California's Methane Leak Doubled the Emission Rate of Los Angeles

The Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility shot from UC Davis scientist Stephen Conley's airplane. (Credit: Stephen Conley/UC Davis) When a well tapping into the country’s fourth-largest natural gas storage facility blew out in October, gas started leaking. No one knew how much of the powerful greenhouse gas was flowing out, we could only estimate. The California Energy Commission already had someone under contract who could tell them, and within two weeks, Stephen Conley had stopped monitoring pipelines and was instead strapped into an airplane measuring the plume of gas wafting over the densely populated San Fernando Valley. Conley, a University of California-Davis researcher and president of Scientific Aviation, flew a fixed-wing, single-engine Mooney aircraft, armed with wind sensors and chemical analyzers. He waited until a northerly wind blew the plume over the flat, populated valley. Then, starting at an altitude of 200 feet, he flew back and forth, perpendicular to the wind, climbing slightly in altitude each time, until he rose above the plume.