There’s Something Rotten in Ballona

Whether it is the Ballona Wetlands or the new Belmont Learning Complex, the nose knows that the penetrating smell of rotten eggs is not only unpleasant but that its effects on health may be devastating.

The Ballona Wetlands could be Los Angeles County’s next public park, matching in spirit New York’s Central Park. Its 11,000 acres can safely be a park, allowing the deadly rotten egg gas (hydrogen sulfide, or HS) and methane gas that constantly migrate up through it to dissipate into open air. Costs for the park could not possibly approach the $500 million in taxpayer subsides and bonds needed for the planned Playa Vista development, which includes the wetlands. The 30,000 Angelenos who would live in the condominiums and work in or visit the offices, shops and theaters risk death and illness from HS poisoning and methane explosions and fires.

Twenty months ago, the Belmont Learning Complex generated intense debate that finally overthrew the school board responsible for a costly error. The decision was simply one to save children from being brain-damaged at the school from HS. This gas was percolating through the soil from old oil fields beneath the Belmont site and collecting in the buildings.

The Ballona Wetlands’ parallel to the problems at Belmont suggests that it would be prudent to recognize the following: HS and methane bubble up constantly, and natural barriers to this have been breached and man-made ones are temporary and unreliable; gases do not accumulate if there are no buildings to trap them; containing HS in buildings, especially ground floors, sunken gardens, parking garages and elevator shafts risks brain damage for people breathing in these areas; and enclosed methane risks fires and explosions, sparked by cigarettes, motors, machinery and malfeasance.

Southern California Gas Co. argues that its massive, 7-billion-cubic-foot underground storage facility beneath Ballona is tight and secure. In fact, studies show that it leaks to the surface, losing 100 million cubic feet of methane gas per year. Stored under pressure over a mile beneath the surface, this methane pushes upward, gathering HS, benzene and other gases from the depleted oil strata that bubble through the wetland ponds. Analysis of this gas has confirmed HS concentrations of up to 350 parts per million, which when enclosed would be far above the 50 ppm that causes people to be sick immediately or the 1 to 4 ppm that affects them in minutes. High peak levels cause irreversible brain damage. In considering Belmont, we drew on local experience--both regarding Red Line workers made sick in tunnels and people in the Wilmington-Long Beach area who were exposed to HS when the Texaco oil refinery exploded in 1992. Most akin to the Belmont and Ballona situations was Whaler’s Cove in Long Beach, where condominiums were built over an oil field that leaked HS. The gas percolated directly into living quarters and the complex’s sunken swimming pool. People living at Whaler’s Cove were sickened and suffered memory and balance problems due to levels that averaged 1 ppm.

Los Angeles lies on top of an oil field that has operating wells and abandoned drill holes. They leak HS, methane and other petroleum gases. Inhaled HS produces brain damage in people at levels far below those that cause death. Workers who seemed to recover from coma after being knocked down by breathing HS have impaired memory and difficulty with balance, lack concentration and become lost in familiar places.

No contrary data have been published in the past 10 years to suggest that the human brain is not harmed by exposure to these gases. What threshold level protects people from adverse effects? The California Air Resources Board advises exposure to no more than 30 parts per billion. The decision to not complete Belmont was based on prudent avoidance of levels of more than 1 part per million.

Familiarity breeds contempt in Los Angeles, where oil fields, earthquakes and fires compete to keep people on edge. People cope by ignoring the risks. Ignoring HS may be one’s last ill-considered action before the brain gives up.