La Sinkhole: Erin Brockovich to the Rescue Despite CNN

This weekend, an announcment that environmental consumer advocate Erin Brockovich will be featured at a Louisiana sinkhole meeting in Pierre Part on March 9 has given hope to hundreds of locals, despite CNN dismissing this historic sinkhole disaster in its recent report.

Things are becoming even more interesting for energy refugees struggling with the 9-acre sinkhole at Bayou Corne in Assumption Parish, so interesting, it might even involve BP and its Gulf catastrophe related to the Louisiana sinkhole. At least long awaited answers about that methane and crude oil issue finally appear to be on the horizon.

“Can’t tell you how thrilled myself, and the other residents are that she has taken an interest,” exclaimed Alicia Heilig of Pierre Part on Facebook. 

Heilig is administrator of the Bayou Corne Sinkhole Facebook Page.

This latest news is giving hope to hundreds of nationally silenced Assumption Parish residents under a mandatory evacuation order due to the so-called “sinkhole” that has now expanded to about 9 acres.

Since August, when the State of Emergency and Mandatory Evacuation were officially declared due to the historic sinkhole, locals have pleaded weekly for national attention and help.

Up against Big Energy, for the emost part, the cries from locals have been silenced, as demonstrated in the recent CNN report on sinkholes. Brockovich’s involvement is bound to change this.

According to some comments made since this Brockovich announcement, there is even hope for an answer as to whether BP is involved in causing or triggering the Bayou Corne “sinkhole,” by the company rupturing the nearby Gulf floor at the onset of its Deepwater Horizon catastrophe in the Gulf.

CNN omitting the unprecented Bayou Corne sinkhole in its recent report has been a slap in the face of those hundreds of people in Louisiana’s swampland impacted by the oil and gas inustry-related disaster there. The sinkhole is linked to a collapsing 1-mile by 3-mile Napoleonville Salt Dome storage facility used by the oil and gas industry.

Could the fact that Louisiana’s “sinkhole” is unprecedented due to it having oil and gas spewing from it have something to do with it all but being censored news for nine months?

“They use every technique anyone has ever thought of, and some no one ever had,” New York Times White House reporter Peter Baker recently reported, referring to Obama’s aids and media. “They can be very responsive and very helpful at pulling back the curtain at times while keeping you at bay at others. And they’re not at all shy about making clear when they don’t like your stories, which is quite often.”

Heilig says that they always get the reply “we are looking into it.”

“Then, they do a piece on sinkholes, and not a single mention of this one!”

Erratum: The original text of this article mistakenly stated Erin Brockovich is a lawyer.

Copyright 2013 Deborah Dupré

Please seek permission from this author before copying this article for email or website reposting. Copyright violation is not a victimless crime.

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Human Rights news reporter Deborah Dupré is author of “Vampire of Macondo, Life, crimes and curses in south Louisiana that Powerful Forces Don’t want you to know,” 450 pages packed with mainstream media’s censored stories about the BP-wrecked Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico that continues catastrophic human and environmental devastation. 

Follow Dupré on Twitter @DeborahDupre. For interviews, email [email protected].