Louisiana State Representative Joe Harrison: The guy was looking over my shoulder and I turned my book over and said, “‘Who are you?” He told me and said, “I’m the geologist.”
He should have been the one in the front of the room. [The Texas Brine Company] never told anybody in there that he was sitting on the side. And this is the guy that knew everything that was going on. And he hasn’t, they don’t let him, they haven’t let him come back. [...] The man has never been back. I’ve tried to call the office and ask if I could speak to him. That has not happened. [...]
He even said things that night that have never been repeated. I guess he just spoke out of turn and was reigned in and not allowed to be here. This is their chief geologist. This is the guy who knew. He wanted to walk up there and answer the questions that the vice president of marketing was up there talking about [...]
And I asked the head, one of the other vice president’s, it looked like the head guys and he wouldn’t give me a [business] card. He wouldn’t give me his card. [...]
The geologist has never been back here. That is the question that needs to be answered. Why?
John Boudreaux, director of the parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said the more wells in place, the more gas that can be removed from under ground.
“And, hopefully, the sooner they can get it stabilized,” he said.
The sinkhole, which now has an 8-acre surface area [previously reported at 7 acres], is located in swamps between the communities south of La. 70 on property leased by Texas Brine from Occidental Chemical Corp.
Title: Bayou Corne Resident Meeting With La. State Representatives (Informal) Published: rainbeaudais Published: Nov. 10, 2012
At 35:00 in
Resident: I done a flyover and I took some video there. That hole is — the oil outside of the boom of that thing is ridiculous. Why isn’t the EPA involved in that?
Rep. Karen St. Germaine: They are.
Resident: [...] That swamp water is contaminated behind those peoples’ houses. No doubt in my mind the swamp is contaminated.
Louisiana sinkhole disaster officials are not adequately monitoring chemical health hazards manifesting in nearby neighborhoods, according to statements at an emotional Bayou Corne resident meeting with officials Tuesday night where locals spoke out about this to officials and to human...
Aside from continuous gas flaring 24 hours a day now at a Louisiana sinkhole in Assumption Parish, representing a greater rate of gas removal since late last week when ridding gas from a “vent well," Observation Well #2...
Public outrage is growing over Louisiana state officials providing a permit for deep oil drilling near the sinkhole that has now commenced near Bruly and normal operation drilling continuing in the salt dome near the sinkhole disaster site.Louisiana sate...
Although methane gas bubbling in south Louisiana bayous is still much of a mystery, it is no mystery that it is much closer to people living in the Bayou Corne community of Assumption Parish than previously detected and the...
As methane flaring at a company relief well was being conducted Wednesday at the Bayou Corne sinkhole site, Louisiana Commissioner of Conservation James Welsh announced that the state's Office of Conservation and Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ...
Assumption Parish officials re-issued a NOAA National Weather Service warning Monday out of New Orleans regarding the Bayou Corne sinkhole area expecting a dangerous evening storm due to bring deadly cloud-to-ground lightning, damaging winds...
Although methane gas bubbling in south Louisiana bayous is still much of a mystery, it is no mystery that it is much closer to people living in the Bayou Corne community of Assumption Parish than previously detected and the...
As methane flaring at a company relief well was being conducted Wednesday at the Bayou Corne sinkhole site, Louisiana Commissioner of Conservation James Welsh announced that the state's Office of Conservation and Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ...
*Must See* Feds keeping sinkhole info secret — State Rep: They’re doing detailed monitoring right now and just not telling us about it — US Gov’t hasn’t taken over yet because it’s about revenue (VIDEO)
Sinkhole Geologist: Deeper oil and gas deposits may be coming up from below Big Hum reservoir — “Nobody in the world has ever faced a situation like this, that’s the reality” (VIDEO)
The Louisiana Office of Conservation on Monday issued a new round of directives to Texas Brine Co. LLC aimed at minimizing risks from the public’s potential exposure to natural gas lingering under property in the Bayou Corne community of Assumption Parish where a large sinkhole has formed.
Conservation Commissioner James Welsh ordered Texas Brine to install in-home methane detectors and upgrade ventilation systems for slab-foundation homes and buildings located above the gas caught in an aquifer and even shallower sediments underground.
Welsh, whose office is part of the state Department of Natural Resources, also ordered Texas Brine to assume responsibility for installing and operating networks of wells — both vent wells and pressure wells — and monitoring equipment under his office’s specifications.
“The steps outlined in this directive will give us an added layer of protection in ensuring public safety and move the response effort closer to bringing the lives of the residents of the Bayou Corne area back to normal,” Welsh said in a news release.
The “vent wells,” some of which are already under construction or built and burning off gas, are designed to remove gas from the Mississippi River Alluvial Aquifer, Welsh said.
The new orders come as momentum seems to be building for gas removal from the aquifer about 100 feet underground after early problems with the clogged wells.
In blog posts Sunday and Monday, parish officials announced that a “vent well” on the south side of La. 70 South and east of Bayou Corne began burning off gas Sunday while another previously clogged well north of La. 70 began accumulating gas Monday.
John Boudreaux, director of the parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said that well could start burning gas Tuesday afternoon once equipment is installed.
The two wells were developed under the direction of Shaw Environmental and Infrastructure, which is DNR’s agent in the sinkhole response.
On Nov. 2, working under Office of Conservation orders, Texas Brine separately got a third well south of LA. 70 to burn off gas. It was the first of five vent wells now in existence to remove gas. Flaring virtually continuously since Nov. 5, except for a pause Monday to improve gas flow, that well has flared 224,000 cubic feet of gas, Cranch estimated.
Two other clogged wells, developed under the direction of Shaw Environmental and Infrastructure, are located north of La. 70 and east of Bayou Corne and south of La. 70 and west of Bayou Corne.
Also Tuesday, DNR and parish officials will be among those present at a 7 p.m. meeting at St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church hall, 3304 La. 70, Pierre Part, to discuss the latest developments with the sinkhole response.
Sonny Cranch, spokesman for Houston-based Texas Brine, said Monday the company is reviewing the order from Welsh and will act appropriately.
While discovery of the sinkhole on Aug. 3 between Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou prompted parish officials to order the evacuation of 150 homes, the discovery later of gas underground has added to the reasons to keep the order in place, parish officials have said.
On Thursday, the state Attorney General James “Buddy” Caldwell sent Texas Brine and Occidental Chemical Corp. a formal demand letter to pay state agencies’ costs for their response to the sinkhole and related effects.
DNR spokesman Patrick Courreges confirmed Monday that the letter is an indication that Texas Brine is viewed as the legally responsible party for the incident.
Requiring the company to assume responsibility for the wells and monitoring equipment is standard procedure for such a finding, he said.
DNR and private industry scientists have said they believe a Texas Brine-owned salt cavern inside the Napoleonville Dome had a wall breach several thousand feet underground. That failure, near the western edge of the salt dome, set off a chain of events that reportedly caused the sinkhole and released toward the surface oil and gas naturally trapped in pockets along the side of the salt dome.
Welsh’s order Monday comes in addition to a joint effort between his office and the state Department of Environmental Quality, announced Wednesday, to offer in-home air testing for area residents. That announcement followed the discovery that five of 18 geoprobes, shallow wells sunken throughout the Bayou Corne area in response to the sinkhole, found gas at 20 to 40 feet underground.
Title: Bayou Corne Resident Meeting With La. State Representatives (Informal)
Published: rainbeaudais
Date: Nov. 8, 2012
Published: Nov. 10, 2012
At 22:20 in
Resident 1: At first the tremors were located here. I felt them myself. Other people have felt them in Pierre Part. They’ve been feeling them in Brule [15 miles southeast of sinkhole] now. The thing is USGS says it isn’t happening. It’s happening.
Resident 2: They said it wasn’t happening when it was happening here [in Bayou Corne?] too.
Louisiana State Representative Joe Harrison: That’s why I’ve asked for congressional help on this. [U.S. Senator] Mary Landreau and [U.S. Senator David] Vitter’s office. Mary West who works in Mary’s office told me whatever comes out of this meeting that they can assist they’re going to do it. She assured me of that.
At 26:00 in
Louisiana State Representative Joe Harrison: We had calls in my office going crazy, calls with tremors as far as Terrebone, some in Upper Lafourche Parish that they’re checking out now.
Resident: They’ve had a lot of big earthquakes everywhere, like big ones.
