Actual Estimated Subsidence Zone
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Actual Estimated Subsidence Zone
24
Monday Chex-Mix
We have to wait until sunset to check seismic activity as they have started the work trucks or drilling at Bayou Corne. Meanwhile, here are some Chex-Mix items we found of general interest -
NEW PHOTOS from the official website. 1 – 2 – 3 – 4
The Louisiana Dept. of Wildlife & Fisheries has a permit for seismic ‘exploration’.
A lot of B.P. oil fund news and Gulf coast ecology items are at this Louisiana Coastal Protection & Restoration website. < Added this RSS feed to the sidebar
This 2012 news item about the RESTORE (refill B.P.’s pockets) Act has this interesting bit on Corexit -
[snip] . . . “The region still faces much uncertainty two years after the spill. We still don’t fully understand how the volatile cocktail of 206 million gallons of crude oil and 1.8 million gallons of the oil dispersant Corexit that were dumped into the water will affect commercial and recreational fisheries, or juvenile fish development. But signs are already less than encouraging. Shrimp harvests are down, and many with no eyes are turning up in nets. Fishermen are landing red snapper and more than 20 other species covered in lesions. Dolphins are stranding themselves on beaches in unprecedented numbers. Oyster beds have been decimated and harvests remain well below average.
The Gulf is also a key spawning ground for bluefin tuna, among the highest-value and most-overfished species in the ocean. While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates as much as20 percent of the 2010 spawn was killed by the oil spill, the agency predicts the loss will only translate to a 4 percent reduction in “future spawning biomass”—the population of fish that grow to reach reproductive maturity.
Scientists don’t expect this blip will cause major hardship for the long-term viability of the species, but it doesn’t mean bluefin or any other species should be considered safe from the oil’s effects. We likely won’t have conclusive evidence of the full extent of the spill’s damage for years. Following the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, for instance, the region’s previously productive herring fisherysuddenly collapsed four years after the spill occurred, and it has yet to recover. Many signs point to Exxon’s oil as a cause of that delayed reaction.”
A 2012 RAND study on how much it will cost Louisiana to protect itself from hurricanes.
Lots and lots on structural failures in New Orleans during Katrina – New Orleans Times-Picaune (April) -
[snip] ” . . . . Industrial Canal lock-widening work did not contribute to the failure of floodwalls bordering the Lower 9th Ward during Hurricane Katrina, a federal judge ruled Friday. In what he said is likely his last ruling involving Katrina levee and floodwall failures, U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval lambasted the Army Corps of Engineers for engineering decisions he says were responsible for those failures, as well as the legal process that has granted the corps immunity from paying for the billions of dollars in damages caused by the flooding.
“I feel obligated to note that the bureaucratic behemoth that is the Army Corps of Engineers is virtually unaccountable to the citizens it protects despite the Federal Tort Claims Act,” the federal law governing damage claims, Duval wrote in the conclusion to his opinion. “The public will very possibly be more jeopardized by a lack of accountabilitythan a rare judgment granting relief. The untold billions of dollars of damage incurred by the greater New Orleans area as a result of the levee failures during Katrina speak eloquently to that point.”"
Louisiana Bucket Brigade on ExxonMobil – Our Toxic Neighbors
Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . .
By John Upton
It’s looking like a neighborhood in Assumption Parish, La., has been permanently wiped out by a sloppy salt-mining company.
A sinkhole in the area has grown to 15 acres since an old salt mine that was emptied to supply the local petrochemical industry with brine began collapsing in August. Hundreds of neighbors were long ago evacuated, and many of them are now accepting that they will never return to their homes.
The sinkhole isn’t just endangering homes, it is also burping out oil, natural gas, and debris, shaking the area so powerfully that seismic equipment is being used to monitor the site. And brine from the sinkhole is in danger of contaminating local waterways. . . .
It’s looking like a neighborhood in Assumption Parish, La., has been permanently wiped out by a sloppy salt-mining company.
A sinkhole in the area has grown to 15 acres since an old salt mine that was emptied to supply the local petrochemical industry with brine began collapsing in August. Hundreds of neighbors were long ago evacuated, and many of them are now accepting that they will never return to their homes.
The sinkhole isn’t just endangering homes, it is also burping out oil, natural gas, and debris, shaking the area so powerfully that seismic equipment is being used to monitor the site. And brine from the sinkhole is in danger of contaminating local waterways. . . .
Catching up on the buy-out news -
From Insurance Journal -
- Deadline for Louisiana Sinkhole Buyout Talks Extended
- Some Louisiana Residents Take Buyouts from Salt Dome Owner
We are stuck by the fact that with all that has gone on at the slurry pit-to-sinkhole-to-lake at Bayou Corne since Aug. 15th Crosstex has never updated their ‘worst case scenario‘ report. And the Conservation Dept. has never told them to do it.
7 p.m. tonight (CST) something happened at LA11 & LA14
