Sinkhole explosive methane officially life threatening, residents not told

In this case, no news is bad news, but Official News is pretty bad, too..  The Examiner.  Excerpts:

Officials advised the Assumption Parish President on Thursday that Bayou Corne sinkhole area has high levels of methane in nearby water wells, posing risks to health, fire and explosion and that residents need to heed the mandatory evacuation order. That day, parish officials postponed Saturday's resident briefing with no explanation.


“Of the chemicals reviewed, only methane, detected in the industrial water wells, presents a potential health risk (Type 2 of fire/explosion),” Dr. Raoult Ratard, State Epidemiologist of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Office (DHH) of Public Health stated in an environmental data report of the Bayou Corne oil and gas sinkhole event sent to Assumption Parish President Martin S. Triche Thursday.
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Speculations are increasing that methane is the mysterious "powerful underground force" wreaking havoc in south Louisiana, including the sinkhole disaster area.


Methane gas leaks are spreading throughout the south Louisiana area. Within four months, as of this week, methane bubbling sites have increased to twenty-eight, including in Pierre Part, outside the mandatory evacuation area but within hearing distance and jolts of seismic activities where foul chemical odors are nauseating and burning, as some residents there have reported.
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So what's the worst case scenario?  (Same author, same site, from August 5)

If any of the melted methane at the ocean bottom has access to strata which could also fracture, could it travel horizontally underground for some distance, to surface miles away?


In “The Worst-Case Scenario,” a frightening "low-probability" scenario was described on Huffington Post by DK Matai, Chairman of Asymmetric Threats Contingency Alliance (ATCA) & The Philanthropia. Matai highlighted the possibility of the "massive bubble trapped for thousands of years under the Gulf of Mexico sea floor" exploding and setting off a "tsunami [traveling] at a high speed of hundreds of miles per hour."

"There are serial resistances along channels, say along stata or their boundaries; transverse resistances between channels; and transverse capacitances which are voids where gas can be stored at applied pressures," retired neuroscientist Paul Brown explained to Deborah Dupré Saturday. "In the case of a long-lasting increase of source pressure due to an undersea rupture, as the gas travels along the longitudinal channels, pressure buildup is slower and slower at greater and greater distances.

"For distances of many miles, it’s conceivable that this pressure buildup could take months or years. If the pressure at the input, from the undersea methane pool, is maintained over this period, then capacitances will charge (pressure will build up to near the source pressure) along the channels, and fracturing may occur (like short-circuiting some of the transverse resistances due to displacement of material between high- and low-pressure compartments), allowing gas to travel both vertically and horizontally into areas not originally accessible."

According to Brown, "The fact that methane is more compressible than water is irrelevant over long periods and with a sufficient supply of high-pressure methane.

Short Answer:  Big-Ass BOOM!  Big Waves.  Lots of steam.  Low probability, though, so that's a relief, right?  I guess the key now is how to stop the sinkhole from spreading, for which there is still not an answer.  And there are still no acceptable answers for all the nervous Cajuns waiting for the next shoe to drop..

Louisiana Sinkholes Merging Together- 14 Plus Bubbling Locations

The situation regarding Bayou Corne continues to deteriorate.  Videos found at Before It's News: 

The other one's at the link.

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:

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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!