as well as our statewide efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slow the impacts of climate change. My office will continue to lead this cross-jurisdictional enforcement action to ensure justice and relief for Californians and our environment,” Harris said in a statement on Tuesday.
On Monday, SoCal Gas released an “incident update,” citing its own success in drilling past 200 feet of caprock above the storage zone. The next step is more drilling, but will be within the storage reservoir, requiring care and accuracy to intercept the targeted well at “the appropriate angle and depth,” the statement read. The goal is to stop the leak by the end of February.
WATCH: California methane leak now said to be affecting pets.
The updated lawsuit contends that by causing the release of some 80,000 metric tons of methane so far, SoCal Gas broke health and safety codes, public nuisance laws, and violated hazardous materials reporting requirements. Furthermore, it alleges the company’s business practices were unethical. Civil penalties, injunctions, and restitution are all sought to hold the company accountable.
So far, there are 11 governmental lawsuits or investigations on the local, state and federal level, and 20 private lawsuits waged by affected residents against SoCal Gas.
California Governor Jerry Brown recognized the situation as a state of emergency on January 6. - RT.
A Porter Ranch resident wears a gas mask during a protest
Saturday outside a meeting of the Air Quality Management Board over the
Aliso Canyon gas leak. The leak
started in October and has forced
thousands of residents to flee from the Los Angeles suburb of Porter
Ranch. Regulators have ordered the
gas company to shut down the leaking
well; some residents want the entire facility shuttered.
Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images
January 29, 2016 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - “This the largest natural gas leak in history. We were up there yesterday… what we heard was aloud sound of natural gas escaping that you could hear quite loudly from over half a mile away.” - Rep. Brad Sherman, U.S. House of Representatives.
WATCH: Utilities and Commerce Committee Hearing in Granada Hills over Aliso Canyon Gas Leak.
“Now it’s kind of simple — if you have a well blow-out, you quit
injecting [more gas] underground… No order had been issued [to stop
this] though… We sent a letter [to the Division of Oil, Gas &
Geothermal Resources (DOGGR)] saying, “Stop all of the injections, until
you can stop the leak”… So we sent a letter on Dec. 1 asking them to
stop all injections… Nine days later, they said, “Stop injecting gas”…
You’d think that at least temporarily settled it — because if [SoCalGas]
didn’t like that, SoCalGas could have temporarily appealed… I have no
record of appeal… AQMD [Air Quality Management District] inspected the
facility on Nov. 10… and they found all these wells that weren’t accessible — 16 approximately… We don’t know yet why they were inaccessible. We also learned that 15 wells were leaking. We also don’t know why that happened. I spoke at the AQMD hearing this last week and said, “I’m concerned that the fact that now you guys are looking at these injection wells — you don’t know what that means.” You see,DOGGR knows what that means— and that’s a sign that SoCalGas lost control entirely of the entire field and it’s leaking everywhere…
So we were like, “We want proof. Now if it’s just coincidental, and you
show us why that’s not what’s happening, that’s fine, but provide the
evidence”… Families have a right to know what’s going on in that oil
field.” - Patricia Oliver, attorney (at 11:30 in), Porter Ranch Town Hall Meeting.
WATCH: Porter Ranch Town Hall Meeting - January 22, 2016.
Residents attack slow response to what official called ‘a mini-Chernobyl’… “This is a mini-Chernobyl,”
Mike Antonovich, the LA county supervisor, told a public hearing at the
weekend… [It] is the largest leak of… methane known to experts. - The Guardian.
A new report shows the level of toxins released… has been seriously underestimated,
state regulators said… The findings were released in response to
[SoCalGas' admission that they] underestimated the number of times the
cancer-causing chemical benzene has spiked. - CBS/AP.
Officials Waited Months To Monitor California’s Massive Gas Leak — A massive natural gas leak… had been out of control
for more than a month when the county’s acting health director said in
November that long-term impacts of the cancer-causing chemical benzene
should be measured. It took many more weeks to implement the testing…
“We can always look back and say, ‘Why didn’t we start with an expanded
monitoring program?’” said Angelo Bellomo, deputy county director for
health protection… Rob Jackson, an environmental scientist at Stanford
University, said… it had undermined the ability to measure health
impacts. - AP.
Porter Ranch residents report unexplained ailments, behaviors in pets… [A family] lost all 20 of their brightly colored Koi fish after they started dying… [Others] have noticed fewer bird and wildlife sightings. - City News Service.
[The Katz's], parents of five… are living a nightmare…
Her pride and joy was her garden and a koi pond. She cries when she
recounts how all 20 fish died…“The birds, the butterflies, all of this is gone. It’s quiet now.” - Al Jazeera.
“We used to see coyotes and animals” [Jennifer Marotta] said. “It makes me wonder how bad it really is.” - L.A. Daily News.
[Residents] have noticed fewerbird and wildlife sightings… [Attorney Rex Parris wrote to officials] that pets are ill or disappearing and wildlife, such as birds and rabbits, seem to be disappearing as well
from the community… [Sally Taylor’s dog] quickly became lethargic and
threw up some 20 times within an hour… “[The vet hospital] said it was
the worst blood work the vet has ever seen”… For the Balen family, it’s the sound of birds they’ve missed the most. In late December, they said the absence made their home… “completely quiet… for 10 years… every morning, we wake up to the birds chirping. Not anymore.” - L.A. Daily News.
KABC,
Jan 19, 2016: [The gas leak is] affecting many pets… “We’re seeing
probably several hundred total and it’s been going on for around three
months now,” [Dr. David Smith at Northridge Animal Hospital] said. Smith
said it started shortly after [they] first reported the leak… Smith
said he has serious concerns about the health risks for the animals. - .
Government officials have come up with their own interesting explanations for the disappearance of wildlife:
Wild animals may have left the area because of the noisecoming from crews attempting to fix the well, [Department of Fish and Wildlife] spokeswoman Mary Fricke said. - L.A. Times.
In the US alone, millions of
dollars are spent on the most widely used commercial chemicals to kill
bedbugs (microscopic image shown)
but their overuse has led to an
increased resistance to the compounds
January 29, 2016 - UNITED STATES - They live in the cracks and crevices of beds and crawl out a night to suck blood by detecting our body heat and carbon dioxide.
Now the much loathed bed bug is threatening to become even more of a pest because it is resistant to a common insecticide, scientists warn.
Exotic holidays have been blamed for the recent resurgence of bed bugs in homes as they hitch a ride on clothing or in luggage.
The research has found the parasites have developed a tolerance to neonicotinoids, or neonics, because of their widespread use.
It is the first study to show the overuse of certain insecticides has led to an increased resistance to the compounds, making them much less effective than advertised.
In the US alone, millions of dollars are spent on the most widely used commercial chemicals to kill bedbugs, but their overuse has led to an increased resistance to the compounds.
The blood-sucking bed bug
(pictured) that's attracted to our body heat and carbon dioxide is
threatening to become even more of a
pest because it is resistant to a
common insecticide, scientists warn
New research has found the
parasites have developed a tolerance to neonicotinoids, or neonics,
because of their widespread use.
A stock image of fumigation is
pictured
Researchers collected bed bugs
from homes in Cincinnati and Michigan and exposed them to four different
neonics -
acetamiprid, dinotefuran, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam. A
stock image of fumegation is shown
Assistant professor Troy Anderson, from Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences said: 'While we all want a powerful tool to fight bed bug infestations, what we are using as a chemical intervention is not working as effectively it was designed and, in turn, people are spending a lot of money on products that aren't working. 'Unfortunately, the insecticides we were hoping would help solve some of our bed bug problems are no longer as effective as they used to be, so we need to re-evaluate some of our strategies for fighting them.'
Products developed to eradicate infestations in recent years combine both neonics with pyrethroids - another class of insecticide.
Assistant Professor Dr Alvaro Romero from New Mexico State University added: 'If resistance is detected, products with different modes of action need to be considered, along with the use of non-chemical methods.
'Companies need to be vigilant for hints of declining performance of products that contain neonicotinoids.
'For example, bed bugs persisting on previously treated surfaces might be an indication of resistance.
'In these cases, laboratory confirmation of resistance is advised, and if resistance is detected, products with different modes of action need to be considered, along with the use of non-chemical methods.'
The study, published in the Journal of Medical Entomology, is the first to confirm the resistance.
Researchers collected bed bugs from homes in Cincinnati and Michigan and exposed them to four different neonics: acetamiprid, dinotefuran, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam.
They also used the chemicals on a bed bug colony kept free of insecticide exposure for more than 30 years and to a pyrethroid-resistant population from Jersey City that had not been exposed to neonics since they were collected in 2008.
Those that hadn't been exposed to the neonics died after contact with very small amounts of the pesticide, while the Jersey City bed bugs showed moderate resistance to acetamiprid and dinotefuran, but not to imidacloprid or thiamethoxam.
The Jersey City colony's resistance could be due to pre-existing resistance mechanisms.
When exposed to insecticides, bed bugs produce 'detoxifying enzymes' to counter them.
The levels of detoxifying enzymes in the Jersey City bed bugs were higher than those of the susceptible Harlan population.
Professor Romero explained: 'Elevated levels of detoxifying enzymes induced by other classes of insecticides might affect the performance of newer insecticides.'
The Michigan and Cincinnati bed bugs, which were collected after combinations of pyrethroids and neonicotinoids were introduced, had even higher levels of resistance to neonics.
It only took 0.3 nanograms of acetamiprid to kill 50 per cent of the non-resistant bed bugs from Dr Harlan's lab, but it took more than 10,000 nanograms to kill 50 per cent of the Michigan and Cincinnati bed bugs.
Just 2.3 nanograms of imidacloprid was enough to kill 50 per cent of the Harlan bed bugs, but it took 1,064 and 365 nanograms to kill the Michigan and Cincinnati bed bugs, respectively.
The numbers were similar for dinotefuran and thiamethoxam.
Compared to the Harlan control group, the Michigan bed bugs were 462 times more resistant to imidacloprid, 198 times more resistant to dinotefuran, 546 times more resistant to thiamethoxam, and 33,333 times more resistant to acetamiprid.
The Cincinnati bed bugs were 163 times more resistant to imidacloprid, 226 times more resistant to thiamethoxam, 358 times more resistant to dinotefuran, and 33,333 times more resistant to acetamiprid. - Daily Mail.
January 25, 2016 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - The following excerpts are taken from the Aliso Canyon Gas Leak Town Hall, which was published on January 11, 2016.
Several quotations have been highlighted for emphasis.
• Bob Bowcock, environmental scientist (at 18:00 in):
“We’re starting to hear about the largest natural gas well leak in
the U.S… The State of California and Southern California Gas Company say
it’s leaking somewhere between 45,000 and 50,000 kilograms [99,000 and
110,000 pounds] per hour… We’ve done actual field measurements [and] it
can be as much as three times greater than what’s being reported.”
• Erin Brockovich (at 31:05 in): “Every person I’ve talked to — thousands of people — are sufferingrashes, dizziness, shakiness, they feel like they’re in a fog,
nosebleeds, massive headaches… Reports of animals losing their hair,
animals vomiting, animals with diarrhea — people actually relocate to
hotels to find their animals have passed… You are actually the guinea pig in this situation… As we’re now learning that themagnitude of this is way beyond what any of us have ever been told, and reaches beyondwhere we have come in and know that there’s been dangers. We need to learn that that’s been happening.
• Camille Sears, meteorologist (at 41:45 in):
“SoCalGas has said that things aren’t so bad because the leak is 1,200
feet above the elevation of the community, and that gas is lighter than
air. Well, that’s not really the whole story… That gas is going downhill… [Infrared videos] show the plume just running down the hill like water… [which then] goes right into the communities. It’s very little dilution… At night, from midnight to 6:00 in the morning, 90% of the time the winds are coming from that direction [from the gas leak to the communities].
I doubled checked this, because it seems like a phenomenal amount of
time that the winds are blowing from the gas leak to the community… It’s
a very unfortunate situation that the leak is located where it is…
The releases are probably two to three times greater than what the California Air Research Board has been reporting… It’s becoming quite clear that the State is underestimating the amount of gas that’s leaking. I’ve been doing this kind of analysis for 35 years. I’ve done thousands of them since I started doing this in 1980. I’ve never seen a release of this magnitude before… I feel really bad… to report this.It’s not only a worst case emission, it’s the great magnitude of emissions coming out, but it’s also sort of a worst case meteorological scenario
that these releases happened to blow from the gas leak down in to the
community at night 90 percent of the time. As we’ve seen, those gas emissions tend to flow downhill like water and go right into the communities.”
• Robin Greenberg, attorney (at 1:01:00 in): “Pets are really being affected… Time and again someone sends me photographs of their pet and have these horrible sores.”
• Bowcock (at 1:43:45 in): “This isa very dangerous condition, and it’s something that you all should be very, very concernedwith… That’s a pretty substantial area and everyone in that are needs to be concerned about it… Veterinarians are very concerned about it… because the vets are actually seeing a lot of really, really sick animals… It is impacting the animals much, much more — believe me.”
January 10, 2016 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - Utility is installing screens to contain oily mist at leaking well near Porter Ranch…
The structures under construction on the west side of the well head are
designed to capture airborne droplets of a brine solution that “may
have contained trace amounts of oil naturally occurring within the leaking well’s reservoir,” said Trisha Muse, a spokeswoman for SoCal Gas… Now, a mixture of brine water and oil is rising up into the gas company’s natural gas storage zone, then traveling up the well and into the air. As a result, local residents are finding droplets of dark brown residue on their homes, vehicles, fish ponds and gardens… [The company] acknowledged that some residents had asked about “dark brown spots on their property.” “We sampled it and, according to our retained toxicologist and medical expert,” the company said, “the residue contained heavier hydrocarbons (similar to motor oil) but does not pose a health risk.”… On Monday, plaintiffs’ attorneys sent a letter to state regulatory officials [and] demanded that state regulators “explain what is happening with the petroleum now surfacing.”… “There is a complete lack of information in the well files,” their letter says, “to show where the gas and petroleum migrates underground and the risk for creating sink holes and geysers.” - Los Angeles Times.
[A]n oily mist… has been surfacing… The seepage is the result of changing dynamics deep underground… “They (the demister pads) are necessary because as the reservoir pressure declines, fluids (oil and water) encroach into the reservoir and are then carried to surface with the gas. - Los Angeles Daily News.
Residents… point out cars, outdoor furniture and houses which have been marked with brown, oily spots… Tim O’Connor, a lawyer with the Environmental Defense Fund, has called it “an environmental and public health catastrophe,” said . “In terms of timelines this is going to surpass the gulf oil problem by a mile.” - BBC.
Gov. Jerry Brown, faced with mounting public anger and no end in sight to the leak, declared a state of emergency… Mitchell Englander, the Los Angeles city councilman who represents Porter Ranch [said] “This is one of the most disruptive, catastrophic environmental events that I’ve seen. It’s a truly chaotic crisis.”… Many who have stayed have taken to wearing surgical masks when they garden to keep out the rotten-egg smell and the oily mist that sometimes leaves brown residue on their cars… Dennis Arriola, the president of Southern California Gas Company [said] that experts had “never seen anything like this.” - New York Times.
SoCalGas and public officials have turned [Porter Ranch's Matt Pakucko] and his fellow residents into “guinea pigs.”… [Sally Benson, who runs an energy storage lab at Stanford University] shares a worry of many in Porter Ranch as they deal with the mundanities of the leak: that the gas plume will somehow become ignited, leading to [an] explosion… “They’re really fortunate that this one hasn’t caught fire,” Benson says… [The FAA] has imposed a no-fly zone above Porter Ranch “out of concerns that fumes from the gas leak could be ignited from the air.” Schwecke, the SoCalGas vice president, says workers near the relief well are taking every precaution, not using their cellphones and working with brass hammers, which don’t spark… [David Balen, a local businessman on the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council] showed me photographs of a white dust that had collected on concrete surfaces around his property; an expert was coming to test the substance, which Balen thought was something toxic. - Newsweek.
The governor of California has declared a state of emergency in a suburb of Los Angeles over the leaking of methane gas… the company is installing large mesh screens around the leak site to try and hinder the oily mist from spraying down on the community. - BBC.
The sulfurous scent of a natural-gas leak hangs in the air as mail carriers wearing gas masks make rounds… “This is the biggest community and environmental disaster I’ve ever seen, bar none,” said Mitchell Englander, who has represented Porter Ranch on the Los Angeles City Council since 2011. “Life there is not on hold — it’s on the edge and it’s on the brink of pandemonium.” - Bloomberg.
Their animals are dying… their fish are dying in their
fish bowls, their dogs are dying, their cats are getting sick. And their
children are getting sick — they’re suffering nose bleeds, they’re
suffering terrible debilitating migraine headaches, asthma attacks,
respiratory infections, eye infections, ear infections, stomach
ailments… The health impact — it’s not just methane coming out of that hole… This is global crisis, more importantly this is a local crisis. Because not only do you have methane — you have benzene, toluene, xylene, which are carcinogenic. You have hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide — which are neurotoxic, which can injure your brain, affect memory, injure your kidneys, your liver, your other bodily organs. There’s also a lot of radon gas being measured in the area. People believe — we don’t know if this is true — the gas that is leaking at 2 miles deep is now coming out and pushing that radon up into people’s living rooms, their bedrooms, their nurseries. - Robert F. Kennedy Jr..
The leak has caused a continuous flow of gases and fluids.
Methane alone is leaking 100,000 pounds per hour, according to Los
Angeles city attorney Mike Feuer. Along with that greenhouse gas is
methyl mercaptans (odorants added to gas to aid in leak detection) and
aromatic hydrocarbons. More concernedly, health officials have identified benzene and radon, both known carcinogens. - Lawyers and Settlements.
Dr. Cyrus Rangan, the Director of Toxicology and
Assessment for the county, came to CBS2/KCAL9 to answer questions…. It’s been reported that radon is being released… “This is a theoretical possibility,” Dr. Rangan said, “and when you’re addressing a problem that might be several hundred or even several thousand feet deep, you might generate what are called preferential pathways for something like radon, beneath the Earth’s surface, to make its way up to the surface. So primarily our concern about radon is from the worker’s exposure, for the people actually doing the repair job. If we find radon there, we can address the situation. And if radon does exist in the work site then we may need to have to look at the residential community and monitor for it.” - CBS LA.
There is the issue of radon, a naturally occurring byproduct of uranium… as SoCalGas and its partners bore into the ground in an attempt to stem a leak that is unleashing a constant cloud of gas into the atmosphere, radon has crept into the conversation. - Lawyers and Settlements.
Public officials and the gas industry have a tricky and deceptive way of saying things. Methane itself is not dangerous… methane is an indicator that other gases are involved, including radon and benzene, both carcinogenic and very dangerous… gas can escape through any perforation in the earth and on the way up to the surface, it can encounter the aquifers underground, where it will leave behind chemicals, including benzene and radon. - Robert Kennedy Jr.
WATCH: Staggering methane leak in California.
[B]enzene and radon [are] the carcinogens that are commonly found in natural gas. - Erin Brockovich.
[R]adon gas, which may potentially be released during repair operations, is also a concern [L.A. County Department of Public Health Interim Director Cynthia Harding] said. - Los Angeles Daily News.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich said a new report by county public health officials had concluded that since the gas leak has continued for so long, emissions levels could produce “significant long-term health effects, including cancer.” Antonovich said the report had identified benzene as the “chemical of greatest concern,” because it is known to cause cancer. It also cited concerns about radon, another known carcinogen. - Los Angeles Times.
Public Health Director Cynthia Harding told members of the Board of Supervisors in a Dec. 1 letter [that radon] could also be released as the leak is repaired. - KPCC.
Health officials are also concerned that the company’s attempt to fix the leak by drilling into the ground to construct a relief well could release radon, a radioactive, naturally occurring and odorless gas that is found in geologic formations and causes lung cancer. - Los Angeles Times.
Laura Gideon and her family endured the sickening stench from an out-of-control natural gas leak for about a month before they could no longer tolerate the nausea, headaches and nosebleeds.
After she went to the emergency room in November vomiting and with a severe migraine, Gideon, her husband and their two children abandoned the only home they'd ever known together in the upscale Los Angeles suburb of Porter Ranch.
They moved in with her parents about 10 miles away to await a fix that could still be months away.
"We're in mourning now," she said. "We didn't ever want to leave. We were in a nice gated community. We were safe, you know, supposedly good schools. This wasn't our plan."
Thousands of her neighbors have voluntarily followed suit in an exodus from an invisible threat that wafts occasionally and doesn't sicken everyone in its path, though it continues to spew enormous amounts of climate-changing methane.
The leak has cost the utility $50 million so far and is expected to balloon as the company tries a tricky fix to plug a well deep underground, while also shelling out compensation for exasperated residents and fighting dozens of lawsuits.
Gov. Jerry Brown declared an emergency last week for the prolonged blowout that requires the utility to cover the costs and instructs state regulators to protect ratepayers.
The well is one of 115 in the Santa Susana Mountains where Southern California Gas Co., a division of San Diego-based Sempra Energy, stores natural gas in a vacant oil field about a mile and a half underground. It is the largest natural gas storage facility west of the Mississippi River and can provide energy to all of Southern California for a month.
It has been gushing the equivalent of about a quarter of the state's daily output of methane, along with other gases, since it was reported Oct. 23. It is also blamed for depositing tiny oil droplets on cars and houses that are about a mile away.
The hillside Porter Ranch community of about 30,000 people in mostly single-family homes has grown considerably in the three decades since scenes in the movie "E.T. the Extraterrestrial" were filmed here.
Public health officials said most of the gas is dissipating and not causing long-term problems, though many residents have left because they doubt the air is safe. Foul-smelling additives that make highly flammable gas detectable have been blamed for maladies including irritated throats, coughs and respiratory problems.
"It's like being in a disaster area, but it's not a disaster you can see," said Sue Hammarlund, who has seen her share of national disasters as a Red Cross volunteer and has suffered from headaches and nosebleeds recently. "I think this is more debilitating mentally."
Two local schools nearest the leak closed in December and nearly 1,900 students will start the year at different schools Tuesday.
On Saturday, hundreds of residents crowded into a high school gym to urge air quality regulators who are reviewing a proposal to control the leak to take more aggressive action and shut down the gas storage facility.
While more than 4,500 families have either left or are on the move, many have stayed behind - either because they're not bothered by the smell, aren't worried or don't want to hassle with moving.
Bob Casselman has lived near the entrance to the gas facility 43 years. His wife, Pat, has only noticed the smell a few times and had very few symptoms. The retirees are concerned about the impact on property values, but they're not moving.
"I can't understand all these people," Bob Casselman said. "Everybody wants a freebie ... Unless something's really bad, we don't complain."
The company has apologized for failing to disclose the leak after residents began complaining about the smell and for reacting slowly to their concerns.
The incident is unprecedented for a utility and it is "forging new ground," said Gillian Wright, a SoCalGas vice president.
Under orders from the county health department to relocate people who want to leave, SoCalGas has offered to pay up to $250 a night for hotels, plus $45 per person per day for food, or up to up to $7,500 a month for rental homes. The leak is expected to be stopped in March, but the company has agreed to house people through April.
Some residents have complained about not getting help calls returned and not finding relocation services helpful.
Cheri Derohanian said representatives she spoke with in Chicago and Colorado were useless because they didn't know the lay of the land. One found her a downtown Los Angeles condo that was 30 miles away and better suited for urban hipsters than her family of four.
"We're not a bunch of hicks. We're like Porter Ranch, it's like, you know, the Beverly Hills of the valley," Derohanian said. "We're like BMW people and you're giving us Pinto service."
Many have set out on their own only to lose bidding wars to neighbors or encounter sky-high rents when landlords realize they're gas leak refugees.
Megan Zahedi said she hasn't been helped by the gas company and when she sought housing she found rents doubled to $9,000 a month and houses were snapped up immediately.
"We're not looking for a vacation provided by the gas company," said the single mother, who fears paying a mortgage and additional rent. She feels like a bad parent as her two children suffer from rashes, nausea and headaches, and have been abandoned by their friends.
Down the street in the 1,100-home Porter Ranch Estates, Gideon entered a dark and cold home to pick up a few things Wednesday. She moved here with her college sweetheart 17 years ago. It's where her children took their first steps. The heights of the two are penciled on a wall in the garage.
Everything in the two-story stucco-and-brick house was as they left it seven weeks ago. Portraits and family vacation photos lined walls and shelves. Her husband's UCLA football jersey was framed on the family room wall. Toys and dolls were scattered on her daughter's bedroom floor.
A neighbor who is among those who fear a crime spike in vacant houses called to make sure it was Gideon in the house.
The stench was gone that day. Her 11-year-old daughter, Faith, didn't get a headache and said it felt good to be home - even briefly. Gideon isn't sure what the future holds, but she doesn't plan to return permanently.
"The American dream turned into a bit of disaster for us," she said. "We're not coming back. In my opinion, it would be negligent." - AP.
December 28, 2015 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - In what is being called the worst environmental disaster since the Gulf of Mexico BP oil spill in 2010, methane
gas has been pouring into the air over California's Aliso Canyon, near
Los Angeles, at the rate of approximately 1200 tons each day since
October.
The massive leak is spewing 110,000 pounds of the gas per hour
from a cold-war era energy facility storage. Currently 1,700 homes have
had to be evacuated, and the Southern California Gas Company estimates
that they will not be able to stop the leak until "late February or late
March."
The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) released footage taken with an
infrared camera showing massive amounts of the foul smelling gas
billowing from the leak and called it "one of the biggest leaks we've
ever seen reported" and "absolutely uncontained."
WATCH: Aerial footage of Aliso Canyon natural gas leak.
"Our efforts to stop the flow of gas by pumping fluids directly
down the well have not yet been successful, so we have shifted our focus
to stopping the leak through a relief well," Anne Silva, a spokesperson
for the Southern California Gas Company, told Motherboard. "The relief
well process is on schedule to be completed by late February or late
March."
Motherboard reported that the reason for the difficulty is that the well
is some 8,750 feet underground. Attempts at pumping fluids into it have
been unsuccessful. So far, emergency crews have only drilled down to
3,800 feet.
"It's worth noting that the type of gas involved in this leak is part of
what makes it so sinister. Methane, the main component of natural gas,
is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide when it comes to climate
change impact," Melissa Cronin reported.
As of the end of December, over 150 million pounds of methane have been released in the Aliso Canyon gas leak. - Sputnik News.
December 24, 2015 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - A court ordered SoCal Gas Company to provide temporary housing
for thousands of Porter Ranch, Los Angeles, residents made sick from
fumes from a massive gas leak. An infrared camera captured the size of
the gas plume that's been leaking for two months.
The court order issued on Wednesday will come as a relief to more than 2,500 families in Porter Ranch, a northwest San Fernando Valley community, who have been waiting to be relocated by SoCal Gas since the leak began spewing methane into their homes and schools on October 23.
As of Tuesday, the company had paid for temporary housing for more than 2,000 other households, according to the Los Angeles Times. There are 30,000 residents who live in Porter Ranch, an upscale bedroom community of gated developments where the average 4,000-square-foot home is sold for $1 million.
Judge Emilie Elias directed the gas company to relocate the remaining residents within 24 to 72 hours. The court order follows a restraining order sought by the Los Angeles city attorney that would have required the company to relocate residents within 48 hours of their request, and called for a “special master” to oversee the moves.
The gas company is having increasing difficulty finding alternative housing nearby, because most of the available hotel, motel rooms and rental homes have already been snapped up by relocated Porter Ranch families.The shortage is also sending home rental prices as high as $8,500 a month as landlords, who prefer leases of a year or longer, seek compensation for renting properties for much shorter terms than the three to four months SoCalGas said it needs to cap the damaged well.
WATCH: First Aerial Footage of Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Leak.
New aerial footage of the leak was also released on Wednesday by the Environmental Defense Fund, which captured the intensity of the leak by infrared camera. The video footage shows a steady, thick plume pouring into the air over a densely packed residential area. It is hard to judge the width of the plume from the video, but EDF said it is pumping out 62 million cubic feet of methane into the atmosphere each day. Methane packs 80 times the 20-year warming power of carbon dioxide.
“What you can’t see is easy to ignore. That’s why communities that suffer from pollution from oil and gas development are often dismissed by industry and regulators,” said Earthworks spokesman Alan Septoff in a statement. “Making invisible pollution visible shows the world what people in Porter Ranch have been living with every day for months.”
Trouble began at SoCal gas’ Aliso Canyon, a gas storage field, on October 23, when gas company employees noticed a leak out of the ground near a well called SS-25. Efforts to fix the leak were unsuccessful as gas billowed downhill into Porter Ranch, and customers a mile away began to complain about the smell.
Since then, thousands of complaints of headaches, nausea and nosebleeds have been made to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
LA Weekly reported that the well was drilled in 1953 and was designed with a sub-surface safety valve 8,451 feet underground. That valve broke and was removed in 1979, but was never replaced. The company says it will take until March for them to drill a relief well to resolve the problem and cap the current well.
“I hate seeing SoCalGas’ pollution billowing over my home and community. Knowing this gas leak has been polluting us since October and won’t stop until March, if then, makes it clear there’s only one way to keep us healthy and safe now and in the future,” said Matt Pakucko, president of Save Porter Ranch in a statement. “[California] Governor [Jerry] Brown needs to shut down the Aliso Canyon facility.”The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month that the LA city attorney sued SoCalGas, alleging that the utility failed to prevent the leak and then exacerbated “the effects of that failure by allowing the acute odor and health problems faced by the community to persist for more than one month, to say nothing about the indefinite time it will persist into the future,” according to court papers.
Gas officials could be deposed in that case as soon as January 7, according to the city attorney. The city wants to determine the cause of the leak, the amount of gas released, and the effectiveness of the air infiltration systems being provided by the company, the newspaper reported.
“Events of this size are rare, but major leakage across the oil and gas supply chain is not. There are plenty of mini-Aliso Canyons that add up to a big climate problem – not just in California, but across the country,” said Tim O’Connor, director of Environmental Defense Fund’s California Oil & Gas Program in a statement. “Regardless of what the future holds for the Aliso Canyon storage field, this is one reason why strong rules are needed to require that oil and gas companies closely monitor for and manage methane leaks.” - RT.
December 19, 2015 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - 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.
Pilots flying low have been told by the FAA to stay clear of the plume for fear of ignition.
More than 1,800 families have sought relocation due to the vapors.
Southern California Gas Co. officials say it will be months before it can be stopped.
The mainly methane gas is pouring out of the ground near a damaged well
used to inject gas into an old sandstone oil field for storage.
"I think what we are seeing is probably one of the single largest
releases of methane in California history," said Tim O'Connor, who used
to inspect major facilities like refineries for the Bay Area Air Quality
Management District and works for the Environmental Defense Fund.
"People I speak with who are experts in the field say this is biggest, most complex leak that they have ever seen."
Authorities estimate the rupture in the well, perhaps more than a mile
deep, is sending 100,000 pounds of methane into the air per hour.
Methane traps heat more powerfully than carbon dioxide during its
approximately 20-year stay in the atmosphere, giving it an outsize role
in rising sea levels and disrupted weather.
The Aliso Canyon Gas Storage Field, covered with wells, is owned by
Southern California Gas Co., a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, based in San
Diego.
"We have never had an escape this large," said Gillian Wright, vice president for customer services for Southern California Gas.
"I have to really emphasize this is an extremely rare event.
The extent and the difficulty of resolving this leak are highly, highly unusual."
All the methods the company has tried so far to kill the well have failed.
Now experts who fought the Kuwaiti oil field fires have joined the effort.
The safety of the some 100 workers on the site is also a concern.
Wright said that is why on some days, the company cannot perform certain work.
If the wind is blowing methane over certain equipment, crews cannot start that equipment, she said.
As of the weekend, 1,800 families, ill or frightened by sulfurous gas
drifting down from the site, have been relocated from Porter Ranch, paid
for by the gas company.
An additional 1,433 families have asked to be moved, with some still deciding, said Melissa Bailey, a company spokeswoman.
Among those who have left are George Chang and Susan Gorman-Chang.
Gorman-Chang said the first time she felt the full impact of the
unfolding events was midway through her habitual five-mile run, when she
felt the strong smell of gas, or to be precise, an additive intended to
give an odor to the otherwise odorless gas.
With no alternative, she ran through it until she reached home.
"I was really, really dizzy the next morning." she said.
Then on Sunday, Nov. 22 before church, she said, she opened the back door to let the dog out and was sickened by gas.
Now the Changs reside in an extended stay hotel with a mini kitchen, but no oven.
Some of her fellow refugee neighbors are considering getting air
filters, but she has mixed feelings. Several lawsuits have been filed.
Marquee environmental litigators are partnering in the effort.
They liken the release to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.
At a gathering Dec. 9 organized by lawyers, they struck at residents' deepest fears.
"Everyone here has suffered a huge property loss," said trial attorney R. Rex Parris.
"The secret is out.
There is a bomb underneath you."
He invited those in attendance to sign up to be represented by counsel.
He also announced he was adding co-counsel, including lawyers who
represented plaintiffs in the BP case and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who in
his remarks called the California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal
Resources a "sock puppet."
Steve Bohlen, the scientist who heads up the agency, said making sure
that Southern California Gas seals the well quickly and appropriately
has "consumed the attention" of his division.
"We have directed them to build a relief well.
We have directed them to prepare a second relief well," he said. But the
oil and gas chief said if the state is too directive, it risks assuming
liability for the consequences.
"This is Southern California Gas' problem to fix," Bohlen stressed.
Some researchers say not enough attention has been paid to to
underground gas storage fields, a mainstay of the natural gas
distribution system, if little known to the average gas customer.
In the western United States these storage areas often consist of older
oil fields where the original production wells have been converted to
injection wells for gas.
Sometimes new injection wells are drilled.
The natural gas is gathered from remote areas, in this case Texas, New Mexico, the Rocky Mountains or Canada.
Pipelines bring it to places like Aliso Canyon where it is compressed
and pushed into formations until it is withdrawn when Southern
Californians fire up their heaters in winter.
Aliso Canyon is the largest such facility on the West Coast, according to Wright.
Withdrawals continue as the gas escapes and in fact the company is
withdrawing gas as quickly as possible to diminish the pressure that is
forcing the gas to escape.
Aliso Canyon can hold 86 billion cubic feet of gas.
"It is the heart of our system in terms of supplying and managing demand," Wright said.
Officials who have focused on reducing methane emissions because of the
impact on Earth's atmosphere have paid more attention to regulations on
pipelines and wells and the other places from which methane escapes.
O'Connor of Environmental Defense Fund said the gas gushing from Aliso
Canyon is roughly equal to that emitted by six coal-fired power plants
or 7 million extra cars.
"I think we have found a regulatory gap," he said.
Officials at both the federal and state level are formulating new rules
for reducing emissions of methane. Underground natural gas storage is
likely to get more scrutiny.
WATCH: New video shot with a highly specialized Optical Gas Imaging camera shows time-lapse image of Southern California Gas Co.'s Aliso Canyon gas leak. Video depicts an ominous cloud of methane gas flowing down from the gas well over the community of Porter Ranch. The video shows the gas cloud at 60x speed.
February 24, 2015 - ATLANTIC OCEAN -
Sea levels along North America's northeastern coast experienced a record
rise from 2009 to 2010, according to a report by a team of scientists
in the United States.
From New York to Newfoundland, coastal
waters rose by as much as 128 millimeters - more than five inches - over
the two-year span, states the report, which will be published in an
upcoming issue of Nature Communications.
"The
extreme sea level rise event during 2009-10 along the northeast coast
of North America is unprecedented during the past century," Professor
Jianjun Yin of the University of Arizona told BBC News. "Statistical analysis indicates that it is a 1-in-850 year event."
The extreme rise caused flooding all along the northeast coast, and as
far south as Cape Hatteras off the coast of North Carolina, Phys.org
reported.
Researchers
say Coastal areas will need to prepare for future short term and
extreme sea level events that will result from the drastic rise. Climate
models suggest such rises will become more common this century.
"When coastal storms occur, extreme sea levels can lead to elevated storm surge," said Professor Yin.
Scientists at the University of Arizona and National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in New Jersey discovered the rise by
studying records of tidal levels along the eastern coast of the US and
Canada.
They
attributed the unusual spike to changes in ocean circulation, as well
as factors like alternating wind patterns and rising levels of
atmospheric carbon dioxide. The
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) had a 30% decline in
strength in 2009-2010. Researchers reported the decline started just
two months before the spike in sea level began.
Research at the University of Reading has shown that the AMOC could
impact rainfall patterns as far away as Britain and Africa, the BBC
reported. - Sputnik.
Clmate change: A severe drought plagued a third
of Queensland, Australia in 2013. Destabilizing the global environment
could make Earth less hospitable for humans. (David Gray/Reuters)
January 17, 2015 - EARTH
- At the rate things are going, the Earth in the coming decades could
cease to be a “safe operating space” for human beings. That is the
conclusion of a new paper published Thursday in the journal Science by
18 researchers trying to gauge the breaking points in the natural world.
The paper contends that we have already crossed four “planetary boundaries.” They are the extinction rate; deforestation; the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; and the flow of nitrogen and phosphorous (used on land as fertilizer) into the ocean.
“What the science has shown is that human activities — economic growth, technology, consumption — are destabilizing the global environment,” said Will Steffen, who holds appointments at the Australian National University and the Stockholm Resilience Center and is the lead author of the paper.
Forest cover and land system change: Farming,
mining and infrastructure projects are consuming the Amazon rainforest.
According to data from Brazil’s space agency, deforestation increased by
more than a third in 2013, wiping out an area more than twice the size
of Los Angeles. (Nacho Doce/Reuters)
These are not future problems, but rather urgent matters, according to Steffen, who said that the economic boom since 1950 and the globalized economy have accelerated the transgression of the boundaries. No one knows exactly when push will come to shove, but he said the possible destabilization of the “Earth System” as a whole could occur in a time frame of “decades out to a century.”
The researchers focused on nine separate planetary boundaries first identified by scientists in a 2009 paper. These boundaries set theoretical limits on changes to the environment, and include ozone depletion, freshwater use, ocean acidification, atmospheric aerosol pollution and the introduction of exotic chemicals and modified organisms.
Beyond each planetary boundary is a “zone of uncertainty.” This zone is meant to acknowledge the inherent uncertainties in the calculations, and to offer decision-makers a bit of a buffer, so that they can potentially take action before it’s too late to make a difference. Beyond that zone of uncertainty is the unknown — planetary conditions unfamiliar to us.
“The boundary is not like the edge of the cliff,” said Ray Pierrehumbert, an expert on Earth systems at the University of Chicago. “They’re a little bit more like danger warnings, like high-temperature gauges on your car.”
Pierrehumbert, who was not involved in the paper published in Science, added that a planetary boundary “is like an avalanche warning tape on a ski slope.”
The scientists say there is no certainty that catastrophe will follow the transgression of these boundaries. Rather, the scientists cite the precautionary principle: We know that human civilization has risen and flourished in the past 10,000 years — an epoch known as the Holocene — under relatively stable environmental conditions.
No one knows what will happen to civilization if planetary conditions continue to change. But the authors of the Science paper write that the planet “is likely to be much less hospitable to the development of human societies.”
The authors make clear that their goal is not to offer solutions, but simply to provide information. This is a kind of report card, exploiting new data from the past five years.
Atmosphere aerosol loading: Emissions spew from smokestacks at a Kansas coal-fired power plant. (Charlie Riedel/AP)
It’s not just a list of F’s. The ozone boundary is the best example of world leaders responding swiftly to a looming environmental disaster. After the discovery of an expanding ozone hole caused by man-made chemicals, chlorofluorocarbons, the nations of the world banned CFCs in the 1980s.
This young field of research draws from such disciplines as ecology, geology, chemistry, atmospheric science, marine biology and economics. It’s known generally as Earth Systems Science. The researchers acknowledge the uncertainties inherent in what they’re doing. Some planetary boundaries, such as “introduction of novel entities” — CFCs would be an example of such things — remain enigmatic and not easily quantified.
Better understood is the role of carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. The safe-operating-zone boundary for CO2 had previously been estimated at levels up to 350 parts per million. That’s the boundary — and we’re already past that, with the current levels close to 400 ppm, according to the paper. That puts the planet in the CO2 zone of uncertainty that the authors say extends from 350 to 450 ppm.
At the rate CO2 is rising — about 2 ppm per year — we will surpass 450 ppm in just a couple of decades, said Katherine Richardson, a professor of biological oceanography at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and a co-author of the new paper.
Biogeochemical flows: Rows of corn wait to be
harvested in Minooka, Ill. Fertilizer makes its ways to the ocean via
surface runoff or seeping into the ground and groundwater. (Jim
Young/Reuters)
Humanity may have run into trouble with planetary boundaries even in prehistoric times, said Richard Alley, a Penn State geoscientist who was not part of this latest research. The invention of agriculture may have been a response to food scarcity as hunting and gathering cultures spread around, and filled up, the planet, he said. “It’s pretty clear we were lowering the carrying capacity for hunter-gatherers 10,000 years ago,” Alley said.
There are today more than 7 billion people, using an increasing quantity of resources, turning forest into farmland, boosting the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and driving other species to extinction. The relatively sudden efflorescence of humanity has led many researchers to declare that this is a new geological era, the human age, often referred to as the Anthropocene.
Species extinction: 14-week-old twin polar bear
cubs play in Munich. Polar bears, the largest predator on Earth, are
struggling to survive due to melting ice and depletion of its food
source — seal blubber. (Alexandra Beier/Getty Images)
A baby mountain gorilla in the Sabyinyo
Mountains of Rwanda: Mountain gorillas are an endangered species found
only in the border areas of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic
of the Congo. (Ivan Lieman/AFP/Getty Images)
A kaleidoscope of Monarch butterflies clings to
tree branches in the Piedra Herrada, near Valle de Bravo, Mexico.
Unusually cold temperatures and the threat to its food supply — milkweed
— worry scientists. (Rebecca Blackwell/AP)
The Earth has faced shocks before, and the biosphere has always recovered. Hundreds of millions of years ago, the planet apparently froze over — becoming “Snowball Earth.” About 66 million years ago, it was jolted by a mountain-sized rock from space that killed half the species on the planet, including the non-avian dinosaurs. Life on Earth always bounced back. “The planet is going to take care of itself. It’s going to be here,” Richardson said.
“There’s a lot of emotion involved in this. If you think about it, the American ethic is, ‘The sky’s the limit.’ And here you have people coming on and saying, no it isn’t, the Earth’s the limit,” she said.Technology can potentially provide solutions, but innovations often come with unforeseen consequences. “The trends are toward layering on more and more technology so that we are more and more dependent on our technological systems to live outside these boundaries,” Pierrehumbert said. “. . . It becomes more and more like living on a spaceship than living on a planet.” - Washington Post.
May 12, 2014 - SOUTH POLE - Winds in the wild Southern Ocean are blowing at their strongest in a millennia as climate change shifts weather patterns, leaving Antarctica colder and Australia facing more droughts, a study showed Monday.
Southern Ocean Wind Blows Hardest In 1,000 Years
Antarctica winds
Rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere were strengthening the
winds, already dubbed the "Roaring Forties" for their ferocity, and
pushing them further south towards Antarctica, researchers from the
Australian National University (ANU) said.
"The Southern Ocean winds are now stronger than at any other time in the past 1,000 years,"
said the study's lead researcher Nerilie Abram of an ocean notorious
for having some of the fiercest winds and largest waves on the planet.
"Thestrengthening of these winds has been particularly prominent over the past 70 years, and by combining our observations with climate models we can clearly link this to rising greenhouse gas levels."
The new research, which was published in the Nature Climate Change
journal, explains why Antarctica is not warming as much as other
continents.
The westerly winds, which do not touch the eastern parts of Antarctica but circle in the ocean around it, were trapping more of the cold air over the area as they strengthened, with the world's southernmost continent "stealing more of Australia's rainfall", Abram said.
"This is why Antarctica has bucked the trend. Every other continent is
warming, and the Arctic is warming fastest of anywhere on earth," she
said.
Image: Earth.nullschool.ne
The study's authors analysed ice cores from Antarctica, along with data
from tree rings and lakes in South America, using the southern
hemisphere's most powerful supercomputer "Raijin", which is based at the
ANU.
The research helped to explain why the westerlies were further cooling
already cold parts of the continent even as they were also driving
"exceptionally quicker" warming in the Antarctic Peninsula, which juts
out into their path, Abram said.
The strengthening westerlies drive up the
temperature at the peninsula -- the only part of the Antarctica that is
hit by the wind -- through the warm, moist air they carry from the
Southern Ocean.
This has made the peninsula the fastest-warming place in the southern
hemisphere, with scientists concerned about the stability of the ice
sheets and sea level rises in the region.
The shift in the westerlies -- approximately 200 kilometres in the 20th
century -- was driven by human emissions of carbon dioxide, said
research fellow Steven Phipps of the University of New South Wales, who
worked on the climate modelling used in the study.
From the 1970s, the shift was exacerbated by the expanding ozone hole
caused by human emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), Phipps added.
"Even for a mid-range climate scenario, the trend is going to continue
in the 21st century," Phipps said, adding that southern Australia was
likely to experience more dry winters.
- AFP.
Antarctic Sea Ice At Record Levels For April And It Continues In May
National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
Antarctic sea ice has expanded to record levels for April, increasing by more than 110,000sq km a day last month to nine million square kilometres.
The National Snow and Ice Data Centre said the rapid expansion had
continued into May and the seasonal cover was now bigger than the record
"by a significant margin''.
"This exceeds the past record for the satellite era by about 320,000sq km, which was set in April 2008,'' the centre said.
Here are some current plots of Antarctic Sea Ice from the WUWT Sea Ice Page
Antarctic Sea Ice Extent – 15% or Greater. National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
Southern Hemisphere Sea Ice Extent With Anomaly
Southern Hemisphere Sea Ice Area Anomaly.
Cryosphere Today – Arctic Climate Research at the University of Illinois
Increased ice cover in Antarctic continues to be at
odds with falling Arctic ice levels, where the summer melt has again
pushed levels well below the average extent for 1981-2010. The centre
said while the rate of Arctic-wide retreat was rapid through the first
half of April, it had slowed.
The April Arctic minimum was 270,000sq km higher than the record April
low, which occurred in 2007. The Antarctic sea ice extent anomalies were
greatest in the eastern Weddell and along a long stretch of coastline
south of Australia and the southeastern Indian Ocean. The centre said
the increased ice extent in the Weddell Sea region appeared to be
associated with a broad area of persistent easterly winds in March and
April, and lower-than-average temperatures. - WUWT.
August 25, 2013 - ITALY - Italian experts have been puzzled by the overnight appearance of a geyser crater spraying clouds of gas 15 feet in the air, yards from the end of the runway at one of Europe’s busiest airports.
The crater measured about six feet wide and three feet deep.
Motorists on Saturday were alarmed to notice hot, stinking gas spurting from a newly formed crater in the middle of a roundabout close to the perimeter fence of Rome’s Fiumicino airport -- less than 900 yards from the end of a runway.
Spectators gathered around the smoking crater, which measured about six feet wide and three feet deep, before firefighters and vulcanologists arrived to seal off the roundabout to prevent inhalation of the gas, suspected to be a cocktail of carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide and methane.
Tests are now underway.
While initial reports suggested the gas came from rotting organic matter trapped underground, one expert said volcanic activity was more likely.
“From Mount Etna in Sicily up to the Alban hills around Rome there is a good deal of underground volcanic activity,” Alberto Basili, a seismologist at the Italian National Institute for Geophysics and Vulcanology, told the Daily Telegraph.
“Gas underground can remain hot for tens of thousands of years after volcanoes erupt, and every now and then it can rise to the surface from miles underground,” said Mr Basili.
“We have seen things like this elsewhere around Rome, with farm animals being killed after they breath in the gas,” he said.
Despite being a stone’s throw from the end of a main runway at Fiumicino, Europe’s sixth largest airport, which handles 37 million passengers a year, Mr Basili said there was no cause for fear over flight safety. “This is a limited phenomenon – it will not have created alarm at the airport,” he said. - Telegraph.
August 16, 2013 - SPACE - Late in 2012, astronomers discovered a distant sungrazing comet
whose size and brightness at its great distance from the sun got many
people very excited. Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) was said to have the
potential to become a striking object visible to the eye alone around
the time of its perihelion – or closest approach to the sun – on
November 28, 2013.
Comet C/ISON was imaged with the Hubble Space telescope on April 10
using the Wide Field Camera 3, when the comet was 394 million miles from
Earth. View larger. Image via NASA, ESA, J.-Y. Li (Planetary Science Institute), and the Hubble Comet ISON Imaging Science Team
We began to hear the words Comet ISON and comet of the century
in the same sentence. In June, July and part of August 2013, Comet
ISON has been behind the sun as seen from Earth. Astronomers were
waiting for it to emerge from the sun’s glare in August, so check on its
brightness. A bright Comet ISON in August might mean a very bright
comet for earthly observers in November and December. But now Comet
ISON has been recovered – by amateur astronomer Bruce Gary in Arizona –
and it is not as bright as hoped.
Comet ISON recovery photo. The comet was behind the sun as seen from
Earth in June, July and part of August. Amateur astronomer Bruce Gary
in Arizona became the first person to spot it again on August 12, 2013.
Image by Bruce Gary. Full story of recovery here.
This comet’s orbit will bring it near the sun in November 2013. Some
are predicted it’ll be briefly as bright as a full moon then, but,
unfortunately, as its brightest it’ll also be near the sun’s glare.
Image via NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Amateur astronomer Bruce Gary at his Hereford Arizona Observatory became the first to recover Comet ISON when it emerged from the sun’s glare in August 2013.
What’s the story on Comet ISON’s August 2013 recovery and brightness?
According to a story published at skyandtelescope.com yesterday
(August 13, 2013), amateur astronomer Bruce Gary was using an 11-inch
telescope at Hereford Arizona Observatory, pointing only 6 degrees above
the eastern dawn horizon, when he became the first to see Comet ISON
again after its sojourn behind the sun during June, July and part of
August 2013. He did not see the comet with his eye, but created a
composite image by stacking separate images, thereby recording a
fuzzy point with an anti-sunward tail at Comet ISON’s exact predicted
position among stars.
… compared to the formula that first led astronomers to
predict it would become a grand naked-eye sight before dawn in early
December … The short version: the comet could still turn out to be
fairly good, or it might never reach naked-eye visibility at all.
Comet ISON on the morning of December 10, 2013. The view is toward the
east before dawn. Chart via Dave Eagle at www.eagleseye.me.uk. Used
with permission. View larger.
Comet ISON will be visible in both the morning and evening sky in
December 2013. This view is looking west on the evening of the December
18, 2013. Chart via Dave Eagle at www.eagleseye.me.uk. Used with permission. View larger.
Comet ISON month-by-month in late 2013. August 2013. As seen from Earth, Comet ISON will be behind
the sun in June and July, 2013. Its recovery occurred on August 12,
2013 when amateur astronomer Bruce Gary of Arizona spotted it. This
month, it might be bright enough to be seen by observers using small
telescopes at dark locations. Look here for August 2013 finder charts for Comet ISON. September and October 2013. Comet ISON will brighten as the
months pass. In September and October, amateur astronomers will surely
be trying to pick it up. The comet will be sweeping in front of the
constellation Leo then. It’ll pass first near Leo’s brightest star
Regulus, then near the planet Mars. Finder charts for Comet ISON for September and October. November 2013. Comet ISON will get brighter still
throughout November as it nears its late November perihelion (closest
point to our sun). Comet expert John Bortle wrote on June 13 that he expects the comet to reach visibility to the unaided eye about three weeks before the November 28 perihelion date.
Comet ISON will come within 800,000 miles (1.2 million km) of our
sun’s surface on November 28. That’s over 100 times closer to the sun
than Earth. This close pass to the sun might cause Comet ISON to break
to pieces, and, if that happens, the comet is likely to fizzle. Or ISON
might emerge from perihelion bright enough to see with the eye, with a
comet tail. Comets are notoriously unpredictable, so there’s just no
telling, at this point, how bright it will get.
In November, ISON will pass very close to the bright star Spica and
the planet Saturn, both in the constellation Virgo. These bright stars
might help you find the comet. There has been some mention that Comet
ISON could become a daylight object, briefly. Remember, though, at
perihelion, Comet ISON will appear close to the sun on the sky’s dome
(only 4.4° north of the sun on November 28). Although the comet will be
bright, it’s likely that only experts who know how to look near the
sun, while blocking the sun’s glare, will see it. November finder charts for Comet ISON here. WATCH: Comet ISON's trek around the Sun.
December 2013. This is likely to be the best month to see
Comet ISON, assuming it has survived its close pass near the sun intact.
The comet will be visible both in the evening sky after sunset and in
the morning sky before sunrise. As ISON’s distance from the sun
increases, it’ll grow dimmer. Comet expert John Bortle wrote on June 13:
The crescendo of the apparition will likely occur between
December 10th and 14th, when the comet will be best seen just before
dawn after the moon sets. Although little or perhaps nothing of the head
will remain, the huge tail will loom in the northeastern sky. Almost
evenly illuminated over its length, this rapidly fading appendage could
[span] almost a quarter of the heavens as seen under good, dark
observing conditions.
People all over Earth will be able to see it, but it’ll be best seen from the Northern Hemisphere as 2013 draws to a close. December finder charts for Comet ISON here. January 2014. Will ISON still be visible to the eye?
Hopefully. Only time will tell. On January 8, 2014, the comet will lie
only 2° from Polaris — the North Star. And here’s something else
that’s fun. On January 14-15, 2014, after the comet itself has passed
but when Earth is sweeping near the comet’s orbit, it might produce a
meteor shower, or at least some beautiful night-shining or noctilucent
clouds. January finder charts for Comet ISON here.
How bright will Comet ISON be later this year? How long will its tail be? No one can answer these questions yet. In his June 13 article published at skyandtelescope.com, comet expert John Bortle explained the reason we can’t know yet how bright Comet ISON will be:
A close solar pass can disrupt and evaporate a comet’s
nucleus completely. The intrinsically faintest sungrazer to survive its
brush with the sun reasonably intact was Comet Ikeya-Seki in 1965. The
long-tailed sungrazers seen in 1880 and 1887 experienced total
disruption of their nuclei and dissipated completely within weeks after
perihelion. The latest observations of Comet ISON suggest that it’s
intrinsically about as bright as those 19th-century objects, so the
survival of its head much beyond November 28 is in question.
However, ISON is decidedly brighter than the recent Comet Lovejoy,
which totally disrupted and, despite this or perhaps because of it, put
on a spectacular long-tailed show for Southern Hemisphere observers at
the end of 2011.
Comet C2012 S1 (ISON). Used with permission.
Who discovered Comet ISON? Eastern European and Russian astronomers announced the new comet on September 24,
2012. Discovery magnitude was 18.8 – in other words, extremely faint.
Vitali Nevski of Vitebsk, Belarus and Artyom Novichonok of Kondopoga,
Russia spotted the comet on CCD images obtained on September 21 with a
0.4-m f/3 Santel reflector of the International Scientific Optical
Network (ISON) near Kislovodsk, Russia. Afterwards, astronomers at
Remanzacco Observatory in Italy confirmed the comet’s presence with the image above.
Comet Lovejoy was a sight to behold from Earth's Southern Hemisphere in
late 2011. Here the comet is reflected in the water of Mandurah
Esturary near Perth on December 21, 2011. Image Credit: Colin Legg.
Will Comet ISON live up to expectations? At this writing – August 14, 2013 – it does not appear that Comet ISON will become a legendary comet of the century. Comet ISON might still break into fragments when closest to the sun, as the much-hyped Comet Elenin did around August 2011.
Or, Comet ISON might survive its encounter with the sun as Comet Lovejoy did
in late 2011. If so, when it emerges from perihelion (closest point to
sun) in late November, it might become visible to the eye. And there
is one thing we can count on. That is, if Comet ISON does become a bright comet, visible to the eyes of watching earthlings, it will be beautiful. All bright comets are.
No doubt about it, comets have a mystique. Once considered omens of
doom, we now know them as icy visitors from the outer solar system that
sweep near our sun, then disappear again into the depths of space,
perhaps never to return. People get excited about comets. They are temporary visitors to our region of the solar system. This comet might not be as bright as hoped, but … it will be watched.
Bottom line: Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) is headed for a close encounter
with our sun in late 2013. Although some thought this comet might
become spectacular later this year, the chances of that are now not so
good. This post contains a month-by-month viewing guide, some history
of the comet, and a word about what to expect from Comet ISON. - EarthSky.
