Louisiana Sinkhole Keeps on growing

While President Obama waffles on fracking and the Keystone XL pipeline, the Louisiana Sinkhole keeps on growing. It's now now 25 acres in size and is devouring trees by the dozen. Here's a video from August 21




The next morning it had another tree for breakfast.



This is what the sinkhole looks like now - video from a flyover later on the 22nd.


How big do these things have to get before someone decides enough is enough?

updated Friday morning:
So, what do a salt cavern and fracking have to do with each other? This is the question a curious reader asked earlier this morning. Salt caverns, it turns out, make great places to store gas (or propane). Right now, on Seneca Lake just north of Watkins Glen, NY the Inergy company is converting the salt caverns to a gas storage facility. The problem: that the NY Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) review leaves many questions unanswered - and DEC hasn't responded to the queries by residents in Watkins Glen and around the lake.

What people know: the storage facility is being built to hold gas from all the new (fracked) wells being built in PA and OH. What they don't know: that the caverns won't collapse any further than they already have. They don't want a sinkhole like that in Assumption Parish.

And the Keystone connection? So many... let's just start with lack of good regulatory oversight (spills, pipeline breaks).

LA Sinkhole Getting Bigger and Smellier

The sinkhole in Assumption Parish, LA just keeps growing. Now it’s about the size of six football fields- at least that’s the best estimate from the local police who took aerial photos at the beginning of the month.

The sinkhole formed when a salt dome (owned by Texas Brine) collapsed this summer. Recent earthquakes have contributed to further collapse. People living above the salt dome say they feel like they are “walking on jello”, and the USGS reported an average of a tremor a day earlier this month.

Now there are new concerns about rising concentrations of poisonous gas. Workers found high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide at a Texas Brine well near the sinkhole – they’re flaring these wells in an attempt to get rid of the gases in the salt dome. No high levels of the gas has been found in the community, yet, but state officials and Texas Brine representatives are monitoring the gas.

Unlike methane, hydrogen sulfide is heavier than air, and collects near ground level. According to the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry (ATSDR), even brief exposures to high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide (greater than 500 parts per million) can cause loss of consciousness and possibly death. In many individuals, there may be permanent or long-term effects such as headaches, poor attention span, poor memory, and poor motor function.

Some residents living near the evacuation zone have reported foul odors and symptoms that reflect gas poisoning. But they have not received help with evacuation.

Louisiana Sinkhole Shakes, Grows, Flares

Jeff Dubinsky

There's lots of activity down in Assumption Parish, Louisiana - but it's mostly geological. The sinkhole has grown about four acres since it started at the beginning of August. That's on top of the thousands of earthquakes - oops, "tremors" - recorded by the USGS. According to the article:

Last week, Dr. Raoult Ratard, State Epidemiologist with Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Office (DHH) of Public Health, sent an environmental data report of the Bayou Corne oil and gas sinkhole event to Assumption Parish President Martin S. Triche, stating that methane, detected in the area industrial water wells, presents a potential health risk, a "Type 2 of fire/explosion.”

Meanwhile, about 150 families remain evacuated from their homes - they were told to leave August 4. Now, officials are warning people about the presence of methane, and some are wondering just how safe it is to stay in their homes.

Jeff Dubinsky flew over the sinkhole yesterday and took a series of photos. He also noted the intense petroleum fumes and odors:

... the heaviest and strongest I have ever experienced in all my time in Louisiana. Perhaps even worse still was that the odor was hovering directly over the community... 

Louisiana Sinkhole keeps growing

The sinkhole above a salt dome used to store brine keeps on growing. It gobbled up another 20 or so feet yesterday. Here's what AP had to say about it yesterday:

When the sinkhole expanded Sunday, the owners of three natural gas pipelines at the edge of the liquefied area were asked to flare off and depressurize their pipelines as a precaution. Louisiana Highway 70 was temporarily closed and Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency in Assumption Parish. At least 150 homes and several businesses were ordered to evacuate.

Read more - and see a video at the Clarion Ledger.

Update on Louisiana Sinkhole

According to a report in today's Advocate, Louisiana Department of Natural Resources and Texas Brine Co. officials knew about problems since January 2011, and possibly earlier, that one of the company’s salt dome caverns may have developed problems that could be causing the sinkhole in Assumption Parish. They also admitted that there is an accumulation of radioactive scale from NORM (naturally occurring radioactive material) in the brine they stored.

Assumption Parish, LA Disappearing down a Giant Sinkhole

At the end of June, some folks in Assumption Parish, LA,noticed bubbles coming up in the water in the Bayou Corne area. This is an area near where a blow-out occurred during earlier gas drilling, so people thought the bubbles might be methane.

Sure enough, testing showed that the bubbles were methane – but no one could figure out where they’re coming from: the gas well? The pipeline? Nearby salt caverns owned by a gas company?

Then yesterday a big sinkhole began to form. People complained of smelling diesel earlier, but no official action was taken. However, on Friday a the sinkhole began swallowing up several acres of trees, so Governor Bobby Jindal declared an emergency and ordered 150 homes evacuated.

The sinkhole is located about half a mile from the road but only 600 feet from the nearest pipeline. The nearest water well is 1300 feet away, the nearest home about 2500 feet. Photos here.

 

Is it related to the bubbling methane? Possibly – the sinkhole is only 1900 feet from the nearest bubbles. At the rate it’s growing, it might get there before too long; already it’s threatening storage wells of flammable hydrocarbons.

Texas Sharon is keeping an eye on things as they progress - the amazing thing is that there is little about this in the news.