$60M settlement reached over LADWP gas leak that sickened hundreds of residents in Sun Valley

SUN VALLEY, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A settlement has been reached over the years-long gas leak at LADWP's Sun Valley Generating Station that sickened more than 1,000 residents in Sun Valley and Pacoima.

"My migraines they were just getting worse," said area resident Leticia Trascian.

Many residents in Sun Valley and Pacoima, like Trascian, have been complaining for years about severe headaches, nausea and much more. It's a terrifying ordeal given that the victims couldn't pinpoint why their health was failing. Doctors were mystified as well.

That is until residents figured out there was a gas leak at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Sun Valley Generating Station. The law firm reached a settlement with the city for nearly $60 million.

"I'm just happy overall because finally they're doing something about it, which they should have done years ago," Trascian said.

"This is a historic settlement for environmental justice in Sun Valley," said Alex Wheeler, from Parris Law Firm. "DWP poisoned the Sun Valley community for years without telling anybody what was going on."

At least 1,200 residents teamed together hiring the Parris Law Firm to sue the city of L.A. claiming the leak spewed toxic methane gas sickening residents. The suit also claimed DWP failed to perform adequate safety inspections at the site and failed to notify residents about leaks in a timely manner. The Parris law firm claimed the toxic leak went out for years, from 2016 to 2020.

Resident complaints did not fall on deaf ears as multiple agencies got involved to mitigate the problem.

"So people throughout this community were getting sick and they had no idea what was causing their illness," Wheeler said. "They'd go to their doctors, they'd go to the hospital with headaches with nausea and there was no idea what the cause was."

The law firm said the leak has been fixed and includes monitoring stations that broadcast publicly available readings for methane on a website.

The LADWP has also included Permanent equipment retrofits resulting in zero natural gas emissions at the site. The monitoring has shown there have been no leaks of any amount since modified packing seals were installed in December 2020.

"I'm happy that finally the DWP is stepping up and doing the right thing," said Trascian.

Resident victims say that at the end of the day, they're just glad there's some resolution to this crisis.