Aliso Stories is a multimedia documentary and fine art project highlighting individuals who lived through an invisible threat— the largest gas blowout in the history of the United States.
From Oct 2015 - Feb 2016, approximately 109,000 metric tons of methane gas and other chemicals spewed out of a blown out well at the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility, owned and operated by SoCalGas. Around 8,000 families were forced to flee their homes to escape the invisible gas that was making them sick.
Frame grab of infrared video of the Porter Ranch Gas Blowout, courtesy of Environmental Defense Fund (2015)
Aerial image courtesy of maps.conservation.ca.gov
Residents nearby reported experiencing symptoms including nose bleeds, nausea, headaches, fatigue, and more. These initial symptoms are just the tip of the iceberg. Five years later, we are seeing an increase in cancer and other life-threatening illnesses in the North San Fernando Valley. Residents are attributing their chronic health issues to both the blowout and prolonged exposure to a number of chemicals routinely emitted at Aliso Canyon. The situation is ongoing - and a health study is in the works.
This is personal. Hannah Benet, the creator of Aliso Stories, was raised in Porter Ranch, one of the hardest hit communities.
Since the blowout in 2015, most of her personal work has been about bringing visibility to this invisible environmental disaster and public health crisis. In the summer of 2020, Hannah started meeting with individuals impacted by the blowout and documenting their stories through interviews and portraiture to tell the human side of this invisible threat. She ties in some of her earlier fine art and documentary work that is about the blowout and the grassroots movement to shut down the facility. She has brought these stories to both the SoCalGas Tower in Los Angeles and the entrance to Governor Newsom’s home in Sacramento.
At this time, some stories cannot be shared. The families who are involved in active lawsuits with the company are being advised by their attorneys to keep quiet. The gas company at play here holds a lot of power in the state of California. They sit on the boards of our largest institutions and fund political campaigns.
The people impacted by this disaster come from diverse backgrounds, both socioeconomically and politically. Whether they are republicans, democrats, progressives or independents, the people who lived through the largest gas blowout in America can all agree on one thing: the invisible threat needs to be stopped, and the Aliso Canyon Gas Storage Facility needs to be shut down immediately. And these are their stories: