Update: La. Sinkhole Explosion Risk: Pipe Failure Spewing Methane, Fear For Lives

Louisiana state and parish agencies are researching whether a newly discovered gas bubble site in Grand Bayou northeast of the Bayou Corne-area sinkhole are tied to the monster swampland hole and report that a one- to two-feet layer of methane is under the new bubble site that might have been triggered by a new state-approved underground pipeline being bored under the bayou.

The American revolutionaries were hopelessly outmatched, but prevailed over one of the world’s mightiest armies because they were rallied to the common cause of freedom expressed in the Declaration of Independence. Every generation since then has an obligation to continue that fight, no matter how impossible the odds seem. – Ltd. Gen. Russell Honoré, Feb. 2014

The state Office of Conservation and contractor CB&I have taken samples of the gas bubbles to determine their source. Officials acknowledge the bubbles likely are connected to the sinkhole where scientist say an explosion is possible.

The new bubble site in Grand Bayou is approximately one-third of a mile north of La. 70 and La. 69, parish officials said, rather than west and south of the sinkhole where 100 other methane bubble sites are.

Testing below Grand Bayou in the past has shown a 1- to 2-foot-thick gas layer exists in shallow sands under the new bubble site, said Patrick Courreges, spokesman for the state Department of Natural Resources.

Scientists believe Texas Brine LLC’s cavern in an underground salt dome cavern collapsed in May 2012, it shattered surrounding strata, creating the sinkhole and unleashing natural deposits of oil and gas that percolated up. 

Texas Brine Co. officials say oil leaking in the sinkhole stopped last year, but methane gas bubbles have proliferated in bayous, even on dry land where water is standing. Methane has even bubbled in residents’ yards at home.

There were 100 methane escape sites located before this latest discovery, according to officials.

The gas presents an explosion risk in the area for residents and the bayou environment and culture, according to scientists, and the area remains under evacuation order, 18 months after the sinkhole appeared.

Texas Brine, which managed and developed the failed cavern, has burned off 25 million cubic feet of gas, parish officials said, and may have another 10 million cubic feet that is recoverable.

Many residents, in desperation, took buyouts from Texas Brine. Others filed suit.

Recent pipeline work under Grand Bayou could have provided a path for the gas to escape, according to John Boudreaux, director of the Assumption Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Acadian Gas Pipeline System was boring under the bayou to reroute a pipeline damaged by the sinkhole.

Ltd. Gen. Honoré addressed the Louisiana Landmarks Society at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in the center of Uptown New Orleans Monday.

Speaking about Louisiana’s oil and gas debacle, Gen. Honoré, leading the Green Army, said told the society that the salt-dome collapse in Assumption Parish was due to the company that owned the failed cavern has been legally allowed to regulate itself — in other words, they can claim to have done nothing illegal because there is so little the law requires of them.

Not only that, but the company is four years behind on its taxes — and the state couldn’t figure out how much it owed, because it had not been monitoring the company’s activity, Honore said.

The American revolutionaries were hopelessly outmatched, but prevailed over one of the world’s mightiest armies because they were rallied to the common cause of freedom expressed in the Declaration of Independence, Honore told the crowd. Every generation since then has an obligation to continue that fight, no matter how impossible the odds seem, he said.

“They were fighting for something greater than them, that generations following would reap the benefits of that fight,” Honore said. 

Part of that responsibility, he said, is that we pass to our children a healthy environment, but on that account, Louisiana lawmakers have failed miserably for decades.