to the editor: The methane leak that forced Newport Beach residents to evacuate their homes last week underscores the threat of deteriorating oil and gas infrastructure (“Methane gas leak causes evacuations on a street on the Balboa Peninsula” October 23). It's a problem California needs to take seriously.
Californians face a huge threat from wells like the one in Newport Beach, which was reportedly capped nearly 100 years ago, before current standards for sealing wells went into effect.
But even more urgently, California must confront its almost 90,000 disconnected oil and gas wells that need to be cleaned up. More than a third of them are already idle, many of which have not produced in a decade or more. These wells can leak methane and dangerous toxins like hydrogen sulfide and benzene that poison communities and the environment.
California lawmakers and regulators must act urgently and ensure these inactive wells are plugged to modern standards.
Fortunately, there is a relatively simple solution: get operators to plug their idle wells faster. These wells brought them immense profits when they were producing, and paying for cleanup should be their responsibility.
Cooper Kass, Los Angeles
This author is an attorney at the Climate Law Institute of the Center for Biological Diversity.
