Methane

Methane gas emanating from a dairy farm manure pit killed five people -- a Mennonite farmer who climbed into the pit to unclog a pipe, and then, in frantic rescue attempts that failed, his wife, two daughters and a farmhand, officials said Tuesday. "They all climbed into the pit to help," Rockingham County Sheriff Donald Farley said. Farmers typically take pains to ventilate manure pits where methane often gathers.

A plan to spend as much as $5 million to control potentially explosive emissions of methane gas at the Scholl Canyon Golf and Tennis Complex was approved Tuesday by the Glendale City Council. City officials ordered the facility closed last month after tests found that methane was leaking from the inactive landfill underneath the site and that a system to collect the gas was not functioning properly.

Seepage of methane from a closed landfill has raised concerns among some officials and residents at a housing development near Newport Coast Drive because high levels of the gas can explode if ignited under certain conditions. But two county officials said Tuesday that the methane does not pose a danger to the residents who live in the luxury development.

The extent of underground methane gas has become the latest debating point in the long-running dispute between developers of the Playa Vista complex and a band of tenacious opponents. Developers of the 1,000-acre commercial and residential development acknowledged Tuesday that methane exists beneath the sprawling Westside construction site in Playa del Rey, but insisted that the naturally occurring gas poses no health or safety risk.

Los Angeles City Council President John Ferraro called Friday for the formation of a task force to analyze the dangers posed by underground methane gas in the Fairfax District. The potentially explosive gas, which exists in vast pockets and is a remnant of the oil fields that were once spread throughout the area, was detected Tuesday leaking from fissures in the basements of several stores on 3rd Street.

Potentially explosive levels of methane gas in the walls of a Wells Fargo Bank branch--near the Fairfax District site of a 1985 methane blast that injured 21 people--prompted bank officials this week to close the building and begin plans to remove safe deposit boxes.

Recycling will prove a bright idea for about 500,000 customers of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. That's the number expected to receive electricity generated from methane gas left over from sewage treatment at the Hyperion facility in Playa del Rey. The DWP and the Department of Public Works recently agreed to spend $12 million to upgrade and expand a gas pipeline between Hyperion and the neighboring Scattergood generating station.

The City Council has formally asked county transit officials to investigate the source and potential consequences of a methane gas leak that forced 25 construction workers to evacuate the Metro Red Line tunnel between downtown and MacArthur Park this month. On a unanimous vote Wednesday, the council approved a resolution by Councilwoman Rita Walters asking the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, the Rapid Transit District, Rail Construction Corp.

As if earthquakes weren't enough, there's another invisible danger lurking beneath the Los Angeles Basin, from Newport Beach north to Newhall. It is methane--a colorless, odorless, highly explosive gas naturally produced by the 70-odd oil fields on top of which much of the metropolitan area is built. The fields are primarily clustered along the area's major fault lines, where oil seeps out of ruptured rock.

The city of Orange has filed suit against Orange County, saying the county should have to pay for the installation of a system to control underground methane gas at the now-closed Yorba Park. From 1957 to 1960, the county used the 9.3 acres as a landfill. In 1962, the county turned over the site to the city--which converted it into a park. In its lawsuit filed last week, the city says the county violated an agreement by not installing the gas control system.