A leaking natural gas well that recently displaced thousands of residents in Porter Ranch, California lacked a working safety valve. Attorneys for residents suing Southern California Gas Co. said the company failed to replace the safety valve when it was removed in 1979.
The safety valve may not have prevented the leak, but it would have stopped the continued release of fumes pouring into the community, attorney Brian Panish said in an interview recently.
SoCal Gas spokeswoman Melissa Bailey confirmed in an email to the media that the well did not have “a deep subsurface valve.” She said however, that such a valve was not required by law.