To the editor: The methane leak that compelled Newport Seashore residents to evacuate their houses final week underscores the specter of decaying oil and fuel infrastructure (“Methane fuel leak results in evacuations on a Balboa Peninsula road,” Oct. 23). It’s an issue California must take significantly.
Californians face an enormous risk from wells just like the one in Newport Seashore, which was reportedly plugged almost 100 years in the past — earlier than right now’s requirements for sealing wells had been in impact.
However much more urgently, California should take care of its almost 90,000 unplugged oil and fuel wells that each one should be cleaned up. Greater than a 3rd of those already sit idle, lots of which haven’t produced in a decade or extra. These wells can leak methane and harmful toxins like hydrogen sulfide and benzene that poison communities and the setting.
California lawmakers and regulators must act with urgency and ensure these idle wells are plugged to trendy requirements.
Luckily, there’s a comparatively easy resolution: Make operators plug their idle wells quicker. These wells introduced them immense income once they had been producing, and paying for cleanup ought to be their accountability.
Cooper Kass, Los Angeles
This author is a workers legal professional on the Heart for Organic Range’s Local weather Legislation Institute.
