Joannie Summers feels perpetually uneasy living near Aliso Canyon in Porter Ranch.
There is the strange laundry-detergent odor she sometimes smells. The people she’s known who have died of cancer. The headaches that she never got until a massive gas leak spewed from an underground storage facility in the mountains above her home.
As with many in her neighborhood, unresolved questions still swirl in Summers’ mind nearly six years after the largest methane leak in U.S. history.
“You question everything, and you think, well, maybe I don’t have anything,” said Summers, 71. “There’s an anxiety that comes with all this.”
A recent settlement of up to $1.8 billion between Southern California Gas Co. and thousands of alleged victims has offered a measure of relief to some. But many residents say they still know painfully little about how the disaster affected their health.
Residents also question why the massive storage facility is still allowed to operate. They insist they will feel safe only when the facility is closed for good. There is no clear timeline for decommissioning however, and pledges from officials to fast track that process have borne little fruit.
The blowout, which began on Oct. 23, 2015, and wasn’t stopped until mid-February of 2016, released more than 100,000 metric tons of methane and other compounds into the air and forced more than 8,000 families to relocate. Thousands complained of headaches, nosebleeds, nausea, dizziness and shortness of breath.
Little research has been done to assess the health effects of such a disaster, according to one expert, and a $25-million gas company-funded study being overseen by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is years from providing insight.