The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s Aliso Canyon Disaster Health Research Study team on March 18 released a set of draft Health Study Goals and Priorities for public review and comment.

As required by the court settlement with the Southern California Gas Company, the draft Goals and Priorities were determined by the Health Study’s Scientific Oversight Committee and reflect input gathered from a series of community engagements with people who lived near and experienced the Aliso Canyon disaster.

Independent third-party researchers will conduct the Health Study. Study types and research methods will be proposed by independent third-party researchers through a competitive bid process following the release of a Request for Proposals (RFP) later this year.

The public comment period will be open for 30 days and close on Friday, April 16 at 5:00 p.m.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and the SOC request and encourages the public, especially people living and working in the San Fernando Valley’s northwestern neighborhoods, to review and provide comments on the detailed goals and priorities.

All public comments will be considered when finalizing the Health Study Goals and Priorities.

Interested members of the public may submit their comments on the draft Health Study Goals and Priorities no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, April 16. Comments may be submitted through an online form or by email.

The draft Health Study Goals and Priorities and instructions for submitting comments are available for download and review at

http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/eh/docs/healthresearch/goal-priorities-draft-public-review.pdf.

Background

In October 2015, the largest gas blowout in the history of the United States began at the Southern California Gas Company’s Aliso Canyon gas storage facility.

An estimated total of 109,000 metric tons of methane flowed uncontrolled from Aliso Canyon Well SS-25. It was successfully sealed, on Feb. 15, 2016. Many residents experienced physical and emotional symptoms during the blowout and after the well was sealed, and some continue to report symptoms to this day.

In Feb. 2019, a legal settlement was approved by a Los Angeles County Superior Court requiring SoCal Gas to pay $25 million for a study of short- and long-term health impacts.

A competitive Request for Proposals process will be launched in late spring/early summer of 2021 to recruit an independent research team to lead the Health Study.

The SOC, a group of independent national and subject matter experts and public agency representatives lending expertise to the Health Study program, will be developing important components of the RFP.

One of the key elements of the RFP will be the final Aliso Canyon Disaster Health Study Goals and Priorities.

Developed with input received from the affected community through a variety of engagement efforts, these draft Goals and Priorities identify key areas the Health Study should address.

Over the past two years, Public Health has engaged extensively with the impacted communities and has collected a wealth of input including: what residents would like to see studied, what their health concerns were and may continue to be, and what the lingering symptoms following the blowout are.

The SOC is using this input to shape and inform the Health Study development process, including determining the specific Health Study goals, which are now posted online for public review and comment.

For more information on the Health Study, visit http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/eh/healthresearch/.