La. 7-Mo. 'Sinkhole' Desperate Residents See Erin Brockovich Hope for Nat'l Attention, Straight Answers

With Sunday marking the 7-month anniversary of Louisiana’s collapsing salt dome “sinkhole” disaster emergency in the Bayou Corne area, residents say they hope when Erin Brockovich meets with them Saturday, it will be a game-changer for national attention and straight answers that they say officials have not provided while they worry nightly they will awaken to breathe their last breath in the “sinkhole.” 

Nation’s globally historic salt dome collapsing and energy refugees censored

“I hope she brings some national attention, someone to scrutinize what’s going on here, because we are in desperate need,” explained Bayou Corne, Assumption Parish resident Kenny Simoneaux about Brockovich’s public meeting in the nearby town Pierre Part on March 9th.

Like many residents, Simoneaux thinks officials are not being straight with residents and that the collapsing 1-mile by 3-mile Napoleonville Salt Dome area is uncontrollable, as more than one official have all but admitted.

A Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) civil engineer coordinating the science group studying the collapsing salt dome “sinkhole,” Chris Knotts said just over three weeks after the collapsed area appeared that, “If it’s a cavern fracture, failure, whatever, there’s little that you can do.”

Chief geologist on the emergency response team, Dr. Gary Hecox, then reported at a public briefing that the Texas Brine LLC cavern in the salt dome was fractured and that an edge of the collapsing salt dome was “gone.”.

In late October, Assumption Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness John Boudreaux and parish Sheriff Mike Waguespack said the “sinkhole” was causing officials to worry about  no solutions, irreparable damage and more sinkholes developing.

Boudreaux and Waguespack said their worry was the possible voids or gaps underground could lead to sinkholes appearing in other locations.

“They are dealing with something, that I don’t think mankind is going to be able to control,” Simoneaux said this weekend. “I want out. They’ve destroyed my piece of paradise and I’m ready to go.”

“He can’t,” reports Kris Cusanza for WVLA NBC 33.

Simoneaux was forced from his Bayou Corne home after the giant sinkhole was reported on August 3, after two months of methane bubbles percolated and thousands of earthquakes had occured in the area.

The salt dome involves what officials say is a historic event globally, a 1-mile by 3-mile salt dome formation with caverns primarily used by oil and gas industry storage. One of the over 50 underground caverns in that salt dome is leased by Texas Brine LLC, blamed by the state for the disaster due to its failed cavern. Texas Brine has contended its cavern failed due loss of integrity elsewhere in the dome due to seismic activity.

A mandatory evacuation and state of emergency were declared right after the “sinkhole” developed.

Seven months later, with crude oil, methane, and other dangerous chemicals spewing out of the hole and into the communities, at least 350 residents in the south Louisiana swampland, including Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou communities, still live in what some might call limbo and others might call hell.

Someone wants what’s below homes to sell at profit as residents fear for their lives

Earthquakes, that officials prefer to call “tremors,”  tore cracks into the foundation of Simoneaux’s home. He said Texas Brine officials have not payed to fix his home and the company will not buy him out.

Texas Brine says no residential damage has occurred.

“I want to be compensated for the damages that were done, because of someone wanting what’s beneath the foundation and selling it at a profit.”

Pam Poirrier, whose driveway was also damaged, said, ”Wondering when you wake up in the morning if you’re going to be in the sinkhole, or if you are going to be able to come home.”

“It’s been going on for a long time. We don’t really get any answers. It’s all scientific bull. You go to the meetings, and you feel like you’ve wasted your time. You don’t have time to waste.”

Like all the residents in the emergency zone and beyond, Ernest Boudreaux Jr. fears for his life.

“Everywhere they are driving pipe in the ground they are pulling up gas, so that aught to tell you something right there. Nothing but a gas pocket,” Boudreaux described.

Officials on the response team have been busy flaring gas, using seismograph equipment amd holding monthly resident briefings.

“That’s just a show. They are doing what they can to keep a little bit going, and I guess trying to make the people a little bit happier,” explained Boudreaux. “But, everybody knows they can’t do nothing with this.” 

Gov. Bobby Jindal and President Barack Obama MIA

Louisiana’s governor Bobby Jindal has been missing in action, never once appearing at the disaster site. Such an appearance and subsequent photos would draw national attention to the oil and gas industry made emergency situation, as would Obama’s involvement. 

In desperation, locals created a petition to the governor for Jindal to expand his mandatory evacuation ordered zone so it would include the area being impacted by methane and quakes.

The collpased area has grown from an acre in August to almost 9 acres and is expected to consume as much as the size of 30 footbal fields. The mandatory evacuation zone, however, has remained the same size – and includes only the geographical area of Bayou Corne community. Residents on the other side of the official community border are left out of aid.

When the petition to Jindal was obviously failing, in Jan., residents began a petition for Barack Obama to respond to the disaster by declaring a federal emergency. That, too, has resulted in no positive action.

The public meeting with Brockovich will be held from 4 P.M. to 6 P.M. at the American Legion Hall at 3336 Highway 70, in Pierre Part. 

Sources: WVLA NBC 33 TV, Before It’s News, Examiner.com

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. 

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, continuing to result in hidden catastrophic human and environmental devastation. 

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