Porter Ranch and Flint experts

Contact: Zen Vuong at (213) 300-1381 or zvuong@usc.edu

A long road ahead for those who have filed lawsuits

“Porter Ranch residents have clear nuisance law claims. By making their homes temporarily uninhabitable, Southern California Gas Co. has interfered with their reasonable use and enjoyment of their land. The residents are clearly owed damages for that dislocation.

“The difficult issues have to do with determining how much injury the residents will suffer beyond months of dislocation. The consequences of the leak for property values in the medium and long run are less clear. Home prices are sure to be depressed for some time after the gas leak is repaired. Whether they will rebound and, if so, how quickly is unclear. If depressed property values linger long after the leak is repaired, the damages that the residents suffer will become both much larger and much less clear. It is even less clear if the leak will have serious health effects. At present, the possibility of health injuries developing years from now can’t be ruled out. Such injuries may be hard to identify, and they will be hard to address now.

“In the best case scenario, there will be no long-term health effects and property values will recover fairly quickly. But we’re not in a positon to say whether that scenario is the one we’re dealing with.”

Gregory Keating is an expert on product liability and accident law. He is a professor of law at the USC Gould School of Law. Keating will share his thoughts at “Know Your Rights: Legal Town Hall” at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. The event at Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch is hosted by Los Angeles Councilman Mitchell Englander.

Contact: gkeating@law.usc.edu or (213) 740-2565

An example of ‘environmental injustice’

“The Porter Ranch leak presents a huge challenge, in part, because of the significant impact that greenhouse gas emissions will have on climate change for the state as a whole. However, as a social scientist, what’s been particularly striking is the relatively rapid response of Southern California Gas Co. to residents’ concerns and how relatively rapidly the city government and city attorney were able to force the company to mobilize assistance for the affected communities. This is in stark contrast to the situation in Flint, where the crisis of lead contamination in the water supply was neglected for well over a year, despite all the evidence piling up on how the water could cause permanent brain damage for young kids.

“These stories say a lot about what social scientists refer to as ‘environmental injustice,’ that is, certain kinds of communities’ concerns appropriately get a rapid response, and certain communities’ concerns inappropriately get a delayed response. For Flint, the lagged response is likely to result in permanent damage — not only to the health of young children and their learning capacities — but also to the homeowners in Flint, whose assets have lost value. Furthermore, the already financially-strapped local government is now going to have to respond to so many social service needs with a very limited fiscal base. These cases are really illustrative of the stark inequalities in our country in terms of policy responses to worrisome environmental crises.”

Manuel Pastor is an expert on social, economic and environmental justice in urban areas. He is a professor of sociology and American studies and ethnicity at the Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and also directs the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) and the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII).

Contact via Gladys Malibiran at malibira@usc.edu or (213) 792-2333

Government agencies failed Flint

“Exposure to lead is unsafe at any level. Lead causes irreversible damage to brain development in children, adversely affecting intelligence, behavior and overall achievement. Nationwide, it is low-income kids and children of color who are disproportionately burdened by lead poisoning. The effect may be amplified by simultaneous exposure to poverty, stress and other chemicals.

“In Flint, as in the case of the Exide lead-battery smelter in southeastern Los Angeles, lead exposures in the community are due to regulatory failures of those tasked with protecting the environment and health: government agencies at local, state and federal levels. These crises highlight the critical need to breakdown the silos in which many public officials operate and to proactively work together with community organizations to prevent lead poisoning.”

Jill Johnston is an expert on environmental health and justice in disadvantaged urban and rural neighborhoods. She is an assistant professor of preventive medicine in the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Contact: jillj@usc.edu or (323) 442-1099

A Flint-like disaster could never happen in Los Angeles

“The high levels of lead contamination in Flint’s water could result in children who have developmental delay, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and lower IQ scores. Adults may suffer from headaches, irritability, high blood pressure or kidney disorder when they are exposed to high concentrations of lead for a long time. A few months is a long time.

“The Flint situation is unique; it is highly unlikely that a similar situation would happen in the Los Angeles area. The Flint River, the city’s water source, is corrosive due to low pH and a high concentration of chloride. As a result, a corrosion-protecting coat was destroyed, and lead leached out of the lead pipes. Nonetheless, the Flint situation can be regarded as a wake-up call for all across the nation.”

Massoud (Mike) Pirbazari is an expert on groundwater contamination and water quality engineering. He is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and is associate director of Environmental Engineering.

Contact: pirbazar@usc.edu or (213) 740-0592

A ‘system failure’ caused these disasters

“‘System failures’ such as the ones we are witnessing at Aliso Canyon and Flint are caused by a multitude of interacting factors with roots in human, organizational and technological subsystems.

“With any major industrial accident, the operating organization’s safety culture as well as its proactive diligence in using and monitoring context-specific leading safety indicators are of paramount importance. Additionally, regulatory agencies must have adequate, updated and applicable prescriptive regulations, capable oversight and enforcement.

“As far as I know, SoCalGas has had a good safety record, and I am sorry to see that they are facing such a predicament. Nevertheless, I am encouraged that the company said it would begin efforts to conduct a root-cause analysis once the well has been sealed. I hope SoCalGas will employ a robust and comprehensive methodology.”

Najmedin Meshkati is an expert on industrial accidents and complex technological systems failure. He studied the Chernobyl, Fukushima and BP Deepwater Horizon disasters and has served on two national accident investigation panels. Meshkati is a professor of civil and environmental engineering and a professor of industrial and systems engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

Contact: meshkati@usc.edu or (213) 740-8765