Los Angeles County’s effort to halt gas injections in Aliso Canyon was denied by the superior court on Friday.
The Board of Supervisors had filed for a temporary restraining order in hopes of stopping Southern California Gas Company from resuming injections at the site where the 2015 methane blowout occurred, but the request was rejected by Judge John Wiley.
“The county’s first priority is to protect the health and safety of the residents of Porter Ranch and the northwest San Fernando Valley,” Fifth District Supervisor Kathryn Barger said in a statement. “I believe that allowing Aliso Canyon to begin reinjecting puts the residents in a potentially unsafe environment.”
Wiley denied the request “on jurisdictional grounds,” saying he did not have the authority to consider the temporary restraining order, according to Barger.
Los Angeles County now plans to go to the Court of Appeals to request an emergency stay until they can file an injunction.
This comes after the county announced plans to sue the Department of Conservation’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources for giving SoCalGas the okay to resume injections before conducting a root cause analysis.
