LOS ANGELES — While packing and getting ready to move, Jane Fowler said she has no other choice but to leave the home she loves.

“I don’t want to constantly have these skin rashes, bloody nose, headache, you know, blurry vision, the sore throat and achy body,” she said.  


What You Need To Know

  • The California Public Utilities Commission will consider a proposal to increase the amount of natural gas at the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility

  • The meeting will be held Nov. 4

  • The leak at Aliso Canyon in October 2015 was the largest methane leak in U.S. history

  • Southern California Gas Co. and its parent company, Sempra Energy, agreed to pay $1.8 billion to settle claims filed by victims

Fowler’s home is located right down the road from the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility.

Fowler said her symptoms began after a massive natural gas leak was discovered on Oct. 23, 2015.

“I can’t live here anymore. The doctors have been telling me for years, ‘You need to get out of there.’ I’m going to do what the doctors said,” she said.

Fowler is just one of nearly 36,000 people who reported being sickened by the largest methane leak in U.S. history.

Recently, Southern California Gas Co. and its parent company, Sempra Energy, agreed to pay $1.8 billion to settle claims filed by victims. However, Matt Pakucko, the president of Save Porter Ranch, a nonprofit organization, said a recent $1.8 billion settlement does nothing to help the victims.

“It tries to get rid of people, shut them up and move on,” he said.

As Pakucko showed Spectrum News bags full of tissue his girlfriend used to stop her bloody noses, he said the fight was not over. His group plans to attend a California public utilities voting meeting on Nov. 4. The commission will consider a proposal to increase the amount of natural gas stored at the facility.  

The California Public Utilities Commission issued the proposal to ensure sufficient natural gas supplies this winter to maintain energy reliability for customers. 

“If they increase that capacity, the only way to do that is to increase the pressure,” Pakucko said.

His group will continue to demand the closure of the facility.

Fowler said leaving the house and city where she planned to retire is not easy.

“I would like to feel healthy again. That’s what I’m hoping for,” she said.