One may ask why the company would ever do this. Well, risk and cost benefit analysis, also known as CBA, are both huge parts of any company. No major project is ever initiated without a thorough cost benefit analysis. It weighs all aspects of the project from initiation to completion on a scale using dollar values to often represent not only the actual costs of doing the project, but the potential for humans, animals, and other wildlife to be harmed. For example, if a human is harmed because of Project X, then a company will say that compensation will equal let's say 100,000 U.S dollars. If the project is expected to make the company 1,000,000 US dollars per year and is expected to last 25 years, then it means that in order to make the project economically feasible, it cannot cause harm to any more than 250 people (1,000,000 x 25 = 250 x 100,000). However, many other factors go into the process.
In the case of SoCalGas, the risk management team decided to go away from re-installing a secondary containment cap because it was going to be a lengthy and difficult process. This is all fair in business as it is very common to make that justification and decision. However, "upkeep on the initial well cap was either poorly documented or ignored" because there was no effort to replace or fix the cap after the decision was made in the 1980's. That means that for over 30 years, the initial well cap was not fixed. The result was a gas leak of methane that dispensed over 1/4th of the entire state's annual average carbon emissions to the atmosphere in a matter of days, and nothing could be done about it to stop it immediately.
Also, since the leak consisted of pure methane, and the release occurred during very mild winter months, there was plenty of excess sunlight to convert the methane to methanal, also known as formaldehyde. Formaldehyde, as you may be aware, is an embalming fluid that is toxic to humans and may even cause cancerous growth within soft tissues of the body. With vaporized, or gaseous, "formaldehyde being converted through oxidation being just barely heavier than air, it can mix in with atmospheric gases" and enter the body easily through inhalation. the respiratory pathways are incredibly vulnerable tissues because the "lungs and alveoli can become saturated" with the gaseous formaldehyde and it may never escape because it, again, is heavier than oxygen.
All these things considered, the CBA of not reinstalling the secondary cap overlooked many of the disastrous outcomes. Children have been evacuated from schools and essentially quarantined in their homes. Countless people are unwillingly exposed to potentially toxic chemicals. SoCalGas is undoubtedly dealing with a PR nightmare and extensive costs to fix their mess. All in all, it is important to always think of the worst before making a decision that can put thousands of unwilling, unknowing people at risk.
