Residents of seven houses on Newport Beach’s Balboa Peninsula were cleared to go home Friday as crews repaired a methane leak caused by oil seeping from an abandoned well beneath one of the affected properties.

According to the city, a local emergency was declared on Wednesday due to the methane leak believed to have been caused by the well beneath the home at 3606 Marcus Ave. That property and six others were all red-tagged, declaring them temporarily uninhabitable.

The city declared a local emergency on Wednesday due to the methane leak, and the evacuation orders were issued Thursday.

By Friday, the crews installed a ventilation system to safely release methane gas into the air, city spokesman John Pope said. A ground-level system was also installed to vent any more gas that accumulat

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