Giant sinkhole in Assumption Parish, Louisiana prompts state of emergency declaration

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Latest flyover shows new area over pipeline breaking up into giant sinkhole (PHOTO & VIDEO)

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well looks like there going to bring in more eq monitors.

State blames one company for gassy sinkhole, orders more seismic monitors

Louisiana Office of Conservation officials say they are holding Texas Brine accountable for a 4.2-acre sinkhole, methane trapped in an underground aquifer, oil seeping into the area and other events in northern Assumption Parish and ordered the company to increase seismic monitoring to cover a wider area, according to officials late Thursday night. Texas Brine contends that seismic activity damaged its storage cavern.

A little more info on what all this salt dome consists off.

The 1-mile by 3-mile oil and gas industry Napoleonville Salt Dome has 53 storage caverns, 23 storage wells and 36 brine wells that it rents to seven different companies, Dow Chemical using more than any of the other companies, according to DNR.

From someone near there stating they felt a quake?

“I immediately thought it was the washing machine starting a new cycle, vibrating hard, but quickly realized that machine’s broken and I haven’t used it in months.” She asked, "Do you know if there was extra seismic activity around 2:30?" At that time, the USGS seismic monitor #09, the closest monitor between the Heilig’s house and the sinkhole, registered a sharp increase in activity, Heilig felt the jolt, according to the USGS Bayou Corne sinkhole helicorder graphs. Monitor #03 also registered extra activity.

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Third Amendment to the state of Emergency.

P.2, part 8 - The aquifer is contaminated by natural gas and is threatened by Crude

P.4, part 4 - They Fear the cavern will completely collapse.

P.4, parts 7 & 8 – They ORDER Texas Brine to produce a plan for water testing at the cavern and give it to DNR by OCT. 19.
They ORDER Texas Brine to get a groundwater vent well going where 10 feet of gas collected by OCT. 25.

State Of Emergency updated

Another File Methane in Louisiana Coal Beds

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Flyover: Crude oil now covers much of giant sinkhole — Flowing into surrounding area (ENHANCED PHOTO)

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The burning question remains, one that more people are asking this week is, “Whose fingerprint is on that crude oil at the sinkhole only just over 100 miles northwest from the leaking Macondo well that is also leaking methane?" One of the five other companies stores hydrocarbons, Dow Hydrocarbons and Resources LLC, according to DNR’s Napoleonviile Salt Dome Storage Cavern and Well chart. According to DNR, Dow stores refined hydrocarbons in its 31 wells and caverns in the salt dome. Those hydrocarbons include butane (in three of its facilities), ethane/propane, propene (that is highly flammable) and liquid propane. The other four companies operating in the salt dome are Pontchartrain Natural Gas Sys. (storing natural gas), K/D/S-Promix Storage (storing butane and LPG), LLC., Occidental Chemical Corporation/Occidental Brine (not actively brining as of Sept. 2012), and Texas Brine, the company some are calling the present "industry fall guy." None of those are storing in the wells/caverns diesel or crude, as now identified in the sinkhole, if the DNR listing is correct. Since radioactive waste is not listed in DNR’s pdf. chart listing well/cavern company owners and contents, and DNR had authorized Texas Brine to store radioactive waste in its cavern, that list is incomplete, possibly with falsified entries.

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reply to post by lurksoften


Giant Louisiana sinkhole grows to 4 acres

Texas Brine, the company that owns a failed salt cavern blamed for the sinkhole says it will comply with new orders.

Texas Brine continues clean up Monday, but is limited to skimming as boats will not be allowed in the sinkhole due to the activity of removing hydrocarbons from the cavern. This is for the safety of workers as the removal of the hydrocarbons may cause pressure changes that could affect the sinkhole.

If Texas Brine is so certain it wasn't their well that caused the sinkhole, but that area seismicity caused the well to collapse, why aren't they still fighting?

Seems to me that they know their well is the culprit and they are trying to stay ahead of any worse publicity.

A sharp tremor Wednesday night of last week, kind of worrisome

Description: A sharp tremor was recorded by USGS monitors just after 9 p.m. Wednesday at the site of the giant Louisiana sinkhole in Assumption Parish. The giant sinkhole appeared in August near the Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou areas. The Assumption Parish Police Jury says the tremor was large enough that the body wave phases could easily be identified. A body wave travels through the interior of the earth. The preliminary location of the tremor was just SE of Oxy #3 cavern at a depth of 500m. There is no additional information specific to this seismic activity at this time. The sinkhole is now about four acres in size. Residents were forced from their homes on August third, two months after the bayous started bubbling. They are still evacuated from their homes.

hisz.rsoe.hu...

Well looks like we are in wait and see mode as not much news after the tremors earlier in the weekend. Hopefully they can figure out what to do and get this problem solved.

Latest flyover



Texas Brine, LLC
UPDATE
October 28, 2012
1. The Observation Well is now shut in and will remain so until early next
week.
2. No removal of hydrocarbons from the sinkhole surface took place today.
The characteristics of the sinkhole remain unchanged.
3. The shallow aquifer relief well is closed. Work on getting the well to
produce gas will continue next week.

Source

• Shaw E&I completed collection of water samples from the shallow water
Geoprobes (analytical results expected by 15 November).

– As of 26 October, Texas Brine has removed 99 roll off boxes hydrocarbon
contaminated debris.
– As of 26 October, Texas Brine has removed approximately 825 Barrels of
hydrocarbons from the surface of the sinkhole.

– Following recent reports of seismic activity on the western side of the Napoleonville Salt Dome, the Office of Conservation asked Dr. Gary Hecox with Shaw Environmental and Infrastructure to evaluate the readings from the USGS monitoring equipment. Below is Dr. Hecox’s analysis:
• On Tuesday October 23, 2012 at 9:06 PM a short duration, pronounced seismic event was recorded at the site. The Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI) was able to determine that this event occurred at a depth of approximately 500 meters (1,600 feet). Shaw has reviewed the data from the cavern pressure monitoring system and sinkhole bubble activity. The seismic event did not have any discernible effect on cavern pressure or sinkhole bubble activity. No new bubble sites have been observed since this event occurred and activity at existing bubble sites has not visibly changed.

Next Operational Period (29 - 31 Oct 2012)
Incident Action Plan

– Shaw E&I to collect pressure readings from the shallow water Geoprobes

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Just hope these people can get back to there houses sooner than later.

UPDATE

BAYOU CORNE — A growing, 5.5-acre sinkhole in northern Assumption Parish swamps gobbled up an another strip of land Tuesday, parish officials said.

The 80-by-20-foot section on the eastern side of the sinkhole fell in, or sloughed off, about 4:45 p.m., parish officials said.

John Boudreaux, director of the parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said trees fell in with the collapse, but no one was injured.

He said the collapsed area extended from a mat road that Texas Brine Co. of Houston has installed to clean trees, other vegetative matter and oil out the sinkhole to a point 80 feet north or the road.

The sinkhole continues to grow and scientists continue to be perplexed...

These collapses are expected, scientists and Texas Brine officials have said, as the banks along the inside of the 449-foot deep hole find a stable slope.

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Reading a bit more about this event, it would seem that there is a potentially greater problem lurking:

"Yeah, the outer edge of the salt dome, best we can tell, is gone," Hecox told a few hundred residents Tuesday evening in Pierre Part at St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church hall.

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Take a look at this image:



The sinkhole is in the left portion (the rectangle that is colored differently) and the area outlined in red is the salt dome. If the salt dome continues to collapse, the area engulfed by the sinkhole will almost certainly grow to enormous proportions.

First, I just wanted to thank all of the ATS members who have been faithfully posting updates. This is an important event, for the people affected and for the environment; I am glad it is not being forgotten.

I was wondering if any of the locals were feeling tremors this morning? Here is a screen shot from temporary station LA08 (I believe it is the one near the defunct water well?):


source--CERI

It's small, but shows on all of the temporary seismometers in the area. It has a particularly classic earthquake signature on the Catfish Stew Rd station (LA02 at 11:00:30 local time, 16:00:30UTC):

Would like to point out in this update that they state the cavern floor has risen...
10 feet since Oct 19th
52 feet since Sept 24th

Texas Brine, LLC UPDATE October 29, 2012
1. The Observation Well remained shut in today. During hydrocarbon removal on Friday and Saturday, the casing pressure was reduced thus indicating brine was filling the casing. However, after this work, hydrocarbons continued to enter the casing from the cavern causing the casing surface pressure to return to 940-970 psig on Sunday. Hydrocarbon removal is planned to resume Tuesday and continue through the week, with brine being pumped in to replace the hydrocarbon to maintain steady cavern pressures.
2. The testing of the Observation Well last Friday indicated the cavern floor had risen an additional 10 feet from the previous measurement on October 19. The cavern floor has come up approximately 52 feet since it was first measured on September 24. Additional measurements are planned for later this week.
3. The removal of liquid hydrocarbons from the sinkhole surface resumed today. The size and characteristics of the sinkhole remain unchanged. Gas continues to bubble up in the center of the sinkhole.
4. Since perforating the casing last week, the shallow aquifer relief well has still not indicated any gas pressure. Various options to assist gas to start flowing through the perforations are being evaluated. Once these plans are finalized, work is expected to resume later this week in order to begin venting/flaring gas from the aquifer.

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Texas Brine, LLC UPDATE October 30, 2012

1. The Observation Well remained shut in today. Casing pressure at the wellhead was measured at 966 psi this morning, which is consistent with the range of all previous readings. Sonar imaging is planned for later this week to determine if there have been any changes to the interior of brine cavern #3.
2. No changes in the size and characteristics of the sinkhole have been observed. Removal of liquid hydrocarbon from the sinkhole surface utilizing skimming equipment continues. Oil containment booms across the sinkhole are being used to partition off the bubbling area in the center in case liquid hydrocarbons are surfacing with the gas.
3. The shallow aquifer relief well remains shut in. There is no discernible natural gas pressure at the well head. Options are still being explored as to how to best clear the perforations in the relief well casing to facilitate the flow of natural gas to the surface for venting and/or flaring.

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Not sure why they cannot state the sinkhole has grown in size when its already been reported to have done so...
two posters above provide one link. Here is another Source and another Source

reply to post by lurksoften

Would like to point out in this update that they state the cavern floor has risen...
10 feet since Oct 19th
52 feet since Sept 24th So having said that. What is this? Is this the edges of the cavern that are falling to the floor, cause if so I would think that the sink hole would be much larger. That is 42 feet of "stuff" that has accumulated down there. I haven't been paying 100% attention to the sinkhole lately but I wonder if they ever published the test results of what was down there when they first discovered that the cavern was shallower then it should be.

reply to post by AuntB


Now that is a good question cuase it could be comming from the failed wall filling up the cavern. Since there is a breach in the wall all the soil, trees, rock and earth that came down when the sinkhole was formed went into the cavern. I believe you are right as the sinkhole is bigger than they state. Even the pictures are decieving as in the trees and shrubs make it look smaller. Just my opinion but i believe it to be much larger than what shows in the pictures. I do believe it has risen due to all the debris from the the fallen wall and the earth that came rushing in from the outside and continues to fill in the space. As in the more the floor rises the bigger this sinkhole will get also. Last measurement they said in the meeting it could get as big as 1500 feet wide and its only stated officially as 500 feet wide. Sorry for any spelling errors in advance lol

i mean come on look at the differences..
9/27/2012


10/29/2012

reply to post by lurksoften
This is an older article but it shows the scientists are also scratching their heads.

Parish officials say the volume of the brine-filled sinkhole is much smaller than the amount of displaced earth now in the cavern, prompting worries about other unknown subterranean voids or gaps left in the area by the shifted sediments that could lead to further disturbance at the surface.

Officials: Math doesn’t work; end to evacuation is unclear There was a caving in yesterday (I think) and I expect to see more land slowly sinking into this hole.

reply to post by jadedANDcynical


Did anyone else notice the odd shape of the terrain in this photo by LA08? Local resident idahopicker mentioned that another area was forming a sinkhole close-by. Is this it, or have I gotten my seismometers mixed up?

Texas Brine, LLC UPDATE November 2, 2012
1. The sonar data collection was completed yesterday evening. That data must now be converted to an imaging format that depicts the interior of brine cavern #3, a process that takes several days to finalize. Total depth measurement taken on Thursday indicated that the bottom of cavern #3 moved up approximately 13 feet since the last measurement on October 19. At 9:30 a.m. today, the slow removal of liquid hydrocarbon remaining in the cavern was resumed. Brine is pumped into the cavern at a rate that displaces equal quantities of liquid hydrocarbon through the casing to the surface where it is removed from the site.

2. The removal of both debris and liquid hydrocarbon from the sinkhole surface continued today. Gas bubbling activity in the center of the sinkhole has reduced significantly following the sloughing event late Tuesday. Results from the sinkhole depth survey taken on October 30 indicate the maximum sinkhole depth is now at 170 feet versus 445 feet on October 4. A repeat sinkhole depth survey was conducted yesterday with results expected early next week. No other change in the sinkhole size was reported.

3. A portion of the water that had accumulated in the casing of the shallow aquifer relief well was removed late Thursday and the well began to vent some natural gas from the aquifer to the wellhead. The vent flow was stopped overnight and reached a modest 30 psi at the wellhead. This morning piping was connected to the wellhead and the natural gas is being flared through a temporary system. Plans are to sample the gas this afternoon and flare natural gas from the relief well over the weekend during daytime hours. Next week, additional water will be removed from the casing to allow greater natural gas flow. In addition, a more permanent flaring system will be installed to allow more continuous venting.

Source

• Conducted sonar survey and ran a PDK log on 1 November 2012

• Texas Brine contractor installed 14-inch observation/vent well – Perforated casing, 30 psi recorded as of 1 November 2012

• Flaring has commenced at the vent well located on Texas Brine’s property.

– SEET has received and is analyzing community ambient air sampled 9/28/2012-10/30/2012 (MultiRAE). SEET will issue a letter to the parish in reference to these findings once the review of the data has been completed.
– SEET has received and is analyzing sample results for air at bubble sites collected 9/28/2012-10/30/2012 (MultiRAE). SEET will issue a letter to the parish in reference to these findings once the review of the data has been completed.

Next Operational Period (2 - 5 Nov 2012) Incident Action Plan

– Efforts are underway to finalize contracts to remove material from inside the casing at the ORW-4 location in an attempt to vent the well.

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There is a new photo taken in this article, I never saw that before but I am maybe not so updated, it sure seems to grow...

Update Louisiana sinkhole 2nd November

Texas Brine, LLC UPDATE November 5, 2012 1. The Observation Well was opened this morning at 7:30 a.m. to resume the process of pumping brine into cavern #3 at a controlled rate that displaced liquid hydrocarbon in the cavern up to the surface. The removal of the liquid hydrocarbon continued until late morning. The well was then shut in to stabilize pressure in the casing. The well will remain closed until Wednesday when the process will be repeated.

2. The removal of liquid hydrocarbon and debris remaining on the sinkhole surface was resumed today. There were no observable changes in the shape or size of the sinkhole.

3. The shallow aquifer relief well was shut in this morning while a new flaring system was connected. This new flaring system was restarted this morning. Plans are being developed to continuously operate the flaring system.

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• Texas Brine conducted the following operations on their investigatory well: • Collected a total of 4274 bbls(cumulative total as of 5 November 2012) of hydrocarbons from the Oxy 3A Cavern. • Flared a total of 459 mcf of metered gas(cumulative total as of 5 November 2012)

• Air Monitoring Sample Data – SEET has received and is analyzing community ambient air sampled 9/28/2012-11/1/2012 (MultiRAE). SEET will issue a letter to the parish in reference to these findings once the review of the data has been completed. – SEET has received and is analyzing sample results for air at bubble sites collected 9/28/2012-11/1/2012 (MultiRAE). SEET will issue a letter to the parish in reference to these findings once the review of the data has been completed.

Next Operational Period (5-8 Nov 2012) Incident Action Plan

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La. sinkhole methane explosion possible says sheriff, refuting naysayers

The Assumption Parish sheriff stated that methane ignition and explosion are possible in the Bayou Corne sinkhole area, refuting naysayers about such an explosion and spotlighting grave human rights issues related to the "history-making event" and "environmental nightmare,’ according to a KLFY Channel 10 three-part special televised report aired Friday. The possibility exists that Louisiana's sinkhole-related methane, percolating in over a dozen sites near and miles away from the sinkhole area, could ignite and cause an explosion, according to Assumption Parish Sherriff Michael J. Waguespack, interviewed about the unprecedented Bayou Corne event unfolding in South Louisiana's swampland. Waguespack, lover of south Louisiana people and culture, made the statement to KLFY reporter Chuck Huebner about the massive amount of methane known to be trapped below the Assumption Parish sinkhole area surface, continually leaking and bubbling to the surface.

In another massive collapse Tuesday after strong quakes six days earlier, the sinkhole grew to the size of seven football fields.

Approximately three million cubic feet of material has gone into this cavern, according to Waguespack. He explained that the sinkhole itself only accounts for approximately 550,000 cubic feet of that material. "So there is approximately 2. 7 million cubic feet of material that’s entered the cavern that’s unaccounted for,” said Waguespack. If and when the voids settle, the volume of the sinkhole could be expected to be six times its current size.

Butane stored in one of the caverns has added concern about an explosion that independent scientists have previously explained is a grave possibility.

Soure

Consolidating sinkhole threads here:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by CajunBoy
Consolidating sinkhole threads here:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Really? That took me to my ATS.

Why would it need to be consolidated. anyway? Isn't this one enough?

reply to post by Sissel


half the things in this thread has been dis-proven in the other. Fixed btw

Originally posted by CajunBoy
reply to post by Sissel

 

half the things in this thread has been dis-proven in the other. Fixed btw

edit on 7-11-2012 by CajunBoy because: (no reason given)

Uhhhhhnnnn, no, it isn't fixed. This thread is pretty long, so I am sure most people only follow the most recent posts, anyway.