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Citizens filed a lawsuit Monday against Louisiana’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) alleging it violated the state constitution and its own guidelines by issuing a Coastal Use Permit (CUP) to Jefferson Island Storage & Hub, LLC (JISH), to create two new natural gas storage caverns in Jefferson Island salt dome beneath Lake Peigneur that is bubbling.
Plaintiffs of the new lawsuit against Louisiana’s DNR Office of Coastal Management include Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN) and local members of Save Lake Peigneur, Inc.
The lawsuit is against the same agency charged with managing Louisiana's more recent salt dome collapse disaster involving a monster "sinkhole" and related human rights in Assumption Parish's Grand Bayou and Bayou Corne communities.
April 17, 2013 - UNITED STATES - Bulldozers and men have been at work building the next phase of a 1.5-mile-long berm and upgraded levee system aimed at containing the briney and oily contents of the Assumption Parish sinkhole.
Black geotextile fabric and white geosynthetic liner — about 7,800 linear feet of each — are being laid on top of a sand base that was finished in February, Texas Brine Co. officials said in a written response to questions. The white liner contains a special clay and is used to contain landfills and ponds.
Bulldozers are then spreading and compacting clay on top of the liner and the fabric, an estimated 7,300 cubic yards in all, company officials said.
Conservation Commissioner Jim Welsh ordered construction of the containment system last year as the primary means of keeping the oil and briney water feeding into the sinkhole from below from infiltrating surrounding cypress forests and scenic bayous.
Once completed by July 1 with limestone and drainage structures for heavy rain, the berm will contain 71 acres encompassing the growing 13-acre sinkhole, rise to 5.5 feet above ground level and have a designed lifespan of at least 20 years, Texas Brine officials said in their written statement.
GEOLOGICAL UPHEAVAL: Tracking Developments At The Giant Louisiana Sinkhole - Officials Declare That The Hole Is "Likely To Be Permanent" And Will Take Thousands Of Years To Fill In?!
Tom Killeen, state Department of Environmental Inspection Division administrator, said it is likely the briney water in the sinkhole will freshen over time from inflowing groundwater.
Monitoring around the berm containment area will continue at least until the sinkhole water becomes homogeneous with the surrounding waterways, but there is no way to know how long that will take, he said.
“I foresee a longterm monitoring plan staying in place,” Killeen said.
Texas Brine officials, who will oversee the berm, said in a statement that filling the sinkhole would not be viable currently due to the sheer volume of the hole, the massive truck traffic required to fill it and the large hole that would be left where fill would be removed.
Conservation officials said they have discussed filling the hole, which has a volume of 1.2 million cubic yards, but are waiting on new seismic data to see what impact the dirt’s added weight would have on the rumbling fractured rock zone lying underneath the sinkhole.
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Conservation officials said that over the very long term — they were asked about a span over hundreds to thousands of years — the sinkhole is likely to fill in or become indistinguishable from the land around it, given Louisiana’s soft soils and frequent floods.
The saline percentage is high. To high for fish to live. To me that says this hole will not be a fisherman's paradise for years.
While virtually fresh at the surface, the sinkhole’s deepest waters have a projected salinity that would be about 25 percent salt by volume. The ocean has a salinity of 3.5 percent. Salinity in some parts of the Great Salt Lake in Utah reaches 28 percent, according to the U.S. Geological Survey Utah Water Science Center.
I saw that. Here is the up date:
Originally posted by CajunBoy
Slough in last night, an coincidently the geoPhones were off.
Morning Sickness at Lake FUBAR Bayou Bugle has dedicated itself to bringing all the latest news on the sinkhole. Good read with a sense of humor.... I know the sinkhole isn't funny but ......
There was a “burp” within the sinkhole this morning as well as a slough in on the east side (of which measurements are not yet available). Water in the sinkhole continues to move which is an indication that this event is not over. The installation of the seismic equipment and implementation of the code system are essential in indicating that events like this will happen before they actually do.
The Gulf of Mexico is a small ocean basin. Its basement consists of several crustal types, including basaltic oceanic crust, highly stretched continental crust and modestly stretched continental crust
5. Geopressurization:
Rapid burial of older, commonly muddy sediment caused build up of fluid pressure within the thick basin fill. This geopressurization decreased mechanical strength of the sediment, facilitating structural deformation. It also generated strong pressure gradients that directed fluids up and out of the deep basin towards the shallow sand bodies of the basin margin.
emphasis mine
Migration
It has long been recognized that the principal GOM source rocks lie far beneath the center of mass of reservoired hydrocarbons. Large-scale upward migration of thousands of meters is commonly required, especially in the Cenozoic reservoirs that contain the bulk of the oil and gas. Here, structures created by the long history of gravity tectonics acting on the salt and overpressured mudstone have played a critical role. Faults, salt bodies, and welds created pathways that extend through source rocks many kilometers into overlying Cenozoic sediments (Fig. 3). The long history of formation and reactivation of these growth structures provided condiuts that were ready and available when pulses of peak generation provided a charge of movable hydrocarbons.
Originally posted by AuntB
reply to post by CajunBoy
Incredible CB. I figured it was timber and a big splash. That was actually creepy, it was just sucked down.
The water is still moving like tides.
edit on 22-4-2013 by AuntB because: (no reason given)