September 14, 2022
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good day to you. I am Steve Nowaczewski; I serve as the independent Safety Ombudsman for the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility, coming to the role upon approval of the parties to the Consent Decree after last year’s retirement of the original Ombudsman, Richard Gentges. The Safety Ombudsman role was created as part of a Consent Decree between SoCalGas, the State Attorney General’s Office, the Office of the City Attorney, and Los Angeles County Counsel to settle certain claims related to the Aliso Canyon SS-25 well blowout. One of the terms of the Consent Decree calls for the appointment of a third-party, impartial, independent Safety Ombudsman with the requisite underground storage technical expertise to monitor the safety of the Aliso Canyon Facility. The Consent Decree outlines the specific and limited duties of the Safety Ombudsman, one of which is to annually prepare three separate reports (Annual Reports) which detail the following:
- The work of the Safety Ombudsman;
- The work of the Aliso Canyon Well and Storage Operations Safety Committee; and
- Recommendations, if any, for improvements related to safety and prevention of leaks at the Aliso Canyon Facility.
The Annual Reports are made available to members of the public and local community who are given the opportunity to review, comment, and ask questions concerning the Annual Reports, which are posted on the Safety Ombudsman website at:
Annual Reports – Safety Ombudsman
The purpose of my letter today is to announce a virtual public meeting that I will be holding, three weeks from today, on October 5, 2022 at 6 PM PT to provide an overview of these three reports, receive comments concerning the reports, and answer questions concerning the reports. Interested parties can participate in the virtual meeting by joining at the MS Teams link included at the bottom of this notice. Participants can ask questions or give comments at the end of the presentation; however, all microphones will be muted during the presentation. The meeting will be recorded and posted to the Safety Ombudsman website after the meeting.
Sincerely,
Stephen (Steve) Nowaczewski
Aliso Canyon Safety Ombudsman 2022 Annual Reports and Virtual Public Meeting – October 5, 2022, 6 – 7:30 pm Pacific Time
Microsoft Teams meeting
Join on your computer, mobile app or room device
Click here to join the meeting
Meeting ID: 264 585 890 203
Passcode: d9DER5
