Friday, November 30, 2012

Louisiana Sinkhole updates including December 1 and 2 - Great new update from Freedom Rox as well as a three part video from Idaho Picker and November 30 , 2012 flyover..... H/T Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle for various informative posts !

http://freedomrox.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/louisiana-dnr-complicit-in-sinkhole-coverup/


LOUISIANA DNR COMPLICIT IN SINKHOLE COVERUP!

Posted on 
LOUISIANA DNR COMPLICIT IN SINKHOLE COVERUP AND MISINFORMATION!
 by: FREEDOMROX
 uniongeyser1111-224x300
 As most know, I normally do not concern myself with anything other than the larger picture. As a researcher, it is far more likely that I tie together what others do not and in ways that seem a little extreme…that is, until proven correct. “Always let Occam’s Razor be your guide”, was one of the first lessons I ever learned…after “Always eat your vegetables, whether you like it or not!”
But sometimes, you come across something so reprehensible that you must bring yourself down to earth and just report the little things, and allow the chips to fall where they may. Such is my task at this time.
Regarding the Louisiana Sinkhole in Bayou Corne, Assumption Parish, La., there has come to my attention a most corrupt and sickening amount of data that leads me to an inevitable conclusion.
The Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, (DNR), has been complicit in a coverup, and in attempting to hide it’s own culpability in the disasterous results of its own actions, and the catastrophic consequences visited upon the people of Louisiana, especially those of Grand Bayou, (again), and Bayou Corne, as well as anyone else whom may be affected in the future by this Department’s negligence.
When asked for details of the Texas Brine Oxy Geismar #3 cavern size and dimensions, we get all kinds of answers. It’s about the height of two Empire State Buildings, or it is approximately….. but never a straight answer. Only once have we obtained anything near a straight answer, but that was reported by the Advocate, to wit;
“The cavern roof is at 3,400 feet underground, and the cavern extends down to 5,650 feet. The roof is 150 feet across. Its base is 310 feet across.”
That is 2, 250 ft. in height of storage space with a base of 310 ft. across at the bottom, but according to what few diagrams we get, narrower at the top at 150 ft. About 205 ft. mean width. But we do find in the August 13, 2012 permit issued to Texas Brine, LLC from the LDNR, that the top of the Salt Cavern is at approximately 3400 ft. below the surface of the earth. Whew! Glad that is sorted out. Also, from the Advocate we know that the bottom of the cavern is at 5,650 feet, right?
Wrong!
TEXAS BRINE DEPTH 
Add the above and you will come up with 4, 850 ft. of piping, that is further away from the original borehole, but this equates roughly to the top of the dome being at 3450-3500 ft. Look Below for the Operational Plan of Oxy Geismar# 3A.
 TexasBWell3-AThe Operational Plan of Oxy Geismar Well # 3A.
 TexasBSaltCavern
Actual depth of the Salt Cavern as of last Report
It seems that LDNR and Texas Brine knows that the bottom is at 4241 ft. and not 5,650 feet now, (a loss of 1409 ft.), and either something is pushing up the bottom of the Salt Cavern, or is compromised by an outside influence, and have reported it in their documents, so please don’t jump the gun.
“Assumption Parish President Mike Waguespack stated, “We knew when they got into the cavern that the bottom had been compromised.”
Waguespack explained that “the bottom obviously had infiltration from somewhere that originally wasn’t there, originally it was brine.”http://www.examiner.com/article/hydrocarbons-breaching-sinkhole-cavern-bottom-oil-75-atop-hole
But they will not say what, exactly, is the source. Why? Because it is METHANE AND OIL MIGRATION. Why would they not tell us this simple fact? Because it means that everyone involved is LIABLE! PERIOD. EVERYONE!
As everyone knows if they have read my articles that I believe there is a Methane Migration Zone stemming from the April 20, 2010 BP Well Blow Out in the Gulf of Mexico, and I still do believe that it is a firm motivator and engine of destruction in this ongoing saga.
But…. It is a well known and established fact that Methane Migration is a REALITY. Allow me to prove this assertion, please.
“Last September, Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon declared to a Philadelphia energy conference that the problem of methane migrating through the ground near natural gas drilling sites had been fixed.  “Problem identified. Problem solved,” he told an industry-heavy crowd at the Philadelphia Convention Center.
Nearly a year later,  Bradford County resident Michael Leighton is worried about the flammable gas seeping into his woods.
Leighton lives about a half-mile from a Chesapeake Energy well that Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection suspects leaked methane gas through holes in its casing. For more than two months, gas has been gurgling into creeks and wetlands on Leighton’s property. That’s in addition to the methane in Leighton’s water well, and the methane in his basement.”
This story goes on to report about a Methane Geyser; “Soon, someone discovered a bigger problem: a geyser shooting methane-infused water more than 30 feet in the air. “That’s when all hell broke lose,” said a neighboring landowner — who, like others State Impact Pennsylvania talked to about the Union Township problems, requested anonymity, due to ongoing negotiations with Shell over damages and leasing.”

Video of alleged Methane Geyser in N. Pa.

 

As if in the grip of a real life disaster movie, the town of Hutchinson, Kansas experienced its own “gas migration”,

 

The gas crisis that rocked Hutchinson, Kansas

“A geyser erupted on Hutchinson’s east side. The nearby railroad was shut down. And a sink hole appeared.
Authorities posted barricades on streets, sealing off an evacuated downtown. Shelter preparations began at the Kansas State Fairgrounds.
In a rat-a-tat sequence, those events shook Hutchinson between 10:45 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 17, 2001.
They were only the start. Tragedy visited the next day.”
1991-2011kansas15013_embedded_prod_affiliate_80
“Old brine wells, the legacy of salt-solution mining, dotted Hutchinson, including one beneath the Hahn home. Gas was rising up through those wells, so authorities combed records at the Reno County Historical Society and Hutchinson Public Library to determine the location of old salt plants and wells.”
“Ratigan at first was skeptical that gas migrating from Yaggy Field was causing eruptions in Hutchinson, but soon became convinced that was the cause.
ONEOK would acknowledge later that approximately 143 billion cubic feet of gas escaped from a leak in the S-1 cavern.”
Please read the whole story at the link provided to understand the true scope of the disaster.
Salt%20Dome%20Hutchinson%20Gas%20Explosion
Anatomy of A Salt Dome Methane Release in Hutchinson, Kansas
These two stories are only a minor sampling of the proof of Methane Gas Migrations, and an excellent reason for obfuscation of the true issues in Assumption Parish.
That, however does not in any way excuse the manipulation of information that was to come next by the DNR in Louisiana.
In a federal lawsuit filed in New Orleans on August 13, 2012, alleged that, “a salt cavern failed, which Texas Brine Co. was using to store radioactive material, a byproduct of the drilling industry.
     The class claims that Texas Brine knew the cavern walls were liable to breach as early as January 2011, but failed to warn the public.
     ”The public was not warned in January 2011 or any time thereafter or prior of the potential danger resulting from the failure of this cavern and the general public had no knowledge of the storage of the radioactive material in the cavern,” the complaint states.”
 ”In early September 2010, defendant began reworking the cavern well, milling a section of salt higher than the existing cavern roof, at 3,400 feet deep, to see if the upper strata could be mined. This area extends for about 100 feet through the well casing above the cavern roof.
     ”On January 21, 2011, Mark J. Cartwright, President of Texas Brine Co. Saltville informed the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (LDNR), via letter, about a failed integrity test of the cavern and suspicion that the cavern may have breached the Napoleonville Dome’s outer wall. These problems with the cavern led to the cavern being plugged in June 2011. The area milled in September 2010 may be the source of the salt dome breach.
     ”LDNR records show that Defendant had been examining the cavern’s wall at least since June 2010.”
(ASIDE) Why on earth would Texas Brine try to brine the roof of the Salt Cavern? It is stated as a fact that the top of the Cavern is at 3400 ft., so why try to mine at that level? Common sense should have overidden greed in this case, and the DNR knew it as well!
Up until present day, any news story even approaching this subject was given a 20 ft. of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material, (NORM), was deposited in the Texas Brine Oxy# 3 Salt Cavern in 1995.  This is not true at all, and DNR knows it isn’t.
 DNRLIEII
As stated, the document does not say 20 ft. of NORM, but 20 to the Third Power, which is 8,000 ft. of NORM contaminated material, and even this seems to be a lie as well, since all fracked materials are considered Technologically-Enhanced-Natural-Occurring-Radioactive-Materials, (TENORM)  http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/tenorm/
Is this enough proof for a court of law to litigate? I truly believe so, and the evidence just keeps on piling up, and none in favor of LDNR. They have shown at the least that they obfuscate, prevaricate, and even outright lie, to protect their cash infusions from oil-soaked petro dollars contributed by Super-Corporations that dominate the area as well as the Gulf of Mexico entire.
Maybe it is time to investigate the finances of these Corporate Cronies, Elected State Officials, as well as the Elected Representatives of these Districts to see just where they may have received financial favor and campaign contributions… That is covered under the PATRIOT ACT isn’t it? If not, then surely State and Federal RICO laws apply?
The truth of the matter is, that as far as any of us are allowed to know, is that Grand Gulf Energy, and Golden Gate, Inc. and its unnamed 60 percent partner, is the only drilling operation that could allow such a migration of Methane and Oil.
We should all be looking for who else was drilling prior to these interests, and before the sinkhole developed, if any. Otherwise, we have a culprit on the hook.
As Linda Cooke states over three months ago;
“I was told the more correct term was investigatory well, or a well which would be drilled down to the suspect brine cavern so investigating what might be going on could be done. And it was 3,400 feet just to the top of the brine cavern! I had no idea it was that far down.
As I understand it, this “relief” well will be drilled starting late this week, and I don’t know how long it will take to get down that far. Nor what will happen when they get there. It will be interesting.
I have some friends who have evacuated their home in Bayou Corne and are now living in their RV a few miles away. The husband recently had five heart bypasses, and they’re not too happy about the whole situation.”
I have so much more that I can share, but this article is too long as it is. I will wait with baited breath to see how many pick up on this most important addition to the ongoing soap opera known as, “As the Bayou Turns”
More Later….

and....http://lasinkhole.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/new-fly-over-photos-of-sinkhole-in-idohopickers-3-part-video/

New Fly Over Photos of Sinkhole in Idaho picker’s 3-Part Video

  BY 
4

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3


















http://lasinkhole.wordpress.com/


SINKHOLE GROWS – A RECAP:





Lots on Radiation Hazard at the Sinkhole in the Examiner & a Puff Piece from HuffPo
 NOVEMBER 30, 2012
7
Louisiana sinkhole radiation abuse and cover up continue

“[snip] . . . . Stanley Waligora, a New Mexico-based radiation protection consultant and leading authority on health risks of NORM confirmed that radium levels at Bayou Corne’s sinkhole are not within safe limits, but instead, roughly 15 times higher than the state’s acceptable level, Smith had said.

The information about radium had been buried in a state news release, had been poorly written, and had gone “out of its way to downplay the results,” Smith had said.“

http://www.examiner.com/article/louisiana-sinkhole-radiation-abuse-and-cover-up-continue



Sinkhole Expands Ever Closer to Highway 70

 
New fly over video shows how close the main highway is to water now. Thanks to tip by Freedomrox.
Nov30_flyover










http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIirbz2bH34








and look at huge the sinkhole has grown since the summer !

http://lasinkhole.wordpress.com/2012/11/30/minden-tnt/





Another Strange Thing About Minden – Tons of TNT Still Laying Around

  BY 

Found by Idahopicker – This is added to our NW Louisiana Explosions page of news stories.


1 Million pounds of TNT just laying around in an area where two explained blasts ( methane ? ) have recently occurred - and they are just slow walking this ????




http://lasinkhole.wordpress.com/2012/11/30/more-monitors-being-installed/


More Monitors Being Installed
 NOVEMBER 30, 2012 BY FLYINGCUTTLEFISH
3
Because everything is calming down so well at the sinkhole no doubt.

See Nov. 29 (new) update from Texas Brine. They are putting in a new “geophone” 450 ft. deep but it will take 4-6 WEEKS(!!)  to install.

Here is some info on what a geophone is.








http://lasinkhole.wordpress.com/2012/11/30/seismic-monitors-missing-data/


Seismic Monitors Missing Data
 NOVEMBER 30, 2012 BY FLYINGCUTTLEFISH
4
Some Hanky Panky Goin’ On!

Comment by Walter Coin says:

look at the black line for LA01 at 12:00 CST or 24:00 time and the black line for 3:00 CST time date 11/30/2012.
Now look at LA02 , LA03 , LA05 , LA08 and LA09
http://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/heli_temp/

It’s TRUE! All sorts of gaps and missing seismic monitoring. Is it offline at those times (connection problems etc.)? Or are they removing data that is alarming, incriminating or otherwise to made hush-hush.  Someone needs to explain the

monitor outages
the missing lines at times on the monitors
the date/time errors on the displa

Here is a screen grab from the LA02 monitor – first is ‘as is’ and second is the same with notes about all the missing data -
LA01_11_30_00  |  LA01_11_30_00b










http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-buchanan/louisiana-sinkhole-evacue_b_2219625.html

( Note the sinkhole has deepened ( when measured on 11/14 )  by 35 - 145 deep since last measured 11/1  - now consider this measurement was before the " burp " !


Louisiana Sinkhole Evacuees Won't Be Home For Awhile


(This is an updated version of an article published in "The Louisiana Weekly" on Nov. 26, 2012.)
At the eight-acre, Bayou Corne sinkhole in Assumption Parish, owners of slab houses are waiting for methane-gas monitors to be installed in December. The sinkhole deepened in November and coughed up debris and hydrcarbons late in the month. Cypress trees fell into the gap. Residents are watching natural gas being flared from the site and are ventilating homes while bayous around them bubble.
Over 200 people, who were evacuated or voluntarily left 110 homes since August, are staying away. They felt tremors last summer when the sinkhole formed after an underground cavern wall was breached. The hole on the western edge of the Napoleonville Salt Dome, contains salt water and crude oil, and is on swampland leased by Texas Brine in Houston from Occidental Chemical Corp.
Bayou Corne is 35 miles south of Baton Rouge and about 80 miles west of New Orleans.
What are conditions like for the forty households that have stayed? Dennis Landry, a local resident and businessman, said before Thanksgiving "gas remains in the aquifer, and a little crude oil is still coming out of the top of sinkhole. Texas Brine contractors laid boom around the sinkhole to keep any oil or other fuel from escaping." He said "Texas Brine and Shaw Environmental are flaring natural gas off from several wells they drilled. The sinkhole was growing in size but it seems to have stabilized in recent weeks."
But things don't stay still for long at the hole. After Thanksgiving, the hole burped up vegetative debris on Nov. 27, and hydrocarbons rose from beneath the hole, according to the Assumption Parish Police Jury. Trees fell in that day and the next. Boom was repositioned to contain hydrocarbons on the surface.
Texas Brine said sinkhole measurements taken on Nov. 14 and reported on Nov. 27 showed the hole had deepened by 30 feet to 145 feet since Nov. 1.
Wells are flaring natural gas to get rid of it. Sonny Cranch, spokesman for Texas Brine, said after Thanksgiving that his company is operating only one vent well on its site and that's Relief Well #1, which is flaring natural gas from the aquifer. The company's Relief Well #2 will be permanently shut to contain a concentration of hydrogen sulfide gas or H2S, detected because of a rotten egg smell before Thanksgiving.
"Even though only a miniscule amount of H2S was released before detection, H2S is still dangerous in sufficient quantities," Cranch said. "Plugging the well removes any possibility of releasing what is believed to be a significant amount of H2S that remains underground at this drill site. It's an abundance-of-caution issue."
He said H2S, a naturally occurring gas found in geologic formations, often migrates into well water in southern states. That water may smell bad but it's generally safe to drink, he said.
Shaw Environmental, Inc. has four, operating vent wells in the sinkhole area--all of which are flaring gas from the aquifer, Cranch said. Shaw Environmental, a Louisiana Dept. of Natural Resources subcontractor, is based in Baton Rouge.

Before Thangsgiving, Cranch said "we flared a total of 598 thousand cubic feet, or mcf, of natural gas from the cavern between Sept. 24 and Nov. 16 . In addition, we got a lot of natural gas--420 mcf--out of our newly installed, shallow-aquifer vent well in just the last two weeks."
As a point of reference, one mcf or 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas is enough to fuel an average U.S. home for space and water heating and cooking for four days.
Texas Brine has also captured a considerable amount of crude oil at its site. Cranch said "we collected a total of 4,530 barrels, each containing 40 gallons of crude oil, from the cavern from Sept. 24 to Nov. 16, along with 1,500 barrels of crude from the sinkhole's surface since Oct. 8."
Landry said "the hole's still bubbling from natural gas and so is the bayou around us, including the bayou water behind my house. We're told that's because natural gas takes the path of least resistance and comes up though the bayou's soft, sandy bottom. The state Dept. of Environmental Quality says the gas emissions aren't a health hazard. DEQ checks gas emissions twice a day, and it says the levels they've detected so far are not explosive."
In community meetings, however, residents continue to ask whether the area around the sinkhole is unhealthy.
Tim Beckstrom, DEQ spokesman, said on Nov. 20, "as of today, 34 homes at Bayou Corne have had indoor air tests run since last August, with four more homes scheduled. We've found no levels of concern. We've also done some outdoor monitoring in residential areas and found no levels of concern there."
Landry said "Texas Brine will pay for air monitors in homes on slabs because natural gas can accumulate in slab houses. For homes built up off the ground and on piers, gas dissipates more quickly." At a residents' meeting on the sinkhole on Nov. 13, air monitors for slab homes were discussed, he noted.
Cranch said "we're now trying to find the right methane-gas monitors, which are more sophisticated than smoke detectors and aren't something you typically find in a hardware store. The ones we choose will have to send signals to a monitoring station." He said the company hopes to have monitors installed in slab homes sometime in December.
Landry's house is on a slab, and he opens his garage and storage room doors each morning for ventilation.
As for tremors, Landry said "I haven't felt them, but other people have. U.S. Geological Survey experts tell us the Aug. 3 collapse of the cavern knocked off large chunks of salt, causing tremors. USGS says the tremors are internal or localized and were not caused by broader seismic activity."
On Nov. 23, the Assumption Parsh Police Jury said "Dr. Will Pettitt, principal geophysicist at Itasca Consulting Group, reviewed seismic data recorded overnight on Nov. 20 to 21. Long-period seismic tremors and micro-earthquakes have been observed." Itasca Consulting, based in Minneapolis, was hired by Shaw to examine the collapsed rock zone under the sinkhole. The area's long-period, seismic tremors are belived to hav been caused by gas or fluid movements through the collapsed zone below the hole on the edge of the salt dome.
"Micro-earthquakes of this nature are typically associated with small-scale rock movements, and are believed to be occurring in the collapse zone," according to the Assumption Parish Police Jury.
Prior to that, Texas Brine on Oct. 1 was ordered by the state to do a geologic survey and collect relevant data. Cranch said "we submitted a subsurface survey plan to the state's Dept. of Natural Resources and are waiting to hear back about it."
Since caverns mined for brine in the area are also used to store natural gas, propane and butane, and because of the presence of crude oil in the hole, residents worry about possible explosions. Natural gas pipelines cross the region.
Meanwhile, fish and wildlife appear to be unaffected by the sinkhole, Landry said. "A modest fish kill in the area in late August was caused by Hurricane Isaac. If there were oil slicks or other noticeable pollution in the bayou, we would have seen it by now since many of us are out in the water in our boats."
The sinkhole's impact on businesses has been mixed."I've lost thousands of dollars in cancellations at my Cajun Cabins since last August," Landry said. "I own three cabins on Bayou Corne. But at the same time, I'm renting my cabins and recreational-vehicle spaces to responding state agencies and to Shaw Environmental."
Landry said "boaters don't stop as often at my Bayou Corne landing, where they launch boats for a fee, because they see the response activity and think we're closed." He also said "highway traffic is down in this area but stores, restaurants and other businesses that lost customers are now frequented by responders."
Texas Brine is helping people stay afloat. Landry said "every household in the 1.5 mile-long, evacuation zone has received $875 a week from Texas Brine since August, whether they've evacuated or not. People who had to leave are staying in their camps or house boats, or with relatives or in rentals. Most local kids are still attending the same schools."
Landry said "this is a beautiful, bayou community that's not exactly in the sticks because we're a half hour drive or less to Baton Rouge, Gonzalez, Morgan City and Thibodaux. But our homes have declined 50 to 100 percent in value because of the sinkhole. We're hoping Texas Brine will give us lump-sum payments for what we've lost."
On the north side of Highway 70, about 75 percent of the houses at Bayou Corne were evacuated. Those homes are 2,000 to 2,500 feet from the hole, Landry said. No homes have been swallowed by the hole. However, "many residents on the north side of the highway felt tremors," he said. "Many of them don't want to return but they can't sell their houses right now."
On the south side of Highway 70, 27 homes are located in a subdivision that Landry has been developing for the past eighteen years. "They're substantial brick homes on concrete slabs on the bayou. Twenty of the homes are occupied right now. I'm staying there now, and those of us on my street, Sportsman's Drive, don't want to move." But he said "most of us on the south side haven't felt tremors."
Evacuees don't know when they'll be able to return. "We're waiting for air monitors, waiting to see more flaring of gas," Landry said. "We expect to attend another community meeting in the first or second week of December."
He continued "I feel the authorities and Texas Brine are telling us most of what we need to know, and people in the community are staying on top of that information. But we're frustrated because there are still so many unknowns. Florida and other states have sinkholes but the dynamics are fairly unique here in that oil and gas are involved. And from what I can tell, this shouldn't even be called a sinkhole. Geologically, what we had was a collapse." end


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