Tremors felt 45 miles away from Bayou Corne Sinkhole!

reply to post by AuntB


That was a really good video, thank you.

Couple of thoughts when I saw it:

- I wonder if she was being neutral about Bobby Jindal to save that fight for later, or what?

- Even though it was mentioned, more focus on the nearby butane is really important and should be talked about more

- Her comments about all of the other communities with disasters in the US shocked me

And I also do hope this brings in more attention to this disaster quickly

Thanks

Peace

Sinkhole up-dates:

A federal judge in New Orleans says he will grant class-action status to four lawsuits filed over issues raised by the Assumption Parish sinkhole, according to a new court filing Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Jay C. Zainey also will give Texas Brine Co. 30 more days to directly negotiate stalled out-of-court settlements with evacuated residents lacking legal representation.

Judge greenlights class-action status for sinkhole lawsuits

I do wonder if this is because they think there is a large possibility of an issue with 70.

Louisiana DOTD says there will be enhanced monitoring along LA 70 near the Assumption Parish sinkhole. The improvements will provide broader observation and greater accuracy in measuring the area for movement and subsidence, DOTD says. DOTD says it will be able to use data from monitoring systems to alert responders if there are any significant movements or changes in the area near the site.

[url=http://www.wdsu.com/news/around-louisiana/dotd-enhanced-monitoring-along-la-70-near-sinkhole/-/9853348/20272188/-/11v07p0/-/index.html?absolute=t rue&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=wdsu]DOTD: Enhanced monitoring along LA 70 near sinkhole Read more: www.wdsu.com...[/ url]

reply to post by lasertaglover
Lazer I was thrilled to see that she is still on the case. I think she is wise to keep reminding people that there are dangers. TB and the people working the sinkhole have down played the butane but Erin is correct.

Originally posted by BrieBird
I did find this map that pins all the salt domes in Lousianna. So a domino effect could be possible.

www.umapper.com...www.cubancigarsbest.com...

Thanks

Although this does not show anything terribly interesting, I thought we should have a plot of the way the pressures have been going over the last month or so.

Of course, I did not know it was un-interesting until I had fiddled around and extracted the figures, but since I have done it anyway, it may as well be shown on here for posterity.

As you all know, the raw figures are in the CheckList pdfs here. The extracted figures are in a zipped spreadsheet here. Please note, the only ones we can use with any chance of being correct are the ones for Oxy #3A which I have checked for the extracted figures which were zero and added the corrections to the spreadsheet if there were any. The other reading which seems to be fairly good and has been extracted really quite well, is the one for BC #2. Not sure how relevant this reading is or whether it would show anything useful but for the same period as above, the Tbg reading is varying between 53 and 57 with most around the 54/55 mark. The Csg reading varies between 10 and 17, again I dont know what this means.



PDfs of note are 16th March 2013 which suggests that they are doing some "Quality Control" of the raw figures. (Hence the perfectly normal graph plot.) This may be perfectly innocent of course, but also may not...We know from TEPCO's shenannigans that companies with a lot to lose often massage the truth a little. 22nd March had a OEP Code #3 whatever that is.








files.abovetopsecret.com...

There is a new "No Wake" zone posting for much of the area in and around Bayou Corne due to the high water levels.

Read it HERE

Looks as if things are moving in the right direction. If nothing has been done by Monday or Tuesday, then I think they may be puffing smoke and nothing will be done. Those in the community should hear about this over the weekend if it is real I guess..

Texas Brine offers settlements for sinkhole

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Texas Brine says it has started extending settlement offers to Assumption Parish residents who have been under an evacuation order since August because of a 15-acre sinkhole.

The company operated a collapsed salt dome that authorities say caused the sinkhole.

Texas Brine spokesman Sonny Cranch says 23 settlement offers were ready and officials were contacting those residents Friday afternoon and Saturday.

News of settlement offers comes just days after Gov. Bobby Jindal issued an executive order to review the company's permits with the possibility of revocation - because of the company's slow response to residents seeking buyouts.

and ...


Texas Brine offers settlements for sinkhole

“We are scheduling appointments,” Cranch said. “They will come to our office, at the facilities we’ve maintained at the command center, and we will give them the offer.”

Cranch said residents could make counter-offers and if needed, Texas Brine would pay the cost for a third-party mediator. However, the mediation would be non-binding, he said.

The sinkhole, discovered in August, is in the Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou area of Assumption Parish, about 40 miles south of Baton Rouge. It has resulted in an ongoing evacuation order for about 150 homes in the area. The news of settlement offers comes just days after Gov. Bobby Jindal issued an executive order telling state officials to review all of Texas Brine’s permits in Louisiana with the possibility of revocation, because of the company’s slow response on buyouts.

Cranch didn’t answer directly when asked whether Jindal’s executive order on Monday played a role in Friday’s settlement announcement, instead praising Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon for calling Texas Brine’s insurance carriers.

Jindal remained cautious Friday about the company’s announcement. “Texas Brine’s long overdue decision to finally offer buyouts is welcome news. However, the proof will be in the results. We will continue to hold Texas Brine accountable to make sure they clean up their mess and to ensure they make this situation right for homeowners,” the governor said in a statement.

I see that 3 new helicorders have been added to our network although one stopped on the 18th.

On Friday, X202 had a bit of a strange time when its recordings were all over the place from midnight until midday but particularly before 4am. Dont know what all that was about. Have a look and see what you all think.

Does anyone know where these helicorders are placed because all the description says is "Temporary AR", which does not tell us anything?

Bayou Corne Well 3 284m at No 17 has stopped working since 1pm Friday so whether that is due to work being done (at the bottom of a well?) or for some other reason I dont know.

I have added the extra few helicorders to my thumbnail pages.

reply to post by qmantoo


I'm fairly certain those instruments are in Arkansas, and the one you linked is showing waves from the mag 8.3 near the Kamchatka pennisula.
Looking at the sinkhole data, it seems as if the micro-activity has increased dramatically over the past few days.

Ahh - thats what the 'AR' is for. Stupid of me. Thanks for pointing that out. They are all in the temporary section and I assumed that these were more from the sinkhole area. I will remove them from my page. Thanks. ;-)

But what do the micro-quakes mean. The cavern #3 should be full by now as, if I remember it right, there was only a few hundred feet left to fill in the last report I saw.

Any more news from the people on the ground? Things have gone slightly quiet, maybe because people are on holiday perhaps?

Rock to sinkhole ratio a mystery

Excellent article from The Advocate

As the sinkhole has grown over the last nine months and as the 2,258-foot-tall cavern continued to fill with rock and sediment— at a rate of three feet per day — the difference in volumes has remained, now nearly 2.5 million cubic yards of earth. The volume of material in the cavern is now more than twice the volume of the sinkhole.

Will Pettitt, a rock mechanics expert working on the sinkhole for the state’s Office of Conservation, said about 40 percent of the cavern has been filled by a volume of rock and sediment now matching the size of the sinkhole.

“So where is the rest of the cavern volume coming from?” asked Pettitt, also a member of a separate state panel studying the sinkhole.

Exactly where the rock is coming from has remained a point of debate between scientists working for the Office of Conservation and Texas Brine.

Link to the original article (28May13)...
===========================


Sinkhole bills continue to sail through Louisiana Legislature

A two-edged sword maybe?

A pair of bills written in response to what is now a 15-acre sinkhole in Assumption Parish won unanimous approval Tuesday from the Louisiana Senate. The two bills by Rep. Karen Gaudet St. Germain would make the state commissioner of conservation tighten regulations around the state's salt domes and solution-mined caverns and require owners of homes up for sale to notify potential buyers of any nearby caverns.

===================================
Sinkhole quake jolts further than Bayou Corne
A very old article (25 Oct 2012) from The Examiner stating that the outer edge of the salt dome has already started to collapse back in October 2012 following the intensity 5 earthquake a couple of days before the article.

"The tremor was large enough that the body wave phases could easily be identified," stated Assumption Parish officials said on a blog only about 24 hours after residents learned that the outer edge of the 1-mile by 3-mile Salt Dome under many of them has collapsed.

"The preliminary location was just SE of Oxy #3 cavern at a depth of 500 m.," the officials posted at 10:45 p.m. on Oct. 25.

Bayou Corne residents were forced from their homes on August third, two months after the bayous started bubbling and thousands of earthquakes occurred. They are still under a mandatory evacuation order declared by Gov. Bobby Jindal, although many remained.
Odd earthquakes have been felt as far as 45 miles south of the sinkhole, as reported on Oct. 5 after a swarm occurred with the highest quake registering over 4 on the Richter scale.

Tuesday night, Assumption Parish residents learned at a meeting that the Napoleonville Salt Dome outer edge has collapsed in a "frack-out" from pressurized brine, according to officials.

Officials are at a loss on how to rectify the rapidly escalating disaster.

========================================

Again from The Advocate - News about the settlements offered last Friday onwards.

Texas Brine makes settlement offers to sinkhole evacuees

Evans “Mike” Medine, 62, was among the first group of people to receive offers from Texas Brine on Friday.

Medine said Texas Brine’s offer did not “come close” to the value of his Bayou Corne home and was $70,000 less than the amount of a prior appraisal.

Medine, an evacuated resident who now lives in Ascension Parish, said the offer was supposed to be a buyout of his home and also payment for all other claims he and his wife had made in connection with their evacuation due to the sinkhole.

“It was woefully low,” he said of Texas Brine’s offer.

===================================

The Department of Transport are talking as if Highway 70 is definitely going to be affected since they have placed their tilt and motion detectors on the bridges and are planning more permanent measuring devices plus a report about how to plan an alternative route. Google map

What I want to know is what do all these mini-quakes mean is happening underground?

Here is a link to the latest survey of the sinkhole. (3 page pdf)

The area of subsidence has definitely expanded ( the outer red line shows the 2' drop boundary), while the sinkhole continues to become more shallow.
Where the berm is located on the western edge of the sinkhole has already sunk over 5', and what is really interesting, is the 2nd image showing the West to East cross-section.

The bottom of sinkhole has dropped over 75' in some places; in just one month's time!



This slumping on the eastern edge of the sinkhole could be the source of the micro-earthquakes, but there is no way to tell at what depth the rock is fracturing below this area: it could be 200' down or 1500'.

Dont forget that all that rain we had about 3 weeks ago and the water was actively flowing into the sinkhole so I guess that it all went down into the cavern dissolving the salt as it went and making a horrible large hole underneath. That would account for the erosion of the sinkhole making it deeper perhaps. There are pictures I found today of the water flowing like a river when there was those heavy rains, and the comment was that they were glad it was going into the sinkhole and not out of it. Scary.

Originally posted by qmantoo
Any more news from the people on the ground? Things have gone slightly quiet, maybe because people are on holiday perhaps?

Qmantoo- I am still lurking but it is finally summer so I have been enjoying the weather. I still lurk and check the sinkhole daily. Today is actually a news day for Bayou Corne......

Seems the sinkhole is now 15. acres. I haven't seen a new flyover maybe we will get one soon.

News:
Seems not just Texas Brine is going to be held accountable for this mess.

The suit tied to Brockovich also accuses Texas Brine and the two other named defendants, Miller Engineers and Associates and Occidental Chemical Corp., of fraud by concealing information about the cavern’s integrity since at least 2010 “in order to escape responsibility for any damages arising therefrom.”

The suits are the seventh and eighth filed in state or federal courts in connection with the sinkhole. All name Texas Brine Co. as a defendant. Both new suits seek a jury trial. The suit filed by lawyers working with Brockovich names 57 individual plaintiffs and three businesses and notes many evacuated residents “find themselves trapped in campers and distant motels trying to figure out if they will ever be able to return home.” Attorney Thomas Girardi, of Los Angeles, also took issue Tuesday with out-of-court offers Texas Brine began making Friday, claiming company officials are not being fair. “They’re disgusting, but I think, sooner or later, a jury is going to give these people proper compensation and I’d happy to be a part of that,” Girardi said. The suit seeks a variety of damages, including possibly expensive punitive damages. The lead plaintiff is Ernest Boudreaux Jr.

I am happy to see that Brockivich & Co. are still on the case and moving forward. I like in the article that because of the mining to close to the edge, "the release of oil and gas from deep underground" happened. There seems to be no guess of a conclusion to the seeping that is happening.

Assumption sinkhole lawsuits now total eight filed so far

Here is another article that I thought was interesting. We know that we have not been getting the truth and that they are leaving information out. It is nice to see another site making note of the deception also.

Dear DNR,

You KNOW there is a LAW that you must reveal to the public pollutants and toxic materials stored in state sanctioned facilities. NONE of the 53 caverns on the list show radioactive waste. You know that is untrue. Many companies are moving products around and replacing products with other products.

Since this is ATS and we can question the different. I saw this and find it very interesting that it was written in June 2012. This lady is a "prophet". It does make me wonder because they keep finding more and more methane escaping.

The Great Judgements of our God against Louisiana and this nation! Get ready, people of Louisiana! Get ready! Get ready for one of the greatest catastrophes that you will ever see! I have sent you warnings through the great devastation of Hurricane Katrina! This was My first great warning to you, oh people of Louisiana: my warning to repent, or perish. Yet, you have made yourselves busy in re-buiding that great decadent city of New Orleans, but you have not repented! Then, I sent you even greater warnings through the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster! Great is this calamity and great have been your losses through this great calamity! But, still you have not repented! These are My judgments, oh you blind, who lead the blind; but you would not see My handiwork in the midst of these great calamities. You would not see My judgments through these great catastrophes! The Third Great Judgement Against Louisiana, and the people of this nation! Now, you do not see again what is happening to you! For, the great frozen methane lake, which is beneath the Gulf of Mexico, is quickly melting! The heat of the seeping oil, which is pouring into the frozen lake, is melting this great lake of frozen methane! Yes, you watch in amazement as these methane bubbles come to the surface and some of you are surprised at the shifting of your homes. But, hear Me! For, you have seen nothing yet! This gas is finding its own exits! A great volume of methane gas is pushing upwards and is seeking to find its own vents! As more of this gas pushes its way to the surface, there will come a shifting in the subterranean land masses. There shall come a subsequent shifting in the lands, both beneath the Gulf of Mexico, and even for some distance from the Gulf of Mexico! Some of these land displacements will be great with ensuing earthquakes. But, the earthquakes will not compare to the unexpected explosions, and in many areas, unparalleled deaths of humans, animals and aquatic life and yes, even birds and other life forms! Oh, you people of Louisiana, you would not listen! I have sent you two very great calamities and now comes a third. So great shall be your suffering! The stench, the stink of the dying shall be so great! And, many will say, “Who is going to Louisiana?” For, the explosions and the dying shall be so great among you!

Full text here: The Truth About Revelation 12 The Great Methane Bubble Beneath the Gulf of Mexico is Melting;

Whatever your belief, I find it interesting that this was written early on in the sinkhole drama.

That 'prophesy' is interesting. Although I dont prescribe to a Christian God, it does not matter what entity is cited as the source - if the source is accurate - and it may be. We will see. Certainly to me, it is believable with my limited knowledge of geology, gas, oil, etc.

I found a pdf yesterday from waaaaay back (15 Aug 2012) which gives some indication of the worst case scenario they could imagine. We have already seen with the Fukushima crisis that 'worst case scenarios' are never bad enough and probably have the finances of mitigating the perceived worst case as their basis. After all, no-one wants to hear bad news and these scenarios are the most publicly-believable bad news around. Going out on the edge is bad for business and the credibility of the writer who is probably an expert in his field.

Worst Case scenario

In the second paragraph it they state "Crosstex believes that the public safety is not at risk due to the operations at the Crosstex Facility."

Now, if the methane is not from their facility, they are perfectly correct, however, they or others may have caused the methane to be released by drilling too deep or by drilling in the wrong place. There are going to be some mighty large law suits and some very rich companies are going to file for bankrupcy I think. Watch the directors selling their shares and bailing out.

It seems that this is only about release of the butane stored in their caverns and assures us that there would only be "a minimal release of liquid butane at the surface."

In these kind of reports we have to read between the lines and see what they are saying will NOT (or unlikely to) happen.

The trouble is that there are over 50 caverns in the Napoleonville Salt Dome and if the salt dome is disintergrating and collapsing, then it may have a domino effect causing these other caverns to collapse also. We really dont know what is REALLY in these caverns now - particularly if the companies are playing it safe and moving contents about.

What may have been in there may no longer be the real contents and so First Responders will have the incorrect information in their hands if the S Hits The Fan. This is very worrying if it is the case because they are depending on health and safety information being correct in order to properly respond to any emergency.

If anyone in authority is reading this, you need to send out a memo asking to be informed of current contents of the various caverns and any change in contents too. Then, most importantly, you need to make sure that the proper communications are in place with the First Responders and their databases. It would be useless to have the information and then not pass it on to the folks who will be attending the emergency.

Originally posted by qmantoo
The trouble is that there are over 50 caverns in the Napoleonville Salt Dome and if the salt dome is disintergrating and collapsing, then it may have a domino effect causing these other caverns to collapse also. We really dont know what is REALLY in these caverns now - particularly if the companies are playing it safe and moving contents about.

What may have been in there may no longer be the real contents and so First Responders will have the incorrect information in their hands if the S Hits The Fan. This is very worrying if it is the case because they are depending on health and safety information being correct in order to properly respond to any emergency.

If anyone in authority is reading this, you need to send out a memo asking to be informed of current contents of the various caverns and any change in contents too. Then, most importantly, you need to make sure that the proper communications are in place with the First Responders and their databases. It would be useless to have the information and then not pass it on to the folks who will be attending the emergency.

Now that is an alarming thought. I know that they have a traffic plan in place in case Rte 70 is affected but if they truly are moving stuff around then the first responders are in serious danger. As we saw in Texas at the fertilizer plant, it is said they used water to respond to the fire but that was a big no-no. This is a serious issue you bring up. I hadn't thought of what if first responders actually are called to the scene there.

Katie Moore discusses Bayou Corne sinkhole

Reporter Katie Moore joins The 504 set to discuss recent developments in the Bayou Corne sinkhole saga.