Texas Brine blames tremors for cavern failure

It's time for another round of Corporate Ass Covering..  Who to believe?  Geologists and officials from the Department of Natural Resources, or a corporation that would be financially and criminally liable for any present or future damage resulting from their negligence?   SF Gate:

Tremors recorded in Assumption Parish since late May could explain why a brine cavern failed and caused a massive sinkhole that prompted more than 100 evacuations nearby, officials said Tuesday.

That assessment came from the Texas Brine Co., a Houston-based company that plugged and abandoned the cavern in 2011. The company harvests brine — water saturated with salt — which is used in industrial manufacturing.

But officials at the U.S. Geological Survey say the cavern's failure caused the tremors — not the other way around.

Texas Brine Co. spokesman Sonny Cranch said earthquakes recorded near the Napoleonville salt dome two months before the sinkhole appeared could have damaged the abandoned brine cavern. He noted the tremors concentrated around the sinkhole a few days before it rapidly expanded from a few feet of muck to an acre of sludge that swallowed cypress trees.

"The conclusion at this point is that the damage could very well have been caused by seismic activity that's been going on," he said.

Federal officials disagree. William Leith, coordinator of the earthquakes hazards program at USGS, said that the earthquakes are rare in Louisiana and that the vibrations in Assumption Parish did not lead to the cavern's damage or the sinkhole.

"We believe that the tremors are a result of the collapse of the cavern," he said.

Experts brought in by Texas Brine believe the tremors originated thousands of feet away from the face of the dome and at a substantial depth, Cranch said.

Cranch said a tool used to measure the depth of the cavern bottomed out 1,300 feet higher than anticipated. The cavern was last measured when it was abandoned.

Cranch said the presence of the material hit by the tool indicates the cavern failed.

"That material should not have been there. But the debris, the material at the bottom of the cavern does speak to damage," he said.

Parish officials also say they aren't buying the explanation that tremors caused damage to the brine cavern and are waiting for an official explanation from scientists.

"Who's to say the breach in the salt dome didn't cause the seismic activity? It's just questionable. We're not ruling anything out at this point," said Assumption Parish Police Jury spokeswoman Kim Torres.

Louisiana Commissioner of Conservation James Welsh said Texas Brine's "unilateral declaration" that seismic activity breached the cavern was made without consulting state agencies or the Science Work Group that was created to investigate the slurry area. Welsh is requiring Texas Brine to provide all data and analyses to the Office of Conservation.

"Texas Brine has elected to let its own interests guide a premature conclusion lacking sufficient supporting analysis....the investigation and the remediation for environmental damages will be driven by the best science available and carried out to standards set by the state of Louisiana to ensure the safety of the Bayou Corne community — and will not be driven by Texas Brine's timetable or concerns about corporate liability," Welsh said in a statement.

Around 150 homes between the Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou communities south of Louisiana Highway 70 South were evacuated after Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency in the parish when it appeared the slurry area was expanding.

Several weeks before the sinkhole emerged, residents had also been reporting natural gas bubbling in nearby waterways. Parish officials say aerial photographs taken Saturday indicate the area is more than 400 feet across and 100 feet wider than it was a month ago.

Cranch said Texas Brine will continue to provide weekly housing assistance checks to the evacuated residents.

Corporations aren't people, but they sure are assholes.

Louisiana Sinkhole Grows To Four Acres

Here's the latest.  Breakdown delays drill in sinkhole probe  The Advocate.  Excerpts:

..
The sinkhole was found Aug. 3 in Texas Brine swampland property between the Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou communities south of La. 70 South, prompting the evacuation of residents from about 150 homes in the vicinity. The sinkhole appeared after two months of natural gas releases in area waterways and earth tremors, both of which have continued.


The sinkhole, which has grown larger as dirt and trees on its rim have sloughed off and fallen into the water since it emerged, including this week, is now about 475 feet across and an estimated 4 acres in size, according to new parish dimensions.

The Louisiana Department of Natural Resources ordered the well be drilled after scientists suspected a nearby company salt cavern in the Napoleonville Dome failed, released its brine contents and caused the sinkhole.

John Boudreaux, director of the parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said Friday’s mechanical failure involved a mud pump near the bit at the tip of the drill pipe.

He said the failure forced the entire drill pipe to be removed Friday so the bit and pump could be replaced and reinserted in the drill hole, which has reached 3,180 feet in depth. The bit had reached a point about 300 feet above the cavern roof, Texas Brine officials said.

The videographer recorded two men at the site of the sinkhole.  That's it?  Two guys?  Shouldn't the EPA be studying the fuck out of this thing?  Also:  There's still no coherent crisis response from any of the parties involved.  Anything else you can tell us, other than "Mud pump broke!,"?  Anything?  Anyone?

That's A Nice Sized Sink Hole Ya Got There, Louisiana..

In case you were wondering what happened to that ever-growing sinkhole next to a butane cave;  Well, it's getting bigger.  And it's already affecting a lot of lives..  And nobody knows how to fix it.  Sinkhole grows 400 feet, gas pressure too great for drillers.  Examiner:

..The expanding sinkhole covers part of the massive 1-mile by 3-mile Napoleonville Salt Dome used by oil and gas companies to store and supply hydrocarbons and brine to nearby refineries in the nation's area known as Cancer Alley.


"In the video of the sinkhole site, at approximately 00:35, you can see this growth towards and into the pipeline right of way," officials said in a blog post.

The parish officials' YouTube video of the sinkhole, Sinkhole Site 9.18.12, is "not approved" to embed on this site, and "Comments are disabled for this video" on YouTube. That flyover can be viewed on YouTube

(Here at the link..)
"In the [9.18.12] video of the rig site, you can see that the drilling rig has been dismantled and removed in order to make way for the snubbing rig that will complete the final phase of drilling and entry into the cavern," officials stated in a blog post.

The Louisiana sinkhole, an oil and gas disaster, is impacting security human rights of mandatory evacuees and residents who have remained.

"Meanwhile, back at the sinkhole site, scientists have made another discovery that could keep residents out of their homes for an undetermined amount of time," reports WAFB.

"They got down to 90 feet and experienced gas in the water aquifer and were unable to set water well due to the pressure. We put cement, plug, and got off the site and regrouped to come up with another strategy to set a vent well," explained director for the Assumption Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness John Boudreaux.

Boudreaux said workers must replace the rig from which they have been working, with one that will allow them to vent gas from the well.

The source of the gas is still unknown, according to officials.

The sinkhole that developed on Aug. 3, after two months of over 1000 earthquakes in the vicinity and emerging gas bubbling sites percolating in nearby bayous, prompted parish officials to order a mandatory evacuation of 150 households in the Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou areas. That evacuation order remains in effect.

Boudreaux said residents will not be allowed to return home until the gas is under control, according to WAFB that reports, "If history repeats itself, that could mean sometime next year."

Short answer?  Getting worse!

Louisiana sinkhole saltier the deeper it gets

I have no idea what this means.  At least one conspiritard thinks Assumption Parish is sinking into the Gulf.  I'm sure Roland Emmerich would like that, but probably not.  One way or the other, the hole's still getting bigger..  The Examiner.

The giant Louisiana sinkhole’s water is far saltier the deeper the hole gets, state environmental regulators said Monday.


“Salinity estimates based on water samples taken earlier this month from a large sinkhole in northern Assumption Parish suggest the water becomes far saltier, even more than in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the deeper the hole gets, state environmental regulators said Monday,” reports David Mitchell for The Advocate.

Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality officials said those test results are pending might indicate the source of the sinkhole water.

“We should be getting it this week,” Chris Piehler, DEQ Inspection Division administrator said Monday.

The expanding sinkhole is now approximately 427 feet deep, less than 300 feet from the top of Texas Brine's salt cavern that stretches down another 2,800 feet in the Napoleonville Salt Dome. Officials say they expect the sinkhole to continue growing.

It's always something with those Cajuns and their sinking land, right?

Sinkhole Swells; Swallows - Seriously!

Giant Louisiana sinkhole expands to 526-feet and swallows a BOAT (but the two clean-up workers in it were rescued just in time).  Things is not kosher.  Daily Mail. Excerpts:

A ginormous 400-foot deep sinkhole in Louisiana is expanding and today swallowed a boat.


Two clean-up workers who were in the boat had to be rescued before they too disappeared into the watery mass, which today grew by another 50ft, authorities said.

The vessel was tied to a tree on the south west side of the site as the workers cleaned up diesel in the sinkhole.

The piece of land where the tree was standing sunk into the growing pool of water, pulling the boat in with it.


The workers were rescued by air boat and did not suffer any injuries but all clean up operations at the site have now been suspended until further notice due to concerns over safety.
'Early this morning they started the clean up operation of the diesel,' said John Boudreaux, director of Office of Emergency Preparedness for Assumption Parish.

'Two of the workers were in a small John's boat and had a rope skimmer. The boat was tied to trees but that edge slouched and basically the boat started to go in with it. There was an air boat nearby and they were rescued as the trees went in and took the boat in too.'

The gaping hole now measures about 526-feet from northeast to southwest and 640-feet from northwest to southeast.
..
Scientists said at a community meeting last Tuesday the sinkhole might be related to a brine cavern owned by Houston-based Texas Brine Co. contained within an underground salt dome.
It has been reported that local officials at Texas Brine have known since at least January 2011 that there have been problems with the structural integrity of a brine cavern that was plugged in June 2010. Officials did not mention those issues at the meeting.

'It's what I've been saying all along, that they've been hiding things,' Rousseau said. 'I think our local officials are trying to do the best they can, but I think they're being hindered by the higher-ups hiding things.'

Rousseau said he was especially worried after a parish official had him fill out a form asking him to list his next of kin last Thursday morning.

'That's a little disturbing to me. They said it's in case they can't reach us to evacuate. But I mean, come on. They can reach everyone,' he said.

Rep. Joe Harrison, R-Napoleonville, said he wanted more transparency and answers from the Office of Conservation. He said he had no idea about structural issues within the brine cavern until he read about them in the paper.

'There is a serious lack of competence now in the state, and we knew nothing. Nothing. Why did they close the mine? We didn't get any answers. It's a real lack of competence now,' Harrison said.

Hey, Representative Harrison, this is the logical end result of your party's "let corporations regulate themselves" approach.  Hiding potential dangers and obfuscating the actual risks.  Now those abstract dangers have become real and affect your district.  Still feeling the same about gutting the DNR or EPA?