Methane emissions from the 2015 Aliso Canyon blowout in Los Angeles, CA

S Conley; G Franco; I Faloona; D R Blake; J Peischl; T B Ryerson

doi:10.1126/science.aaf2348

Methane emissions from the 2015 Aliso Canyon blowout in Los Angeles, CA

Science. 2016 Mar 18;351(6279):1317-20. doi: 10.1126/science.aaf2348. Epub 2016 Feb 25.

Authors

S Conley¹, G Franco², I Faloona³, D R Blake⁴, J Peischl⁵, T B Ryerson⁶

Affiliations

¹ Scientific Aviation, 3335 Airport Road, Boulder, CO 80301, USA. Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
² Research and Development Division, California Energy Commission, Sacramento, CA 95814, USA.
³ Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA 92617, USA.
⁵ Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado-Boulder, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA. Earth System Research Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, CO, 80305, USA.
⁶ Earth System Research Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, CO, 80305, USA.

PMID: 26917596
DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf2348

Abstract

Single-point failures of natural gas infrastructure can hamper methane emission control strategies designed to mitigate climate change. The 23 October 2015 blowout of a well connected to the Aliso Canyon underground storage facility in California resulted in a massive release of natural gas. Analysis of methane and ethane data from dozens of plume transects, collected during 13 research-aircraft flights between 7 November 2015 and 13 February 2016, shows atmospheric leak rates of up to 60 metric tons of methane and 4.5 metric tons of ethane per hour. At its peak, this blowout effectively doubled the methane emission rate of the entire Los Angeles basin and, in total, released 97,100 metric tons of methane to the atmosphere.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.