The Assembly is scheduled to take up Senator Fran Pavley’s urgency legislation to ensure that safety precautions are strictly followed before gas injection can resume at Southern California Gas Co.’s Aliso Canyon storage reservoir.

SB 380 requires that all 114 gas storage wells undergo two complementary tests to detect leaks and that all wells to be put back into service undergo four additional tests to verify their integrity and be certified as safe before any injection of natural gas into the reservoir can resume. It requires that these safety protocols developed by the Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources, in consultation with scientists at the National Laboratories, be strictly followed.

In addition, the bill directs the California Public Utilities Commission to determine whether the facility, which sits in close proximity to the 30,000 residents of Porter Ranch, can be closed or its use minimized in the future.

The bill was introduced in January in the aftermath of a disastrous natural gas leak that ultimately raged uncontrolled for four months at Aliso Canyon, sending nearly 100,000 metric tons of methane into the skies above the San Fernando Valley. The fumes also contained an odorant that sickened thousands of residents of Porter Ranch and neighboring communities, who suffered headaches, nosebleeds, nausea and other ailments. At various times, more than 8,000 families were relocated to escape the fumes. More than two months after the leak was sealed, about 2,000 have yet to return home, as they await assurances of their safety.

The bill was approved unanimously by the state Senate in late January and subsequently approved by two Assembly committees.

As an urgency bill, it would take effect immediately upon being signed by the governor and requires a two-thirds majority vote in both houses of the Legislature.

If it is approved by the Assembly on Thursday, it would return to the Senate for a final vote to concur with amendments that were added in the Assembly.