Los Angeles Superior Court
CPM represents victims of the environmental disaster known as the Aliso Canyon gas blowout in Porter Ranch, California. On October 23, 2015, the defendants’ gas storage and injection well (SS-25) failed, causing a massive blowout of methane, odorant and other chemicals into the environment for 111 days. This created a nuisance for tens of thousands of downwind residents, exposing them to the sickening stench of chemicals in the air and crude oil that rained down on local communities.
This disaster is the largest methane release in world history, with estimates of 100,000 tons of methane released into the atmosphere. The defendants were court-ordered to pay for relocation of residents during the blowout and to clean affected homes in the local communities. Many thousands of people relocated their entire families during the blowout. Two local schools were relocated for the remainder of the school year. Thousands of residents became ill as a result of the chemical exposure.
The cause of the well failure was underground surface corrosion of the well’s steel casing. The plaintiffs allege that the defendants knew there were problems with their wells for decades and ignored multiple warning signs of poor well integrity and likely well failure leading to this very type of disaster. Once the blowout occurred, the defendants were unprepared to stop it. Numerous failed well-kill attempts by the defendants and their contractors aggravated the situation, causing further injury to the plaintiffs. The case involves more than 30,000 plaintiffs and seeks punitive damages for the defendants’ conscious disregard of the known risk of such a disaster.
CPM serves in leadership on the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee, in addition to direct representation of thousands of plaintiffs.
