SoCalGas Sued: Man Says Aliso Canyon Gas Leak Caused His Cancer

LOS ANGELES -- A former California Public Utilities Commission employee is suing Los Angeles-based Southern California Gas Co., alleging that he came into contact with hazardous substances at the site of the Aliso Canyon methane gas leak that left him with a rare cancer.

The lawsuit, which was filed June 3 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleges that SoCalGas and it's San Diego-based parent company, Sempra Energy, knowingly exposed Kenneth Bruno to dangerously high levels of cancer-causing chemicals when he was deployed to the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility to monitor the capping of the well that was the source of the October 2015 gas well blowout in Porter Ranch.

Bruno was a longtime program manager overseeing the Public Utilities Commission's Safety Enforcement Division. His lawyers allege he was not properly advised on protective clothing to wear while at the well.

A Sempra spokeswoman said Tuesday morning that a comment on the suit could be issued at a later time.

``Rather than fully prepare Mr. Bruno for exposure to known carcinogens such as benzene, radon, toluene and formaldehyde, Sempra told him to wear appropriate footwear and a hard hat,'' according to Bruno's attorneys.

The company also failed to instruct him to remove his contaminated clothes before returning to his car to go home to his family, causing him to acquire a rare blood cancer, hairy cell leukemia, a known risk of benzene exposure, the complaint alleges.

According to a report released on May 17, the Aliso Canyon gas leak -- the biggest in U.S. history -- was caused by microbial corrosion of a well casing, and SoCalGas did not conduct detailed follow-up inspections or analyses after previous leaks.

The gas leak, which was discovered at the underground storage facility in October 2015 and continued until February 2016, poured an estimated 109,000 tons of methane into the air. Thousands of residents in the northwest San Fernando Valley were forced out of their homes for months due to the leak.

Limited operations resumed at the facility in late July 2017.

In February, a judge approved a $119.5 million settlement to resolve claims by several government agencies stemming from the leak, but did not resolve a still-pending class-action lawsuit involving thousands of residents who said their health and property values were damaged as a result.

City News Service contributed to this report.