Thursday, February 21, 2013

Louisiana sinkhole updates - February 21 - 24 , 2013..... h/t Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle !

http://beforeitsnews.com/environment/2013/02/explosive-methane-fault-migration-gulf-to-la-salt-domes-2462438.html


(Before It's News)


Louisiana's onshore faults and fractures link to Gulf of Mexico where methane gas has been leaking since April 2010 when BP wrecked the Macondo well, MC 252. Presently, Apache Corporation is trying to stop methane that is migrating from its well. (Photo Credit: Dr. Sherwood Gagliano et. al)





 Proven and suspected faults in South Louisiana and of its coast in the Gulf of Mexico were mapped by Baton Rouge based Coastal Environments, Inc. president Sherwood Gagliano, PhD in 2005 and presented in a research report and slide presentation. (Photo Credit: Dr. Sherwood Gagliano et. al)

Explosive methane gas migrating along fault lines from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Peigneur and Bayou Corne sinkhole disaster salt domes is not only possible, but also has been a known oil and gas industry risk since 2005, according to a civil engineering expert who spoke with human rights reporter Deborah Dupré Monday.

"The fault lines are planes of weakness and the methane leakages represent the faults," Sherwood Gagliano, Ph.D. said on the telephone Monday.
This "shows that scientists and officials are not as in-the-dark about the events,” Save Lake Peigneur member Glo Conlin wrote in an email Monday. 
Apache Corporation is trying to kill highly pressured migrating gas in the Gulf of Mexico’s Main Pass Block 295 50 miles east of Venice and in BP’s wrecked MC-252 Macondo well region.

Wednesday, about 50 miles west, sheriff asked motorists to stay clear of Lake Peigneur due to two days of vigorous bubbling/foaming where an arsenic plume is.

Fifty miles further north, there's enough methane bubbling in over 40 sites in the bayou “sinkhole” 2-mile salt dome area "to do very serious damage to anything on the surface if it’s not controlled,” according to chief geologist on that disaster case.

These events are linked, and maybe in more ways than one, according to civil engineer and president of Baton Rouge-based Coastal Environments, Inc. Dr. Sherwood Gagliano, who has spent years researching fault lines in south Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico.

Down under dome quake danger

“Salt domes are there because of faults,” . “They don’t just happen on their own.”

In fact, fault movement is an underrated natural hazard in South Louisiana, according to Gagliano. Differential movement between low-density salt and adjacent sedimentary deposits might have a wedging effect on faults, initiating brine water and gas moving up fault zones, he reports.

Aside from gas migrating from Apache's well in the Gulf off Louisiana's coast, at least two regional methane gas leakage events now occur near the Gulf, at Lake Peigneur and Bayou Corne, are linked: Each is manmade due to salt dome mining, rather than solely natural events.

“Those dome leakages with methane escaping are more due to hot water being pumped into them,” explained Gagliano.

The primary method of extracting underground salt is pumping hot water into the underground salt domes. “Today, all brine operations inject steam or hot water into dry salt beds.” (Michigan State University, Salt mining: mining part)

“We have over 100 of those facilities on faults in South Louisiana and Texas, Gagliano said. "They all need to be reevaluated."

Sixty-one of those salt dome facilities correlate with known subsurface faults, according to Gagliano’s 2005 report.

Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (LDNR) recently issued an order for all of the state’s 34 salt dome operators to show how close their oil and gas industry storage caverns are to outer edges of the domes, and prove that caverns nearest dome edges are structurally sound. This was an admission of the state previously failing to ensure such safety measures. 

In 2005, Gagliano led a comprehensive study of suspected relationships between geological faults and subsidence in Southeastern Louisiana, reporting findings in Effects of Earthquakes, Fault Movements, and Subsidence on the South Louisiana Landscape.

 “When oil, gas and produced water are removed, localized subsidence and fault movement may occur,” he then reported. “Geological fault movement, compaction and fluid withdrawal are inter-related processes contributing to subsidence.

“Differential movement between the low-density salt and adjacent sedimentary deposits may have a wedging effect on the faults, initiating brine water and gas movement up fault zones,” Gagliano reported. “The water and gas in turn may lubricate the fault plane surfaces and cause instability along fault segments.”
While finding that faulting poses a natural hazard in Louisiana, according to Gagliano, pumping water into the domes to dissolve salt for brine allows methane to migrate along faults and veins.

Gagliano concluded his 2005 report saying, “Until recently, the relationship between geological faulting and coastal land loss had been largely neglected by researchers, and by the coastal restoration community.”

Dangerous South Louisiana gas migration

Only 90 miles east of bubbling Lake Piegneur and about 140 miles from gas-bubbling Bayou Corne sinkhole area, Apache’s rig evacuated two weeks ago after an underground blowout. This event reportedly involves migrating natural gas only, and they are trying to “kill” it from a platform. 
“In other instances of this happening, the upward-shooting gas also involves oil, both escaping into surrounding bedrock and ultimately reaching the water surface,” On Wings of Care Dr. Bonnie Shumaker reported after her Gulf flyover last week.

As gas continues migrating, the large surface sheen Shumaker had been seeing in MC-252 (Macondo well) area “seems to have gone.” 

About 50 miles northwest of Apache’s incident, South Louisiana’s Vermilion and Iberia Parish sheriff’s offices and state officials responded to Wednesday morning calls by residents seeing Lake Peigneur bubbling two days running.

About 50 miles north of Lake Peigneur, 20 more methane gas bubbling sites were recorded by officials involved in Louisiana’s “sinkhole” disaster area.

Peigneur bubbles

Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office asked motorists to stay clear of Lake Peigneur area until the Louisiana's Department of Natural resources (DNR) and Department of Environmental Quality assess the bubbling.
Nara Crowley, Save Lake Peigneur Inc. president, said last week marked the first time bubbling continued into a second day, although odd bubbling has occurred since 2005.

At a public hearing later on Wednesday night, locals also raised concerns about the amount of water from their sole water supply, Chicot Aquifer, that would be needed to create new caverns in the salt dome in the lake, and about an arsenic plume there.

Residents surrounding Lake Peigneur have long questioned the bubbling and many have opposed expanding the salt dome storage caverns in their lake.

Residents had gathered Wednesday night at a public hearing in New Iberia about the state permitting AGL Resources to expand its salt dome under Lake Peigneur with more caverns.

Jim Brugh, regional manager of Louisiana Water Company, LAWCO, said the company knows an arsenic plume is within the aquifer east of the company’s wells in New Iberia Parish.

“The company only recently developed a new well field west of the plume that it estimated the arsenic wouldn’t reach for 50 years,” the Daily Iberian reported. With accelerated draw down from AGL resources, however, Brugh said Wednesday night that they could not be so sure.
“We’re very, very concerned the plume will contaminate the wells,” Brugh said.

State Sen. Fred Mills, R-Parks, questioned the need of caverns and their impact on coastal resources: Natural gas storage is 16 percent higher than the five-year average while, “our coastal resources are among the most valued in the nation, yet the fastest disappearing on the planet.”
“Protect the lake,” Mills said, “she has suffered enough.”


Thursday, Louisiana’s DNR sent field agents to investigate bubbling at Lake Peigneur, where natural gas is stored in its large salt dome.

“We found foaming residue on the top,” said DNR spokesman Patrick Courreges, adding that the foam “is the result of something happening,” reported the Advocate.

Crowley said this most recent bubbling period seems longer than any other episode, several hours Wednesday and Thursday morning. Lines of bubbles like over-boiled spaghetti foam stretched up to 3,000 feet across the lake.

Crowley and her group have been reporting the odd bubbling on Lake Peigneur since 2005.

Courreges said it is too early to speculate what might be causing the bubbling.

Bayou Corne sinkhole disaster bubbling

Bayou Corne’s salt dome “sinkhole” disaster in Assumption Parish 50 miles from Lake Peigneur has exacerbated Lake Peigneur residents’ personal safety concerns. Perhaps other Louisiana towns and cities should be equally concerned.

“In the past, when Bayou Corne residents asked about the bubbling, the answer was, ‘It’s swamp gas,’” said Gloria Conlin, of Abbeville, also active in Save Lake Peigneur. “To Lake Peigneur residents, that sounds familiar.”

Officials now officially admitted that the methane substantially more than 50,000,000 cubic feet of gas below surface near giant sinkhole? Covers over 2 square miles — “enough to do “very serious damage” and very rapidly, “if uncontrolled.”

At the Feb. 19 Senate Committee Hearing on Bayou Corne about the “sinkhole,” geologist Dr. Gary Hecox stated, “The gas across here is between 2 and 10 feet thick[…] around 50-60 psi pressure.
“It is enough to have large volumes come to the surface very rapidly if it’s uncontrolled,” Hecox said.

“It’s enough to do very serious damage to anything on the surface if it’s not controlled.”


Hecox said, “We’ve estimated the volume of gas in the MRAA as 50 million cubic feet in place.
Hecox said an updated estimate probably probably be available at the end of this week will probably be “substantially bigger than the 50 million.”

Increasingly for nine months, gas from an unknown source has been bubbling in S. Louisiana’s Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou area in Assumption Parish, an “unprecedented,” a globally “historic” event.
Two months after first reports about the gas there, a large sinkhole appeared and has been expanding ever since. It is now almost 9 acres. In eight months, the area went from having a few gas bubbling sites to over 40 bubbling sites. Officials reported that this month, they recorded an additional 20 bubbling sites.
Bubbles have been video recorded in Bayou Corne resident yards after heavy rains. Gas has been officially detected under the Bayou Corne community. Officials and residents fear a giant explosion, prompting an order for homes on slate to install industrial gas monitors.

“Bubbles can indicate pathways where oil could soon follow,” the Times Picayune reported in July 2010 about the BP Gulf oil catastrophe. Bayou Corne's sinkhole disaster is seemingly demonstrating this: spewing not only gas, but also crude oil also from an unknown source, into the Cajun swampland waterways and communities.

Wednesday, WWL Radio host Spud spoke to State Rep. Joe Harrison about the “sinkhole” in Assumption Parish saying “it is getting more and more out of hand.” Speaking about a vicinity methane explosion, Spud said, “There has been nothing with the potential of this.”

Harrison agreed it is “very possible” that a big explosion could go off and that “this is absolutely unprecedented.”

“They haven’t been able to identify all the chemicals coming out of the ground,” and “the chemical compounds are mixing together and they’re trying to get a link as to where they’re coming from.”
“We have no plan,” he said.

The late Matthew Simmons had said in 2010 that, due to gas leaking from the Gulf since the BP-wrecked Macondo Prospect (MC-252), Louisiana needed a plan - to evacuate its southern region.

Gulf Methane

Macondo Prospect is in the same vicinity as the now highly pressurized gas migrating below the Gulf floor attributed. While it remains to be seen whether a connection exists between Apache’s migrating gas gas bubbling in Assumption Parish, in 2010, Simmons warned of apocalyptic consequences of the BP-wrecked MC-252, Macondo oil well. 

“It is an overlooked danger in oil spill crisis: The crude gushing from the well contains vast amounts of natural gas,” AP reported.

Methane is typically trapped in small amounts beneath the earth's surface. In the Gulf, an abundance of the gas is in the seafloor.

Methane caused the original Macondo well explosion. The chemical reaction of cement setting created heat that converted a pocket of methane hydrate crystals into a bubble of compressed gas that in turn, grew as it rose up the drill column and caused the rig to explode.








































"A small bubble becomes a really big bubble," said top oil expert Dr. Robert Bea, a UC Berkeley professor and government consultant. "So the expanding bubble becomes like a cannon shooting the gas into your face."

“The gas flooded into an adjoining room with exposed ignition sources, Bea said, causing the first explosion, and others followed. According to one interview transcript, the gas cloud caused giant engines on the drill floor to run too fast and explode, setting ‘everything on fire,’" the Tribune reported.

Methane, the volatile gas that triggered Transocean's Deepwater Horizon oilrig operated by BP, comprised at least a third the total volume of material subsequently discharged into the Gulf,according to the Herald Tribune in Feb 2011. 

“While the crude oil received all the attention, methane was largely overlooked as a component of the spill, despite its potential to also cause environmental damage,” the Tribune reported.
According to marine scientist Dr. Samantha Joye, 1000 times more methane was involved with BP's Gulf oil catastrophe than normal levels.

In June 2010, “A BP spokesman said the company was burning about 30 million cubic feet of natural gas daily from the source of the leak, adding up to about 450 million cubic feet since the containment effort started 15 days ago.”

By July, scientists reported four gas "seeps" at or near BP's blown-out Macondo well soon after the supposed capping (a “sham” TV performance to fool the public, according to Simmons). Bubbles were spotted: 1) on the seabed about three kilometers from the well, 2) a few hundred meters from the well, 3) at the base of the original blowout preventer on the well, and 4) coming out of a gasket in on the installed capping stack. 

Pressure had been rising in the well, a good sign indicating it might have been sealed -- “But the readings are much lower than expected -- 6,811 pounds per square inch and rising an inch an hour -- igniting a debate over whether the well may have a leak somewhere,” the Times Picayune reported Day 81 of the well gushing.

An expert warned soon after Macondo was supposedly capped that doing so could have unintended consequences. “Gas hydrate crystals could be plugging any holes in the underground portion of the well, and they could get dislodged as pressure builds,” said Bill Gale, a California engineer and industrial explosion expert who is a member of the Deepwater Horizon Study Group [formerly Chief Loss Prevention Engineer for Bechtel in San Francisco].




In other words, methane crystals might have destroyed part of the steel well casing temporarily plugged by methane. It was speculated that the well capping might slowly raise the pressure in the well to the point that hydrate crystals were dislodged and the well would start leaking even more. 
Scientists said the methane could even disturb the seafloor itself, as St. Peterburg Timesreported Carol Lutken of University of Mississippi expalined. "Disturbing those [methane hydrate] deposits — say, by drilling an oil well through them — can turn that solid methane into a liquid, leaving the ocean floor unstable." 

Almost a year later, in June 2011, Joye and other experts argued that the odorless yet potent methane still seeped into the Gulf, contradicting reports that a bacteria ate the methane within four months of the Gulf's Macondo well catastrophe.


“Off-camera, Joye and other scientists were bombarded with phone calls from furious officials, from NOAA and other government agencies,” the Guardian reported in April 2011.

"I felt like I was in third grade and my teacher came up to me with a ruler and smacked my hand and said: 'You've just spoken out of turn.' They were very upset," Joye said.

After BP's crude continued leaking over a year, and another attempt made to kill the stricken well, the cofferdam leaked due to methane gushing out of the well, accumulating and clogging the cofferdam, and making it float.

The cofferdam is the 40-foot-tall, 86-ton steel containment dome used in early stages of the BP Gulf oil catastrophe response in attempt to trap the leaking oil and funnel it to the surface. 

“Methane crystals also clogged a four-story containment box that engineers earlier tried to place on top of the breached well,” the Christian Monitor reported in June 2010 in an article, Gulf gas: BP oil spill increases methane in Gulf waters.

Simmons was highly vocal on nationwide news programs, making claims that led some people to question his sanity along with blowing the whistle on BP and Government. But was Simmons’ predictions of migrating gas sound?

He pointed to a strong possibility of several Gulf leaks, not just one the U.S. media and BP showed in videos and the live-stream capping of a well. Simmons first suggested this on MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan program on May 26th, 2010.

Responding to a question about a second leak, Simmons replied that much oil was six miles away, and said, “I think that’s where the wellhead is.” He mentioned telling government officials that.

On June 7, 2010, Simmons predicted a discovery of an open hole with no casing in it, about seven miles from where BP had been trying to fix the little tiny leaks in the drilling riser . He said BP had done everything wrong.

Before his untimely death, Simmons blew the whistle not only on BP's lies, but also Government lies about the Gulf catastrophe. Based on his close connections to other oil industry insiders and top government officials charged with regulating the oil industry, he said claims of only 5,000 barrels of oil leaking were “preposterous,” and instead conjectured minimally 120,000 barrels of BP's oil leaking into the Gulf.

He reported leaks 5 to 7 miles from Macondo, later confirmed by NOAA in the Thomas Jefferson. By mid-July 2010, BP admitted possible leaks from the seabed some distance from the Macondo wellbore.
In a July 17, 2010 interview with Eric King on King World News, Simmons warned about the gigantic "lake" of crude oil pooling under great pressure 4000 to 5000 feet down in the "basement" of the Gulf's waters. 

“It was painful to speak out,” Simmons told King. “When I believe something, I believe it’s kind of my responsibility to speak out about it.”

“Are people in danger?” King asked Simmons, who responded affirmatively, continuing with statements about methane gas and aying, “It could be the greatest loss of life from a non-war disaster.”


After BP “capped” the Macondo well, Simmons stood by his earlier claims: The well capping was fake and BP's second well in the Gulf was gushing crude and methane.

“The perjury going on has just been astonishing,” he told King.

Simmons made national headlines by stating BP would go bankrupt due to not having enough money to clean the Gulf and that Macondo well’s integrity and pressures were so high, nothing short of a small nuke could close it. He said that until then, it would continue leaking an inexhaustible amount of oil and gas.





When King asked Simmons if he had whistleblowers feeding information to him, he replied yes but that they were also saying, “Help me. I need some help.

“Some of these oceanographers on these research vessels have said, ‘Mr. Simmons, I’m so proud of you, but I need your help. I’m having my professional career tarnished by saying I’m lying about this just to get money.’”

Simmons recommended that experts with methane gas expertise provided advice for the safety of Gulf Coasters.
Like nitrogen, methane is an asphyxiant, meaning it can kill people by displacing oxygen. It can also be the source of explosions if a spark ignites it, as Bayou Corne “sinkhole” area residents and officials justifiably fear some 100 miles from Macondo and the migrating gas.

Simmons said people, especially in Louisiana, needed to be evacuated due to the Gulf’s “open hole.”
“There will be a vast amount of methane gas coming out of there,” Simmons said.

From experience in Houston with Hurricane Rita (2005), he said last-minute evacuation would likely be disasterous with highways jammed hopelessly, drivers out of gas, and then gas stations out of gas.

BP should be barred from media airwaves since they lied to cover up their criminal negligence and culpability, Simmons asserted. Instead, last week, District Judge Carl Barbier ruled BP will not even be liable for the full $21 billion in fines for dumping millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf. The company now faces maximum liability of $17.6 billion.

“That's less than the oil giant made in 2012 alone – when they raked in profits of over $25 billion,” Thom Hartmann says this week.

“There's no dollar amount that brings back the 11 workers killed on the Deep Water Horizon.”

There’s no dollar amount that brings back hundreds if not untold estimated thousands of deaths from what more than one victim has called, “chemical genocide” of BP’s Gulf oil catastrophe.

“We should give BP the corporate death penalty and revoke their right to do business in our nation,” Hartman asserts.

Furthermore, as biological oceanographer at Florida State University researcher Ian MacDonald said, "When discussing the spill, it has been the tendency of both the government and BP to completely ignore the gas that was released. I think they are responsible legally and ethically." 


































and.....


http://lasinkhole.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/bombshell/




Advocate Bombshell – Old Salt Dome Records (Maps) Incorrect
 FEBRUARY 24, 2013 BY FLYINGCUTTLEFISH
Shape of salt dome factor in sinkhole

Scientists say cavern created too close to edge of Napoleonville Dome

By David J. Mitchell

Studies of the area where a sinkhole formed last summer in Assumption Parish indicate scientists suspected as early as 1991 that the Napoleonville Dome was not shaped as state regulators believed when they permitted industry to create caverns in the massive underground formation.

The shape of a salt dome is important because it dictates where caverns, which are created by pumping water underground to dissolve the salt and create a void, can safely be located. . . .

http://theadvocate.com/home/5218655-125/shape-of-salt-dome-factor

and........






http://lasinkhole.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/crosstex-confusion/



Crosstex’s Inventory Confusion

  BY 
10

The reports on the giant size butane cavern run by Crosstex seem to be incompetently made, deliberately wrong or just all screwed up. While the Napoleonville salt dome collapses it is affecting the Crosstex butane cavern to the east. It is very important that Crosstex move the dangerous butane away from the disaster area. So they are taking action but they seem to not know what product is in the cavern. John pointed it out and Freedomrox has too (several times).
Well #2 is right on the edge of the sinkhole and well #1 is a little further away. Crosstex well map. Where the caverns are (post).

Checking all of the Crosstex updates we find this:

Report Date – 08/10/2012
-Well #1 – 18,408 bbls – moving isobutane out of well #1@~700 bph
-Well #2 – 934,893 bbls of normal butane
Report Date – 08/11/2012 — same until 8-14… then -
Report Date – 08/14/2012 
-Well #1 – empty <WOW!
-Well #2 – 940,000 bbls of normal butane – normal operations
And they move butane from EMPTY Well #1 on 8-15(!) -

Report Date – 08/15/2012
-Well #1 – empty
-Well #2 – 950,521 bbls of normal butane – normal operations
-moved ~10bbls of normal butane into the well <from WHERE???
8-16 the same until 8-20… then -
Report Date – 08/20/2012
-Well #1 – 5837 barrels of normal butane < BUTANE’S BACK!
-Well #2 – 945,919 bbls of normal butane
-transfer of normal butane from well #2 to well #1 started at 11:30 am on
950,521 – 945,919 = 4602
OK, so they are selling some off. And their plan is this - “Current Objectives
  • -Well #1 – take normal butane from well #2 when not sending to customer
  • -Well #2 – send normal butane off site to customer”
  • Report Date – 08/21/2012
    -Well #1 – 9955 barrels of normal butane
    -Well #2 – 938,163 bbls of normal butane
    -transfer of normal butane from well #2 to well #1 started at 11:30 am on
    08/20/12
    -transfer of normal butane off site to customer started at 11:30 am on 08/21/12 < they do this a lot
    Report Date – 08/22/2012 
    -Well #1 – 11,767 barrels of normal butane
    -Well #2 – 930,390 bbls of normal butane
    Report Date – 08/23/2012
    -Well #1 – 14,641 barrels of normal butane
    -Well #2 – 924,972 bbls of normal butane
    Report Date – 08/24/2012
    -Well #1 – 14,641 barrels of normal butane
    -Well #2 – 912,416 bbls of normal butane
    So … it goes on like this with butane sell off and moving from #2 into #1.
    Jan. has normal entries from the first  of the month until … it goes off the rails on the 20th -

    Report Date – 01/20/2013
    -Well #1 – 2,897 barrels of propane  < Ding-Dong!
    -Well #2 – 146,231 barrels of normal butane
    -transfer of normal butane from well #2 to well #1 started at 11:30 am
    Report Date – 01/21/2013
    -Well #1 – 9,391 barrels of propane < Ding-Dong!
    -Well #2 – 128,555 barrels of normal butane
    -transfer of normal butane from well #2 to well #1 started at 11:30 am
    Report Date – 01/22/2013
    -Well #1 – 2,958 barrels of propane < Ding-Dong!
    -Well #2 – 128,492 barrels of normal butane
    -transfer of normal butane from well #2 to well #1 started at 11:30 am
    Jan. has normal entries at the end of the month and Feb., 2013  reports look OK until the 9th. Then they get butane turned into propane somehow.
    Report Date – 02/09/2013
    -Well #1 – 35,532 barrels of normal butane
    -Well #2 – 9,324 barrels of propane  < Ding-Dong!  <?????
    -transfer of normal butane from well #2 to well #1 started at 11:30 am
    SAME MISTAKE on all the reports through the month …

    Report Date – 02/16/2013
    -Well #1 – 26,739 barrels of normal butane
    -Well #2 – 22,645 barrels of propane < Ding-Dong!
    -transfer of normal butane from well #2 to well #1 started at 11:30 am
    Report Date – 02/17/2013
    -Well #1 – 27,411 barrels of normal butane
    -Well #2 – 22,187 barrels of propane  < Ding-Dong!
    -transfer of normal butane from well #2 to well #1 started at 11:30 am on
    Report Date – 02/18/2013
    -Well #1 – 27,721 barrels of normal butane
    -Well #2 – 22,187 barrels of propane  < Ding-Dong!
    -transfer of normal butane from well #2 to well #1 started at 11:30 am on (and some to customer)
    ALSO - on Feb. 8 Report this comment by Freedomrox shows aswitcheroo.
    “There was only 1,943 barrels of normal butane in Crosstex 2, practically empty. Since the Order put out by DNR was only for butane, well, technically, Crosstex is obeying the Order, while pumping in Propanefor storage. It is a loophole!”














http://lasinkhole.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/danger-imminent-at-sinkhole-alarm-by-freedmrox/





DANGER IMMINENT AT SINKHOLE! Alarm by Freedmrox, UPDATES

  BY 
7

WARNING:

Information in the Feb 18 Incident Action Plan indicated fast deterioration at the collapsing salt cavern in Napoleonville. Additionally, The Feb. 19 Plan shows big problems.

Pressure changes and fluctuation, seismic activity and more promptFreedomrox to say
Helicorders have reported two medium events this morning, and casing pressures are dropping and jumping…

Another Event is imminent. The signs are there, and the Cavern operators know it is coming and have for days.


There is no butane in Crosstex 2, as they switced to Propane, a less affected material by pressure.

UPDATE – 1:15 p.m. EST -
At Lake Peigneur:


Feb. 23 -
Well, folks you can forget about the Casing pressures on Oxy 3A, as they are pressuring down for a ‘workover’, so that info will be unavailable for a while.
This warning was only put out because I am very concerned over the worker’s safety, especially over the weekend. The 9 inches further deterioration of Oxy 3 Wellpad between the 10-11th supposedly a result of the slough-in, yet that should not have caused such drastic subsidence at Well Pad 3. I see it as a precursor.
http://tinyurl.com/ad9q24r
Additionally, reports are also shown that Occidenta Brine Well #1 during it’s workover detected an anomaly at 670 ft. Not a cracking but an anomaly, usely a term for a deformation or a dent. Being that it is at 370 ft just below the caprock and into the top of the salt is disturbing to say the lest, for it means the salt has shifted.
This after the discovery of a ‘bubbling spot’ on Crosstex property, as shown here:
http://tinyurl.com/b6qlyec

“2-1-13 – A sample of a small bubble location was taken with Shaw to determine if the site is swamp gas or not.”


This, after information that Chevron has emptied it’s cavern and has been refilled with brine, and Crosstex is powering up with propane in place of butane.
These were ominous signs and enough for me to issue an alert, along with at least two residents feeling tremors within the last two days..
This is not done to alarm anyone or induce panic. The people, all people, have the right to know when there is any news gleaned from publicly available reports.
I do hope not one single thing happens, and would love to be wrong. I have no fear of not reading all of the signs correctly. Yet again, if even one worker is injured and I didn’t say a word, then sorry, my conscience, just will not allow that.
To everyone working so hard out there, please keep your eyes and ears open, and please be safe.












  • http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20130219/HURBLOG/130219597


    Legislators discuss Bayou Corne sinkhole



    Workers clean up debris Monday from the sinkhole near the Bayou Corne community.
    Abby Tabor/Staff

    By 
    Staff Writer

    Published: Tuesday, February 19, 2013 at 9:14 p.m.
    Last Modified: Tuesday, February 19, 2013 at 9:14 p.m.
    BATON ROUGE — As an array of small explosives and even smaller microphones are used to map the ground deep under the Assumption Parish sinkhole, some residents say they never want to return to nearby Bayou Corne.
       At a meeting Tuesday, lawmakers heaped pressure on Texas Brine — the company they deem responsible for the sinkhole — by asking its representatives to create a process to buy residents' properties.
    Several of the estimated 350 people under an evacuation order gave teary testimony to the Joint Committee on Natural Resources and Environment.

    “I cry going to work when I pass my home. I lay down at night and cry wanting to be at my house,” said Bayou Corne resident Candy Blanchard, who has been out of her home since the evacuation order was issued Aug. 3. “I don't feel safe, and I won't feel safe there again. I want Texas Brine to step up and start talking to us as individuals.”

    Much of Tuesday's discussion centered on the idea of buying out residents who might be too fearful to return or have had property investments ruined by the hole.

    “Bayou Corne will always be associated with this,” said Carl Dugas, who has lived in the area for 30 years. “Texas Brine is holding two of my homes hostage right now. I can't sell them. I can't borrow money against them.”
    Dennis Landry, a resident and property developer in the neighborhood, added that Texas Brine should also compensate those who do not want to move for their decimated property values.

    Pressed about potential buyouts, Bruce Martin, Texas Brine vice president of operations, did not commit to anything, other than saying his company is focusing on containing and understanding the sinkhole.
       “I know there are some residents who want to be bought out and some who do not,” Martin said. “We have to focus on response activities.”

    Martin urged residents to meet with the community relations liaison in Bayou Corne so the company can ascertain how many people are interested in some sort of proposal.

    Another legislative committee meeting on the sinkhole will be held in March.

    State officials described La. 70 near the sinkhole and Bayou Corne as a beehive of activity.

    Trucks move on and off the otherwise quiet stretch, hauling in tons of earth for a nearly complete berm to contain the salty water and oil in the hole.
    Thin, black torches sitting among the cypress trees are a reminder of the natural gas being vented from the ground below.
    Inside some homes, residents live with monitors to detect any accumulation of gas. Other homes sit empty.
    Tuesday was the 201st day an evacuation order has been in place for residents of Bayou Corne. While some residents want out, others just want peace of mind.
    Scientists know the sinkhole was caused by a collapsed cavern — the top of which sits 3,400 feet below ground. The floor of the cavern sits about 5,600 feet below the surface.

    That cavern was mined inside the Napoleonville Salt Dome, a naturally forming solid salt formation. Texas Brine mined the cavern by injecting water and then pulling the highly concentrated saltwater out for industrial applications.
    Scientists believe the cavern was too close to the edge of the salt dome and outside pressure cause it to collapse, filling it with millions of cubic yards of earth that eventually led to the sinkhole. The collapse also let oil and gas sitting on the dome's edge to rise to the surface.

    • Before the evacuation order is lifted, John Boudreaux, Assumption Parish director of emergency operations, has said scientists must determine if the salt dome and other caverns within are stable, where gas has accumulated underground and if there is potential for another hole to open.
      The cavern is about 80 percent full of displaced earth, officials said Tuesday. Considering the volume of the cavern, scientists said the hole itself will not grow enough to threaten residents more than 1,000 feet away.
      There is the possibility of other voids below ground that could lead to another sinkhole, scientists said.
      To answer these questions, contractors are creating a three-dimensional image to 7,000 feet below the surface.
      A 2.8-square-mile zone has been charted above the dome's western flank.
      That zone will be dotted with an array of 2,500 strategically placed shots and about 2,200 geophones.
      The shots are typically small explosives buried 25 to 40 feet below the surface. Contractors are also using vibrosis trucks that shake the ground in 10-second intervals.
      These shots will be recorded by the geophones, which are small microphones stuck in the ground.
      “Sound travels at different speeds through different types of underground materials,” said Texas Brine spokesman Sonny Cranch.

      That sound will eventually bounce back to the surface to be read by the geophones.
      Scientists say they can map out any remaining underground voids, check the condition of the dome and determine where natural gas may be accumulating with the images created from the process.
      “Using this many sensors close together, we are going to get some really high-resolution images,” said Hoyt O'Neal, crew supervisor for Boone Exploration, the contractor installing the equipment.
      This imaging process is common in oil exploration, but not at this resolution. O'Neal said enough sensors are being used to map out a 23- square-mile area if this was an oil exploration job.
      Cranch said the images should be created and processed by April.






      NEW PHOTOS! They Reveal Trees Tilting on East (Butane) Side

       
      7

      see

      It looks like they are trying to build a crud-containment levee 
      around Lake FUBAR!
      Tony Gentile commented the trees are falling in on the east and west sides. We got a  BIG photo and took this picture from it -
      photoFeb21_2013a
























































































      and current flyover videos of the sinkhole.....





      assumptionla uploaded a video 1 day ago
      0:30
      WATCHED

      Flyover (4) 2/20/13

      2,002 views





    and is another sinkhole at risk in Louisiana ? 

    http://enenews.com/mysterious-bubbling-reported-by-salt-dome-50-miles-from-giant-louisiana-sinkhole-sheriffs-asking-motorists-to-stay-clear-of-area


    The Advocate, February 21, 2013: Opponents of expanding the underground natural gas storage facility under Lake Peigneur asked state regulators on Wednesday to carefully review what they argue has the potential to become another disaster on the scale of the growing sinkhole in Assumption Parish. [...] AGL Resources is proposing to scour out two new salt caverns for natural gas storage [...] [Nara] Crowley and other residents cited a host of potential safety and environmental concerns and pointed to the continued bubbling at the lake. Bubbling also was reported at Bayou Corne before the sinkhole developed there last year. [...]

    WAFB 9 News Baton Rouge, Feb 21, 2013: Residents who live in Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish are worried active bubbling on the lake near their homes could be putting their lives in danger. [..] The Department of Environmental Quality sent workers to the area to take samples of the mysterious bubbles on the lake surface. [...]

    KATC Lafayette, Louisiana, Feb. 20, 2013: Residents calim [sic] the lake has bubbled in the past and captured pictures of it bubbling again Wednesday afternoon.
    The Daily Iberian, Feb. 21, 2013: [...] The most recent was Wednesday afternoon. The Vermilion and Iberia Parish sheriff’s offices as well as DNR were called out this morning when residents saw the lake was still bubbling. The Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office is asking motorists to stay clear of the area until DNR and the Department of Environmental Quality assess the bubbling. [Resident Nara] Crowley said this is the first time bubbling has continued into a second day. [...]

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