La. Sinkhole Emergency: Tremors Force Work Halt

Bayou Corne, Louisiana “sinkhole” expansion to 8.6 acres by Feb 20, 2013. (Photo Credit: Assumption Parish)

Emergency response operations at Louisiana’s historic giant collpasing salt dome sinkhole in Assumption Parish were halted Tuesday after underground tremors increased, linked with “burps” and edge collapses, state regulators and parish officials said.

The emergency operations directly on the sinkhole have been suspended until subsurface activity slows again, Department of Natural Resources reported just after noon Tuesday. 

More mini-quakes, methane leaks, land loss, growth

John Boudreaux, director of Assumption Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said about five to six trees on the northeast side of the sinkhole fell into it Tuesday morning.

Along with the tremors on Tuesday, small bubbling spots have re-emerged in the salt dome “sinkhole” that prompted a State of Emergency declaration almost seven months ago. There are are over 40 sites in the area, in local bayous and swamps, where dangerous methane percolates and threatens to ignite and explode.

“They do have a section in the center of the sinkhole that has that bubbling,” Boudreaux told the Advocate.

CB&I and Itasca Consulting Group Inc. officials working contracted by Louisiana Office of Conservation on the sinkhole emergency, said the seismic indications do not represent an “additional significant threat” to the sinkhole area, according to an Office of Conservation statement.

The officials have already said the emergency situation is dangerous and could become worse if not somehow contained.

State officials and contractors believe that a failed Texas Brine Co. LLC cavern, known as Oxy Geismar No. 3, caused the sinkhole, tremors, methane gas leaks, and gas trapped underground in communities in the “sinkhole” area.

(See: La. Sinkhole Latest Flyover Video)

Since early August, this event prompted officially declared state of emergency and a mandatory evacuation for some 350 Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou residences.

Locals have repeatedly asked for national media attention to pressure Governor Jindal to respond more aggressively to the emergency. To date, Jindal has not even visited the disaster site, as typically occurs in major disasters.

(See: La. Sinkhole Radioactive Material Tapped, Gov. Jindal Hiding Catastrophe (Video) and 

La. Sinkhole: Evacuees Angry, Gov. Jindal Still MIA)

In presentations at local briefings and at the hearing last week in Baton Rouge, scientists have said the mini-quakes and sinkhole burbs link to movement of fluids or gas through a zone of fractured rock next to the Napoleonville Salt Dome, while sharp tremors are produced by movement of sedimentary rock migrating into the failed cavern.

The contracted oil and gas industry service scientists say that one of Texas Brine’s two caverns had a sidewall collapse more than 5,000 feet underground, that allowed millions of cubic yards of rock to flow into the brine-filled cavity. That earth shift led to the sinkhole forming and being discovered on Aug. 3 in northern Assumption Parish just off of Hwy. 70 between Grand Bayou and Bayou Corne.

There has been no official public recognition regarding this unprecendented emergency that explosive methane is possibly migrating through fault lines from the Gulf, as an in-depth report on Before It’s News detailed this week.

Explosive methane gas migrating along fault lines from the Gulf to salt domes at Lake Peigneur and Bayou Corne area has been a known to be an oil and gas industry risk since 2005, according to a civil engineering expert who spoke with human rights reporter Deborah Dupré Monday.

On Jan. 31, as merrymakers’ were occupied with festivities, NBC reported that oceanographer and oil spill expert Ian McDonald reported that it is possible that the 2010 BP-wrecked Macondo well “somehow opened up a new fault on the seafloor and that this “would nevertheless indicate potential for an indefinite release of oil.”

See: Explosive Methane Fault Migration: Gulf to La. Salt Domes? 

Fault movement has been an underrated natural hazard in South Louisiana, according to civil engineer Dr. Sherwood Gagliano.

Differential movement between low-density salt and adjacent sedimentary deposits might have a wedging effect on faults, initiating brine water and gas moving up fault zones.

Officials have reently admitted about the methane that there is substantially more than 50,000,000 cubic feet of it below surface near giant sinkhole; it covers over 2 square miles; and is “enough to do “very serious damage” and very rapidly, “if uncontrolled.”

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 censored stories about the BP-wrecked Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico that continues causing hidden catastrophic human and environmental devastation. 

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