State Judges Hear Complaints About Natural Gas Site

State administrative law judges heard complaints Friday from blufftop residents in the Playa del Rey area who believe that a nearby natural gas storage facility in the flatlands below is contaminating their air and making them sick.

The judges said the complaints will be considered when they rule whether Southern California Gas Co. can sell a portion of land at its natural gas storage facility near Lincoln Boulevard without a full environmental impact report.

Gas company officials’ efforts to sell the property at the foot of the bluffs have been held up for more than a year while state regulators have considered whether storage tanks and abandoned wells are emitting hazardous substances.

Residents have complained for years that benzene released from pipelines and leaking from underground storage wells has caused illnesses including cancer and chronic fatigue. The gas company has denied that there are any dangerous leaks and has said residents are smelling the city sewer line, swamp gas and odors from Los Angeles International Airport.

Several lawsuits filed against the company over the health claims by West Bluffs residents are pending trial.

Friday’s meeting at the Westchester Municipal Building centered on the case of three homeowners who petitioned the state Public Utilities Commission earlier this year to investigate the Playa del Rey site.

In response, San Francisco-based administrative law Judges Orville I. Wright and Carol A. Brown visited Los Angeles this week to tour the gas company’s facility and hear resident complaints. They issued no ruling but assured residents that their concerns would be taken seriously in the judges’ recommendation to the utilities commission. That panel is expected to rule by November whether the proposed $10-million land sale should proceed.

One of the petitioning homeowners, Albert Jibilian, said he believes that the noxious-smelling gas in his neighborhood caused him and several neighbors to develop cancer.

He said he and his wife, Elizabeth, experience chronic malaise and are often forced to stay with friends outside the neighborhood to escape what they called “natural gas poisoning.”

“When we go out of town, we feel terrific,” he told the judges Friday. “We notice when we come back, we get fatigue, our bones ache. It’s like a hangover.”

In court papers, the gas company admitted that pipelines and gas wells have leaked gas “on rare occasion.”

However, company spokeswoman Denise King said recent testing shows that storage and wells are secured and are not leaking. Also, the amount of benzene in gas vented into the air during the maintenance of pipelines causes no health or safety risk, King said.

She said the Playa del Rey facility’s clean maintenance record was commended this week for the 12th consecutive year by state Department of Conservation regulators.

On Friday, however, the company announced a few concessions for concerned homeowners.

David J. Gilmore, attorney for parent company Sempra Energy, said homeowners will be notified before any gas is released into the air, a process done 10 to 15 times a month for maintenance.

And property owners will be notified about the locations of all the unused storage wells.