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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Bayou Corne Journal
Ground Gives Way, and a Louisiana Town Struggles to Find Its Footing
The Bayou Corne Sinkhole: A video shot by John Boudreaux shows the destructive power of a giant sinkhole in Bayou Corne, La.
By MICHAEL WINES
Published: September 25, 2013
BAYOU CORNE, La. — It was nearly 16 months ago that Dennis P. Landry and his wife, Pat, on a leisurely cruise in their Starcraft pontoon boat, first noticed a froth of bubbles issuing from the depths of Bayou Corne, an idyllic, cypress-draped stream that meanders through swampy southern Louisiana. They figured it was a leaky gas pipeline. So did everyone else.
Louisiana Sinkhole Leaves a Community Struggling
The collapse last year of a side of a cavern more than a mile underground led to a large sinkhole in Bayou Corne, La.
The New York Times
Just over two months later, in the predawn blackness of Aug. 3, 2012, the earth opened up — a voracious maw 325 feet across and hundreds of feet deep, swallowing 100-foot trees, guzzling water from adjacent swamps and belching methane from a thousand feet or more beneath the surface.
“I think I caught a glimpse of hell in it,” Mr. Landry said.
Since then, almost nothing here has been the same.
More than a year after it appeared, the Bayou Corne sinkhole is about 25 acres and still growing, almost as big as 20 football fields, lazily biting off chunks of forest and creeping hungrily toward an earthen berm built to contain its oily waters. It has its own Facebook page and its own groupies, conspiracy theorists who insist the pit is somehow linked to the Gulf of Mexico 50 miles south and the earthquake-prone New Madrid fault 450 miles north. It has confounded geologists who have struggled to explain this scar in the earth.
And it has split this unincorporated hamlet of about 300 people into two camps: the hopeful, like Mr. Landry, who believe that things will eventually settle down, and the despairing, who have mostly fled or plan to, and blame their misery on state and corporate officials.
“Everything they’re doing, they were forced to do,” Mike Schaff, one of those who is leaving, said of the officials. “They’ve taken no initiative. I wanted to stay here. But the community is basically destroyed.”
Drawls Mr. Landry: “I used to have a sign in my yard: ‘This too shall pass.’ This, too, shall pass. We’re not there yet. But I’m a very patient man.”
The sinkhole is worrisome enough. But for now, the principal villains are the bubbles: flammable methane gas, surfacing not just in the bayou, but in the swamp and in front and backyards across the area.
A few words of fantastical explanation: Much of Louisiana sits atop an ancient ocean whose salty remains, extruded upward by the merciless pressure of countless tons of rock, have formed at least 127 colossal underground pillars. Seven hundred feet beneath Bayou Corne, the Napoleonville salt dome stretches three miles long and a mile wide — and plunges perhaps 30,000 feet to the old ocean floor.
A bevy of companies has long regarded the dome as more or less a gigantic piece of Tupperware, a handy place to store propane, butane and natural gas, and to make salt water for the area’s many chemical factories. Over the years, they have repeatedly punched into the dome, hollowing out 53 enormous caverns.
In 1982, on the dome’s western edge, Texas Brine Company sank a well to begin work on a big cavern: 150 to 300 feet wide and four-tenths of a mile deep, it bottomed out more than a mile underground. Until it capped the well to the cavern in 2011, the company pumped in fresh water, sucked out salt water and shipped it to the cavern’s owner, the Occidental Chemical Corporation.
Who is to blame for what happened next is at issue in a barrage of lawsuits. But at some point, the well’s western wall collapsed, and the cavern began filling with mud and rock. The mud and rock above it dropped into the vacated space, freeing trapped natural gas.
The gas floated up; the rock slipped down. The result was a yawning, bubbling sinkhole.
“You go in the swamp, and there are places where it’s coming up like boiling crawfish,” said Mr. Schaff, who is moving out.
Mr. Landry, who is staying, agreed — “it looks like boiling water, like a big pot” — but the two men and their camps agree on little else.
Geologists say the sinkhole will eventually stop growing, perhaps at 50 acres, but how long that will take is unclear. The state has imposed tough regulations and monitoring on salt-dome caverns to forestall future problems.
Under state order, Texas Brine has mounted a broad, though some say belated, effort to pump gas out of sandy underground layers where it has spread. Bayou Corne is pocked with freshly dug wells, with more to come, their pipes leading to flares that slowly burn off the methane. That, everyone concedes, could take years.
The two sides greet all that news in starkly different ways.
A version of this article appears in print on September 26, 2013, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Ground Gives Way, and a Town Struggles to Find Its Footing.
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Thu Sep 26, 2013 3:57 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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(Page 2 of 2)
State surveys show that one of the largest concentrations of methane lies directly under Mr. Landry’s neighborhood, a manicured subdivision of brick homes, many with decks overlooking the bayou and its cypresses. Yet only two families have chosen to leave, and while the Landrys are packed just in case, the gas detector in their home offers enough reassurance to remain.
“Do you smell anything?” he asked. “Nope. Do we have gas bubbling up in the bayou? Yes. Where does it go? Straight up. Have they closed the bayou? No.”
The anger and misfortune are focused on Mr. Schaff’s neighborhood directly across state route 70, a jumble of neat clapboard houses, less tidy shotgun-style homes and trailers on narrow roads with names like Sauce Piquante Lane and Jambalaya Street. There, rows of abandoned homes are plastered with No Trespassing signs, and the streets are deathly quiet.
Candy Blanchard, a teacher, and her husband, Todd, a welder, moved out the day the sinkhole appeared. They now pay the monthly mortgage on their empty and unsellable 7-year-old house as well as the rent on another house. Mr. Blanchard drops by their former home each morning to feed their rabbits and cat, who have lived alone for a year because their landlord would accept only their dog.
The couple rejected an offer from Texas Brine to buy their home, and instead have joined a class-action lawsuit against the company. They will never return, she said, because they do not believe the area is safe.
“The point we’re at now is what the scientists said would never happen, that this would be the worst-case scenario,” Mrs. Blanchard said. “How can you find experts on this when it has never happened anywhere else in the world?”
Mr. Schaff’s home also fronts the bayou, and he says he is loath to leave. But investigators found gas in his garage, he said, and he says he is convinced that state officials are playing down the true scope of the disaster.
A wry, amiable man with a salt-and-pepper goatee and glasses, Mr. Schaff said he had planned to retire on the bayou.
“It’s my home. I want to die there, O.K.?” he said, fighting off tears. “I was going to retire next year, was going to do some fishing, play with my grandchildren, do a little flying. And now, this.” |
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Thu Sep 26, 2013 4:12 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Thu Sep 26, 2013 4:33 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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FORBES
William Pentland
William Pentland, Contributor
I write about energy and environmental issues.
3/03/2013 @ 10:15AM |143,279 views
Toxic Sinkhole Threatens Southeastern Louisiana
Sinkhole in Bayou CorneA giant sinkhole that sprouted up overnight last summer in Assumption Parish, LA is swallowing trees and belching toxic fumes as it expands across the otherwise sleepy swamp waters of southeastern Louisiana.
The sinkhole, which was reportedly caused by a release of natural gas, has been a debacle for residents. The most recent flyover footage of the sinkhole is available here.
Robert Mann, a professor of communications at Louisiana State University, published a local resident’s impassioned plea to Louisiana’s Governor, Bobby Jindal, to tackle the problem:
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WHERE ARE YOU BOBBY JINDAL?????
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Need I remind you there is a sinkhole in Bayou Corne/Grand Bayou, which was declared a State of Emergency by your office on August 3rd, where 150 households were forced to evacuate from the area and are living in campers, hotels, rent houses, etc. There are mini earthquakes, methane, benzene and hydrogen sulfide being released into the community. This community has been through hell and back and are still living a nightmare. In my opinion and many others you have completely turned your back on this community, and you have done absolutely nothing helpful to this community. You haven’t even had the decency to come visit the site, do a flyover and meet with residents to show your support and pledge accountability by all parties, Texas Brine and your agencies alike. Your inaction is very upsetting to many people. It is unacceptable and cannot and will not be tolerated. We all understand your aspiration to be president, but what you need to remember is that in the meantime you have a state to run and that is your responsibility, and you have people depending on your leadership. Mr. Jindal, I have asked twice on the news, myself and many others have sent countless emails and letters to your office and to no avail. Seems you are too busy. You simply cannot continue to ignore this disaster and turn your back on a community that is pleading for your help and leadership and you must get personally involved. We await your response, Sir.
As do I . . . |
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Thu Sep 26, 2013 4:40 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Sinkhole state-ordered fracking-type process might be causing quakes
see also
top national news/
Bayou Corne sinkhole disaster/
Louisiana sinkhole/
Environment/
Government Cover Ups
Popular citizen reporter Idahopicker, using government data, explains LA Sink Hole / Salt Dome Collapse and more (Idahopicker, YouTube)
Deborah Dupre|Louisiana Sinkhole Examiner
October 27, 2012
Scientists are investigating whether the state-ordered removal of crude and natural gas through hydraulic fracturing of the failed storage cavern in the Napoleonville Salt Dome might be connected to recent earthquakes in the Bayou Corne sinkhole area.
Up to five earthquakes have been recordedin the Bayou Corn sinkhole disaster area since Oct. 16. The quakes have occurred at the northwest corner of the Napoleonville Salt Dome in northern Assumption Parish, according to officials and earthquake researchers Friday, who are looking into whether a frack-type process is causing increased seismic activity over the past week
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“It’s as big as we’ve had recently,” seismologist Dr. Stephen Horton said about Tuesday’s quake.
Horton is a researcher with the University of Memphis Center for Earthquake Research and Information that is contracted by USGS to research the New Madrid Fault and the Bayou Corns disaster.
(See: Sinkhole quake jolts further than Bayou Corne)
Cautioning that there is no link so far, John Boudreaux, director of the Assumption Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness director John Boudreaux said Friday that the team of scientists working with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) on theBayou Corne sinkhole disaster is investigating the possible link between Texas Brine’s removing crude and natural gas from its failed cavern and the recent earthquakes.
The state Office of Conservation ordered Texas Brine to pump brine into the cavern to push out the crude, similar but not the same as fracking.
Under orders, last week, Texas Brine began extracting the natural gas and oil out of its cavern that has seeped into it from below it.
Dr. Gary Hecox explained Tuesday evening to about 100 residents who gathered for a briefing in Pierre Part that a frack-out had occurred.
At the meeting, Hecox also explained a fracking event had occurred at the dome.
The outer edge of the Napoleonville Dome, not just the breached cavern in it, has collapsed due to what he called a “frack-out,” Hecox said. He explained it was "just like fracking."
See: Sinkhole salt dome outer edge collapsed, fracked
Earth flowed into Texas Brine’s formerly plugged and abandoned cavern, squeezing brine inside the cavern enough to raise its pressure, so a “frack out,” a blow-out of the cavern extended to the surface, Hecox explained.
A “frack-out” occurs when hydraulic pressure increases enough to crack the underground formations that then become channels to release the pressure, Hecox has explained.
The frack-out brought up brine, oil and natural gas from natural formations along Napoleonville Salt Dome’s edge, into the overlying water aquifer, and to the surface, according to Hecox.
Hecox also said that compacted earth movement into the cavern created instability that led to the sinkhole. That was before Texas Brine was ordered to "frack."
The 1-mile by 3-mile dome houses over 50 caverns and wells. Texas Brine leases its salt dome site from Occidental Chemical Corp.
The disaster has resulted in government declared state of emergency and a mandatory evacuation that continues to be extended month after month.
The sinkhole Scientific Workgroup has eight theories regarding what has caused the disaster, according to its official update Friday:
"1. Salt Dome moving – natural migration of gas
2. Failed cement casing in OXY #3 well
3. Cavity Failure
4. Salt / Caprock falling from top of the cavern (Natural or Man-made (including penetration into sediments by cavern))
5. Gas storage cavern connections, communications by fractures
6. Low permeability seepage of gas into OXY #3 (source unknown)
7. Regional Tectonic activity (movement on growth faults)
8. A combination of above events"
Sinkhole Censorship
A citizen reporter under the name Idahopicker is gaining Internet popularity with his video presentations in which he contends officials are not being transparent about the sinkhole disaster and operations there.
“There are some specific reasons that they’re not telling you why they are watching these locations,” he says, pointing to locations of the USGS six monitors on the map.
Since uploading his latest video, Detailed: LA Sink Hole / Salt Dome [Collapsing] Explained, Idahopicker has had 1,452 views of it. This is one of at least eleven videos he has posted on YouTube since the sinkhole disaster began on Aug. 3.
The latest video documents government charts, maps and graphs, including seismic helicorder graphs. Idahopicker says the quakes are registering 3-4 on the Richter scale and highlights loss of integrity west of the sinkhole.
(Watch on this page “DETAILED: LA Sink Hole / Salt Dome Calapsing Explained” YouTube by Idahopicker.)
The Advocate reports “fears that additional subsidence events or sinkholes could occur away from the existing sinkhole between Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou and south of La. 70 South,” as this reported indicated earlier this week.
Tuesday evening, Hecox told some 100 residents in Pierre Part that weakening areas of earth around the sinkhole’s rim are moving west. He said that this conforms with the theories that the sinkhole could grow much larger and other sinkholes could form.
(See: Homeland Security worries La. sinkhole irreparably damaged, more sinkholes)
Hecox said it is more likely that the existing sinkhole would increase in size, rather than other sinkholes developing there
.
Idahopicker highlights government text indicating another “Leaking water well site” near the LaBarre et.al. well in the Napoleonville Salt Dome, west of the sinkhole, where one of six USGS monitors has been strategically placed.
Water is running down into the salt there, according to government data, as Idahopicker highlights. It is near there that the helicorder La 09 has frequently shown seismic activity, including this past week when the jolts were recorded and felt by locals.
“These are the worst charts I’ve seen,” Idahopicker says, showing a Sept. 24 USGS helicorder graph.
Hecox says scientists could not know what was is actually happening in the collapsed dome zone until seismic surveying work is complete. Additional early-warning seismic devices have been ordered.
Horton, the seismologist, said the present quakes are no reason for concern and do not appear to indicate that they are leading to any major geological developments, such as the formation of another sinkhole.
“It doesn’t mean it’s leading to something big or a bigger earthquake. It may be part of a cycle, as these things progress,” he told the Advocate, referring to a cycle of quakes that had occurred from June until the sinkhole developed, but then suddenly halted.
Concerned citizens expressing outrage that national news media is not covering the sinkhole disaster better are turning to citizen reporters, such as on Examiner.com and on YouTube channels.
Adding to citizenry speculation about a media blackout, Idahopicker citizen reporter has documented that YouTube has deleted some of his videos. One of those deleted had 1170 views.
“It had 1170 views and then they chopped it,” Idahopicker says. “YouTube kicked it.
Documenting the YouTube message for viewers to see, he says, “There’s absolutely nothing in here that is inappropriate. It says, ‘Content is inappropriate.’”
“Now they’ve started on my channel. They’ve been doing this on other channels and now they’ve started on mine,” he says.
The deleted video was titled, “25 SEPT. Louisiana sinkhole (2) 3’ gas pipes CAVED / SALT DOME is caving in.”
"Content is inappropriate" because you are actually posting pertinent & informative details,” a commenter says.
“Yes sir, I have 2 missing in my ‘LA brine pool’ playlist too,” k9griffin9’s channel owner says in a comment.
In a related oil and gas cover up news story this week about the "White House hiding bags of dead Gulf of Mexico sea animals in garbage bags," New Orleans-based environmental attorney Stuart Smith highlights in his popular blog how officials cover up and cannot be trusted.
“Yet again, there’s proof that BP — and perhaps more importantly, the federal government — went to great lengths to keep the American people from seeing, let alone knowing about, the worst wildlife devastation from the Deepwater Horizon spill,” Smith stated Friday.
Like citizens who distrust the government and have called for independent monitoring and investigating the sinkhole, Smith says there is ample evidence the same is needed in the BP wrecked Macondo well investigation.
“There needs to be ongoing, aggressive and independent monitoring of what’s really happening at the Deepwater Horizon site," Smith says.
"It would need to be a body with the unsullied reputation of the National Academy of Sciences. Because God knows we can’t trust the usual suspects.”
________________________________
Sources: The Advocate, Assumption Parish, Idahopicker YouTube Channel, Stuart Smith,Examiner |
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Thu Sep 26, 2013 4:53 pm |
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