Cajuns Weep: 15-Acre La. Sinkhole Quaked, Grew, Spewed More Carcinogens

Increased seismic activity over the past few days at Louisiana’s ever-growing 15-acre sinkhole has caused another burp and swallowed more of the environment after a tearful resident meeting Wednesday night.

A seismologist on the scientists’ team working on the world’s unprecedented chemical sinkhole in Assumption Parish’s troubled swamp waters has reported increased activity there, according to officials.

“Dr. Stephen Horton has reported to the Command Post of increased activity on the sinkhole, which has been confirmed that a burp has occurred in the sinkhole,” Assumption Parish Officials reported Friday.

“Hydrocarbon smell is also present due to the recent burp.”

How much extra carcinogens have been released and how much larger the monster sinkhole has grown are unknown at this time. It is known, however, that with every burp, the giant gulps more of the environment around it and it grows accordingly.

The Bayou Corne sinkhole disaster has been an ongoing nightmare for hundreds of people for fourteen months with no end in sight.  It began in May 2012 with methane bubbles percolating in the nearby bayous, Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou. Locals then noticed the micro-quakes, thousands of them recorded.

The bubbles and quakes continued in number and frequency until finally, the state could not ignore the locals who were reporting them. 

August 4th will mark one year since the area was declared a state emergency and the people placed under a mandatory evacuation order due to the possibility of explosions and other chemical-related high-risks.

Tears and outrage over environmental and human disaster

Residents wept at a meeting Wednesday night in the library of small nearby town, Pierre Part.

They wept as they recounted their ordeal to the one man in Louisiana they thought could help, Louisiana’s Retired Army Ltd. General Russel Honoré, a Hurricane Katrina hero, who was there with them.

They wept as they heard the retired general and others on a panel speak truth about the disaster.

“We have an environmental and human disaster here,” Honore told the crowd.  “You have the right to be heard.” 

Locals had invited Honore to their community in hopes that he could answer their literal cries for help.

“There were people crying as they spoke of their problems,” stated Nara Crowley, head of Save Lake Peigneur, the nearby south Louisiana lake that bubbles without explanation. Crowley added in her emailed written statement, “And I cried with them.”

At the meeting, one lady, whose husband has Parkinson’s, evacuated, as ordered in August 2012. She now needs to borrow money to get another house.  Two mortgage companies denied her and another said Texas Brine would have to sign a letter stating that they are going to continue paying her for three years.  

“One may think that getting $875 a week is enough, but people still have to pay their mortgage on the home they are not living in, plus another place to live,” Crowley explained. 

Residents spoke about their insurance companies dropping them. 

“How long will Texas Brine Co LLC (Limited Liability Company (Non-Louisiana) continue paying for destroying these people’s lives?” asked Crowley.

Texas Brine’s three insurance companies have caps.

With six agencies working on the disaster, Louisiana has billed Texas Brine Co., that it blames for the out-of-control sinkhole, $3.5 million dollars. Texas Brine, however, is fighting these fines.

Wilma Subra of the environmental company, Subra Company, attended this week’s meeting in attempt to help the people understand their exposure to the ever-spewing chemical and health effects. 

Texas Brine and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality are monitoring natural gas flowing into the aquifer and other levels of gas.

Subra said there had been no readings since last Friday, and she did not know what is going on.

There are times when the monitoring equipment had not been setup to monitor chemical odors.

Crowley said that after the meeting, on her ride back to Iberia/Vermilion Parish, home of Lake Peigneur, she thought how terrible these people have been treated.  

“Our own Governor Jindal did not even to bother to visit Bayou Corne for 7 months,” she said. “HB493 and HB494 have been passed, but it is too late to help Bayou Corne residents.

“Where is the EPA?  Are the people who work for DNR, DEQ, EPA, just following their job duties?  The laws that might protect people’s lives and property that live in these areas are written and passed by our senators and representatives.  SB200 by Senator Mills to protect the lives and property of the people that live around Lake Peigneur was defeated by 2 votes in the Senate. All SB200 had was a 5-year moratorium for expansion, until studies could be done to find the cause of the bubbling and for an Environmental Impact Statement.” 

The biggest shock of the night for the meeting attendees was learning that Louisiana’s Department of Natural Resources is continuing to issue permits for salt dome storage caverns at Bayou Corne.  

“We do not know when this sinkhole will stop, and they are issuing more permits at this location,” exclaimed Crowley.  

Meanwhile, one of the only hopes the troubled bayou people have for help is Louisiana’s beloved General Honoré.