in 2015, a substantial amount of natural gas leaked from california’s aliso canyon storage facility because ________.
in 2015, a substantial amount of natural gas leaked from california’s aliso canyon storage facility because ________.
Answer: In 2015, a substantial amount of natural gas leaked from California’s Aliso Canyon storage facility due to a well casing failure. Specifically, one of the injection wells at the facility experienced a blowout, which caused methane gas to escape into the surrounding environment.
The well was originally drilled in 1953 and had been repurposed for gas storage in 1972. The failure was attributed to corrosion of the well’s protective casing and the lack of a subsurface safety valve, which would have stopped gas flow in the event of a blowout. The resulting leak was one of the largest methane releases in US history and lasted for nearly four months before it was finally sealed. The incident had significant environmental and health impacts on the local community, leading to mass evacuations, health complaints, and concerns about long-term effects on air quality and climate change.