Southern California Gas and its parent company, Sempra Energy, have agreed to pay up to $1.8 billion as part of a settlement agreement announced on Monday related to the nation's biggest natural gas leak. The settlement would resolve nearly all of the 35,000 claims filed by individuals and businesses after SoCal Gas's Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility blew out in 2015. The leak at the facility, in the Santa Susana Mountains northeast of Los Angeles, forced thousands of people from their homes in and around the Porter Ranch community, sickening many from the stench of chemicals wafting through the air near the plant. From October 2015 to February 2016, the gas company worked to contain the leak, which released nearly 100,000 tons of methane and other substances into the air. Sempra had to temporarily close the facility, at one of the largest natural gas fields in the country. At the time, the leak raised concern among regulators about gas shortages that ultimately never happened.