Plan to Cut Methane Hazard Clears Hurdle

Property owners near the Fairfax District intersection where methane gas exploded in 1985--and gathered again in near-explosive proportions last year--would be required to install gas relief wells under a measure backed Tuesday by the Los Angeles City Council’s budget committee. The council is expected to approve it.

“Time is of the essence here. Maybe we have four years, maybe we have four minutes,” said City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee, which voted unanimously to accept the recommendations of a task force set up after the latest gas scare. Yaroslavsky said city council approval was “a forgone conclusion”.

The task force, headed by geologist Joseph W. Cobarrubias, also proposed that the city dig underground trenches to provide additional escape routes for the gas.