and...
http://enenews.com/isaacs-storm-track-shifts-sinkhole-preparations-underway-could-be-extremely-dangerous-hurricane-map
Title: Isaac storm track puts SE Louisiana in its path
Source: KPLC 7 News, Lake Charles, Louisiana
Author: Elona Weston
Date: Aug 26, 2012 12:41 PM EDT
Source: KPLC 7 News, Lake Charles, Louisiana
Author: Elona Weston
Date: Aug 26, 2012 12:41 PM EDT
A hurricane watch has been extended along the Louisiana coast to include the New Orleans area ahead of Isaac.Forecasters say that Tropical Storm Isaac’s track has shifted more to the west.[...]The center says the storm could eventually become an extremely dangerous category 2 hurricane in coming days while taking aim at the northern rim of the Gulf of Mexico.
and...
http://enenews.com/emergency-officials-urge-residents-to-check-homes-for-sinking-holes-cracks-immediately-report-changes-preparations-underway-as-isaacs-storm-track-shifts-toward-sinkhole-could-be-extremely-d
Drilling operations with Texas Brine continue. Another stage of casing has been installed and the concrete has been poured. It must set for a 24 hr. period.OEP [Assumption Office of Emergency Preparedness] continues to urge residents, those that have evacuated and those that remain home, to check their homes for any changes such as cracks, ground holes, sinking, etc. Anything unusual or out of the ordinary should be reported to OEP immediately. All reports will be forwarded to DNR for proper investigation.[...]
and...
http://enenews.com/strange-no-sinkhole-measurements-revealed-publicly-in-10-days-problems-with-flyovers-by-civil-air-patrol-state-police-helicopter-and-now-epa-airplane-videos
No sinkhole measurements revealed publicly in 10 days — Problems with flyovers by Civil Air Patrol, State Police helicopter, and now EPA airplane (VIDEO)
Emphasis Added
August 22: 2:30 p.m. Afternoon Update
Updated measurements of the sinkhole site have not been available because the direct site is remains prohibited. Civil Air Patrol has been contracted to flyover and provide aerial photographs that can be compared to the photographs they supplied on August 10, 2012. As soon as we have those, we will be able to provide the public with updated measurements and side by side comparisons.
August 23: 9:33 a.m. State Police Helicopter, fuel leak
Please be advised that emergency responders are here at the Command Post in Bayou Corne because the LA State Police helicopter dispatched here for sinkhole flyovers has experienced a fuel leak.
August 25: 8:40 a.m. Morning Briefing
The EPA infrared flight is expected to occur between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. today. The plane to be used has a large twin engine and is expected to be extremely loud since they are flying only 300 ft. in the air. Do not be alarmed. Results of that flight will be posted as soon as they are made available.
We are still awaiting the arrival of the EPA plane. They were landing in Gonzales to re-fuel and then heading to the Grand Bayou/Bayou Corne area. Pictures will be posted immediately upon their arrival.Last Size Update (August 16): 11:00 a.m. Sinkhole Grows in DiameterDuring cleanup activities this morning, an additional 50’ feet of property on the SW side of the site fell into the sinkhole
Sinkhole engineer: Little can be done if cavern is fractured
GOHSEP Bayou Corne Status Update shocks 350 evacuees and others at public meeting, 24 August
Credits:
GOHSEP
DNR permitted the company to pump radioactive waste into its cavern and the cavern has had problems since early 2011, issues kept from the public until after the sinkhole developed.
It is now known that radiation is 15 times the state's acceptable level in the sinkhole area.
“In Louisiana here, there are about 13,000 of these abandoned wells throughout the sate that still need to be mitigated because they are polluting parts of the state of Louisiana and that is between Big Oil, our biggest employee here in Louisiana,” retired General Russel Honoré recently told CNN.
Meanwhile, Louisiana's crises team has been activated for the impending Tropical Storm Isaac that is also threatening the sinkhole area only 63 miles from the Gulf of Mexico.
A Mandatory Evacuation is in effect for Bayou Corne and Texas Brine's exploratory drilling into the cavern above the sinkhole, predicted to take forty days and forty nights, began last week but has not reached the cavern, yet.
Sources: The Advocate, CNN
and...
http://www.examiner.com/article/sinkhole-radiation-15-times-over-limit-residents-urged-to-record-health-signs
Sinkhole radiation 15 times over limit, residents urged to record health signs
New York Guard training for dirty bomb attack
Credits:
Ng.mil
A non-government group is urging Bayou Corne sinkhole area residents to use a new record log as a veteran radiation expert says Louisiana environmental officials are “in denial” over hazards posed by elevated radium levels that are actually fifteen times higher than the state limit, a "worst nightmare coming true," according to an environmental attorney.
Stanley Waligora, a New Mexico-based radiation protection consultant and leading authority on health risks of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) has confirmed that radium levels at Bayou Corne's sinkholeare not within safe limits, but instead, roughly 15 times higher than the state's acceptable level, according to one of the nation's leading environmental attorney's Stuart Smith.
State officials are saying NORM is is below hazardous levels, but the independent findings indicate other actions need to be taken, including residents using Louisiana Environmental Action Network's report logs to record signs and symptoms of ill health.
The information about radium is buried in a state news release, poorly written, "and goes out of its way to downplay the results," Smith said Wednesday.
This week, after state officials released the results of samples taken 80 feet under the surface of the growing, slurry-filled pit, Marco Kaltofen, a civil engineer and president of Boston Chemical Data Corp., noted those results posted by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ, show elevated rates of NORM in the sinkhole.
NORM is a frequent byproduct of the oil and gas drilling process, creating wastes that industry has often then dumped improperly, according to Smith who specializes in this area of environmental law.
Kaltofen’s analysis of the situation in Bayou Corne includes:
"Radium in the body is absorbed because it is chemically similar to calcium. The normal maximum guideline level for radium in surface water is 5 picoCuries per liter, (pCi/L). The state’s testing found 82 pCi/L in the water of the growing sinkhole. Radium gives off alpha' radiation. This form of radiation is extremely dangerous if inhaled or ingested, and less dangerous if exposed by skin contact."
When radium decays, it produces the dangerous radioactive gas, radon. EPA warns that radon gas causes lung cancer, and exposure can be as hazardous to your lungs as a serious cigarette habit.
"Waligora said officials with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality need to launch immediate additional testing to ensure that the hazardous radium is not leaking into nearby groundwater and posing a threat to human health as well as livestock," Smith has stated Friday.
Waligora's recommendations come two days after Smith's blog first reported that analysis of DEQ test results from Bayou Corne, posted by the LEANouisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN), revealed elevated radium levels and airborne chemicals associated with highly volatile butane stored by Crosstex in a cavern near the sinkhole.
They also come two days after Homeland Security Louisiana announced that officials are stepping up around-the-clock emergency operations near Bayou Corne's sinkhole, including extra Hazardous Materials & Explosive Units.
LEAN, after reporting lethal contaminants found in the sinkhole area, is urging residents to use the new report log it has for recording signs and symptoms of poisoning, as reported by theExaminer on Wednesday.
The Advocate reports Friday, "In two statements released Tuesday, LEAN noted air monitoring by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality since Aug. 4 over the sinkhole and in the neighborhoods near the sinkhole had picked up, depending on the location, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, other volatile organic compounds and components of natural gas."
'Worst nightmare coming true,' says attorney
If the butane in the sinkhole vicinity exploded, it would meet, according to the National Terror Alert, the definition of a dirty bomb.
"I sought an analysis of the recent DEQ test results from Waligora, who since a stint as a nuclear weapons officer in the U.S. military has been teaching, consulting and testifying as an expert witness in radiation litigation for more than 45 years," asserted Smith Friday.
He expressed concern that the state reported its findings of radium-226 and radium-228 as "below acceptable levels," when in fact, the results were 15 times higher than the state’s own standard for soil contamination.
“Well, once again the Louisiana DEQ is in denial because they don’t know what to do about the radioactive contamination in the Bayou Corne subsidence,” Waligora wrote, adding the following findings:
There are immediate radiation dose concerns, not only cumulative toxin concerns.
"The release could reach the usable aquifer and contaminate drinking water along with livestock and irrigated crops," Waligora says. "The DEQ must sample ground water to assess any transport. Airborne particulate might become entrained and cause contamination to be inhaled by the public. DEQ must collect air samples to assess the airborne radioactive particulate. Radon gas emanating from the radium could be inhaled by members of the public. DEQ needs to monitor airborne radon.
"A long range plan must be developed for remedial action. Funding should be provided by the oil companies that used the cavern for disposal," asserted Waligora.
Waligora reports being concerned about DEQ understating of the Bayou Corne risks because of what he has witnessed in other cases handled by the troubled agency:
"This is reminiscent of the illegal waste disposal that was discovered several years ago at St. Gabriel. The community complained about illegal disposal of radioactive waste. DEQ sent a team to investigate who determined that there was no problem. Complaints continued and a second DEQ team investigated and again said that there was no problem. Finally, a legal action attracted the EPA who found widespread contamination. The responsible party had no worth so the site was cleaned up with Superfund support. The cleanup took over one year and cost over $1million. Quite a bit for 'no problem.'”
Earlier this year, Smith joined the Louisiana Bucket Brigade in calling for the EPA to intervene and assume responsibility from DEQ because the agency was "overwhelmed and "in the back pocket of the businesses it’s supposed to be regulating."
"Although company officials informed the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources in early 2011 of significant problems at the cavern, local residents and authorities were not told of the risk even after they began complaining this summer of shaking homes and noxious orders," Smith says.
National Terror Alert (NTA) recently reported that due to recent terrorist events, people have expressed concern about a possible terrorist attack involving radioactive materials, possibly through the use of a “dirty bomb,” and the harmful effects of radiation from such an event.
The NTA developed a dirty bomb fact sheet including:
"A dirty bomb, or radiological dispersion device, is a bomb that combines conventional explosives, such as dynamite, with radioactive materials inthe form of powder or pellets. The idea behind a dirty bomb is to blast radioactive material into the area around the explosion. This could possibly cause buildings and people to be exposed to radioactive material. The main purpose of a dirty bomb is to frighten people and make buildings or land unusable for a long period of time.
"In Bayou Corne, we are witnessing our worst nightmares coming true," Smith asserted Friday. "It’s time for the EPA and other outside authorities to step in and make sure that proper testing is done and that emergency measures are carried out."
The sinkhole, now the size of three football fields, shaped like an upside-down Superdome Stadium, and filled with liquid slurry is blamed on Texas Brine Co.'s failed salt cavern near Bayou Corne.
"There’s no excuse for allowing this new Louisiana catastrophe to get any worse," Smith says.
Sources: The Advocate, Stuart Smith, Louisiana Environmental Action Network
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and concerns about the Hurricane heading toward Alabama .....
Public Meeting Slides
Governor’s Office of Emergency Preparedness & Homeland Security (GOHSEP)
August 24, 2012
Governor’s Office of Emergency Preparedness & Homeland Security (GOHSEP)
August 24, 2012
AP (Sinkhole near Baton Rouge, LA):
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