The Environment Chronicle

Notable environmental events between 2016 and 2016 Deselect

  1. On 23 October 2015, Southern California Gas Company discovered a leak at the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility. This reservoir is the second-largest natural gas storage site in the western United States and about one mile north of homes in Porter Ranch, a neighborhood in the northwest region of the San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, California. The gas leak began spewing 110,000 pounds of methane per hour. On 6 January 2016, Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency. On 18 February 2016, state officials announced that the leak was permanently plugged. At its peak this blowout effectively doubled the CH4 emission rate of the entire Los Angeles Basin, and in total released 97,100 metric tonnes of methane to the atmosphere. The total release from Aliso Canyon will substantially impact the State of California greenhouse gas (GHG) emission targets for the year and is equivalent to the annual energy sector CH4 emissions from medium-sized EU nations, the Science reported on 25 February 2016.

  2. On 13 May 2016, a waste ground containing tons of vehicle tires caught fire near Madrid. The local government has issued a catastrophe alarm due to the extremely dangerous and highly carcinogenic fumes produced by the blaze. The waste ground stretches over some 10 hectares and contains an estimated five million vehicle tires weighing 100,000 tons, news agency Efe reported.