“Removal of malicious spirits that threaten safety and peace of mind” could be a promotional phrase from the 1984 box office fantasy comedy, Ghost Busters. Today, in a parallel universe, in the Los Angeles basin, far from the fictional Manhattan infested with bizarre apparitions, another team of experts tackles the unseen, destructive forces that threaten safety and peace of mind-methane gas. Substitute Kevin Buchanan, Terra-Petra’s president, and Hugh Avery, founder, for the character actors, Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, and you have a real success story of humans trumping ghostly gases.
Like the protagonists in the Aykroyd and Ramus screenplay, the Terra-Petra team is dedicated to creating a safe living environment free from unwanted, invisible, and potentially destructive elements. Terra-Petra is a nation environmental engineering firm that specializes in methane gas mitigation and remediation, soil gas issues including landfill and Brownfield, and waterproofing and water intrusion protections.
Many Los Angeles residents are fearful of explosive gases including methane, especially in the wake of the September 2010 San Bruno natural gas explosion that killed eight people and destroyed 37 homes. After all, the main component of natural gas is methane. Avery believes that an educated public is the best defense against fear and hyperbole.
By understanding the properties and behavior of methane gas, abiding by ordinances and building codes, and maintaining a strong safety culture Los Angelinos will prevent destructive gasses from wreaking havoc and urban development can continue safely.
Properties and Behavior of Methane Gas
Methane is a colorless, odorless gas that is combustible in mixtures of 5 to 15 percent in air. It is prevalent in the Los Angeles area due to the concentration of oilfields. Methane is also produced in landfills, generated from plant and animal waste, and found with other hydrocarbons in geologic deposits. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Landfills are the largest source of U.S. methane emissions.
In Los Angeles, however, methane is primarily associated with oil wells-abandoned, producing, and recovered. The Geological Sciences Department at California State University, Long Beach maintains a file of 30,000 wells drilled in Southern California before 1980. In addition, the 2009 report of the California State Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) cites 3,338 producing and 1,459 shut-in wells in Los Angeles County alone. Clearly, oil wells are everywhere in Los Angeles and citizens need to take appropriate safeguards.
Natural gas, the substance responsible for the San Bruno fire, is a colorless, naturally odorless, explosive gas. Natural gas leaking from an underground pipeline caused a 1937 school explosion in East Texas that killed an estimated 300 students and teachers. Following the devastation, the Texas legislature mandated adding an odorant (thiols or mercaptans) to natural gas to facilitate leak detection. Adding odorants became a worldwide standard practice for mitigating explosive risks in the distribution of natural gas through pipelines. Without such mitigation, urban areas could not safely use natural gas as an energy source. The odorant fades in some circumstances and odor fade has been cited as a possible contributing factor in the San Bruno explosion.
In the late 1980s, when methane mitigation was just getting underway, Avery began working for a waterproofing membrane manufacturing firm and caused that membrane to be the first methane barrier approved by the City of Los Angeles. Environmental barriers refer to a class of membranes that prevent methane, water, or other VOCs from seeping up through the ground. These barriers are effective in waterproofing and protecting structures from ground gas buildup. Avery was part of this nascent industry and remains on the leading edge in applying waterproofing and environmental barriers.
Ordinances and Building Codes
Following a 1985 explosion that injured 23 in the Fairfax Area and a methane venting incident in 1989 that ejected water, mud, and gas without explosion, the City of Los Angeles adopted an Ordinance requiring mitigation to limit methane gas intrusion in buildings located in the Fairfax area, which overlies the Salt Lake oilfield near the La Brea Tar Pits.
According to a 2005 report on Environmental Hazards Posed by the Los Angeles Basin Urban Oilfields (Environmental Geology 2005 47:302-317), over 70 oilfields are beneath developed urban land. Dr. Chilingar, founder of the Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering believes, …Underground gas storage and oil and gas production in urban areas can be conducted safely if proper procedures are followed. Avery and others working in methane gas mitigation agree.
While busy residents rarely notice the wells in their midst, Noah Albert, author of Urban Oil Wells in Los Angeles (June 26, 2010), revealed that many wells are hiding in plain sight on golf courses and within structures-in Beverly Hills they are in the Venoco Flower Tower, the Cardiff Tower, and the Packard Well site disguised as an office building.
In the 1990s, efforts advanced to minimize explosive risks in the LA Basin. November 1996, Martha Willman, staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, reported, A total of 19 wells-most drilled around the turn of the century in the once oil-rich canyons-were discovered at the 3,500-acre park, owned by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. Under a state conservation project, the Santa Clarita Woodlands Park wells were plugged to prevent leaks.
It was not until pockets of methane gas were discovered in 1999 in the West LA Playa Vista project that the City Council directed the City Departments of Building and Safety, Engineering, and Planning to conduct a thorough study to identify areas where subsurface methane gas could be found. Due to his early involvement with methane gas mitigation and membrane barriers, Avery was asked and served on the Methane Task Force convened in 2001-2002 and he became the first methane gas inspector for the City of Los Angeles. Avery joined forces with John Conaway, a Registered Professional Engineer who was also serving on the Methane Task Force, and created Terra-Petra.
Methane Zones and Buffer Zones
The Task Force produced a map identifying the Methane Zones and Methane Buffer Zones. The Methane Zone is not one specific area, but rather consists of scattered pieces of property referred to collectively as the Methane Zone. These parcels can be as small as a single block or as large as sprawling swaths stretching four or five miles in any direction.
Additionally, a border defined as a methane buffer zone surrounds each methane zone. In 2002, Los Angeles Department of Public Works Engineering prepared a basic grid street map, outlining all the methane zones and buffer zones.
In 2004, the Los Angeles City Council established a set of standards requiring those seeking building permits on projects located in a Methane Zone or Buffer Zone to comply with minimum requirements to control methane intrusion. The Methane Building Code details mitigation standards, installation procedures, design parameters and test protocols. Site testing, passive and active monitoring systems, de-watering and venting systems are also included as part of the standardization of building practices.
Avery has been involved from the beginning in Los Angeles’ methane mitigation and codification into building standards. In 2006, the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS) formed another Methane Task Force to revise and clarify the methane regulations. Avery again served on this committee and recommended code changes involving electronic gas detection, deep vent well considerations, methane soil gas investigations, and methane gas intrusion analysis for slabs. Now retired, Avery remains a tireless advocate for continuous improvement in inspection, monitoring, and mitigation. He continues to encourage changing the code where existing regulations can be improved with scientific or engineering evidence.
In 2010, Kevin Buchanan acquired Terra-Petra. Having previously served as Vice President of Plant Operations for Technicolor, Inc., Buchanan readily acknowledges his association with Hollywood’s movie industry. According to Terra-Petra’s mission statement, they work to make every client’s life easier and are committed to creating a safe environment, free of toxic vapors and volatile organic compounds. They do not chase bizarre apparitions, but one could call them methane gas busters. The Terra-Petra team continues to grow and tackle unseen destructive forces and has created a methane gas business success story.
Terra-Petra Environmental Engineering handles projects ranging from the very small-such as an addition to an individual residence, to multi-year large endeavors, such as the L.A. Live!—the Staples Center Expansion that covered four city blocks in downtown Los Angeles and included three levels of below grade parking. Other significant projects of Terra-Petra’s includes Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the Los Angeles Central Library, the Farmers Market (located in “the heart of the Los Angeles Methane Zone”), the Fountain Park Apartments in Playa Vista and a Huntington Beach, California 31-acre mixed use development with below grade parking on a site that once had 22 oil wells. In 2011, Terra-Petra expanded into several national locations including the states of Texas, Michigan and New Jersey and major metro areas of Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Miami. The company will expand into more geographical locations in 2012.
