The LA Times has a horror story that’s been going on since Oct. 23, when a natural gas well began leaking uncontrollably. The rate of leakage at 110,000 pounds an hour-- 55 tons, or the equivalent of 55,000 of these being emptied out every hour. It’s not burning, but 1,700 homes have been evacuated so far... The Environmental Defense Fund has video of the plume, made visible by using a camera that sees in the infrared range. The gas company estimates it could take another 3 months to seal the well.eaks like the current one in California, it turns out, are a major contributor. In Pasadena, for instance, just miles from the leak in Aliso, investigators found one leak for every four miles:So far, over 150 million pounds of methane have been released by the leak, which connects to an enormous underground containment system.