50,000 People Live Within a Block of Natural Gas Storage, Harvard Says

(Bloomberg) -- About 65% of natural gas storage facilities like the one that sprung a massive leak outside Los Angeles four years ago are in suburban neighborhoods from New York to California, according to a Harvard University study.

More than 50,000 people live within a city block of an active gas storage well, researchers at Harvard’s Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment found. That’s in contrast to shale wells, which are mostly located in rural areas. A 2015 rupture at Sempra Energy’s Aliso Canyon storage facility near Los Angeles forced thousands of residents to evacuate for months and cost the company more than $1 billion.

Most of the storage facilities -- used by utilities to stock gas for heating and power generation -- are more than 50 years old and weren’t in populated areas when they were built, according to Harvard. They may also carry safety risks because they weren’t designed for storage, Harvard said.

Previous studies using U.S. census data underestimated the number of people living near gas storage wells, according to the study. The new research, published Monday in the Journal of Environmental Health, combines census records with land use and satellite data.

The study examined the locations of more than 9,000 wells in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Michigan, New York and California.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andres Guerra Luz in Houston at aluz8@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Simon Casey at scasey4@bloomberg.net, Christine Buurma, Reg Gale

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