Published: August 21st, 2012 at 8:37 pm ET
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ARS Data – radiological (NORM) results for 1 water sample collected near the sinkhole
Source: Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality
Sample Collected: August 15, 2012
Sample Tested: August 17, 2012
Results Published: August 21, 2012
There are 6 radioactive isotopes — not including Potassium-40 — that are above the minimum detectable concentration (MDC).
- Thallium-208 @ 4.819 picocuries per liter (pCi/L)
- Bismuth-214 @ 15.590 pCi/L
- Lead-214 @ 15.517 pCi/L
- Radium-226 @ 63.569 pCi/L
- Radium-228 @ 18.705 pCi/L
- Thorium-228 @ 12.776 pCi/L
In the last report from a week ago, only 3 — Bismuth-214, Lead-214, and Thorium-228 — were detected.
Published: August 21st, 2012 at 8:37 pm ET
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sending...
From what I know….I can honestly say ….WOW. Where have we been , allowing this? How many more major disasters lie in wait. Banks and corrupt politicians should quickly be controlled, shut down.And let society begin it's clean up the mess of some of the most hideous humans ever existing.
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You have raised an issue that I believe is crucial. We the people of the world have trusted that because we would not poison our air, land, and water that no one else would be so immoral as to pollute to the point of sickening and killing the place we have called home. The attitude that there is nothing to be done to change the status quo allows these criminals to continue. I often despair because so many remain ignorant unless they are given the knowledge of what continues to happen and then more than likely they turn away and do nothing. The people in control are schooled in how to distract and to even place the burden of guilt on the world citizen. Lack of information and apathy is killing our world.
minkxy, Deepwater Horizon was as open a crime as we have ever had. Eleven men died and no one has been made accountable. We were aware of BP Oil being in charge of the situation to the point that they commanded the Coast Guard and kept journalists and photographers away. The lies were obvious, it was also obvious that our government gave a free hand in what was being done. Now with the crisis in the bayous, we are faced with the same behaviors, nothing changes.
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The key detail that is left out of this article, is whether these results are typical of a natural water & gas upwelling from a salt dome in that area, or not.
Pico-Curies per Liter is a very small unit of measure, and Radon gas for one is naturally produced by decay of of other isotopes deep in the Earth's crust, and normally diffuses up through rock as a gas. The other isotopes presumably can be naturally produced as well, and then carried dissolved in water from deep strata.
Or was someone actually pumping radioactive waste into one or more of those deep salt caverns?
It's a key point. Is this naturally occurring radioactive contamination, or man-made?
I'm thinking the isotopes are probably naturally occurring, but have been brought to the surface in a rush by man-made pumping of water into the salt dome.
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It has been reported previously that the radiation came from fracking byproducts (sludge) that Texas Brine placed in the salt cavern. The problem is man-made, but no one will suffer legal consequences, because of legislation passed in the Bush administration that allowed companies engaged in fracking operations to be immune to environmental laws.
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Hi dosdos
There are laws and then there are corporation laws that are put into place. Unfortunately it looks like the corporation laws out weigh the environmental laws.
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Terahertz you must be new here. At Enenews we as readers and participants do not rely on others all the time for our research. We also participate in individual research projects as well. So to start you along, here is the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.
If you have a question of them or need to know how to assess the information they publish-thoroughly read their site and then email them for an answer. Make sure you persist until they respond. When they do I am sure Enenews will be happy to publish your findings.
http://www.deq.louisiana.gov/portal/
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Ooops….I wasn't aware how "we at enenews" do what we do.
Thanks for letting me know
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just do what you do do well
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hehe
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Over here we have a saying : Every bird sings his song like hes beak is shaped .
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kalidances, I think TerraHertz has been around here for a while, but you touch on an interesting issue.
Whenever a new ID appears and says something that can be interpreted as downplaying a story, we tend to be ultra wary. This is because sock puppets often show up with a one-post "Everything is fine. Go back to sleep" hit-and-run message.
On the other hand, sometimes a long-time lurker feels motivated to jump in with a correction to a perceived error – a correction that might be welcome from a long-time poster, but is suspect from a newbie.
I guess this pattern will go on indefinitely and can't be helped. It's one more reason we all have to think stuff through as best we can.
In this case, "pico-anything" is indeed a tiny amount (twelve zeros). That part is good news. What does it mean and what is the trend?… that's the potentially scary part. TerraHertz's "I'm thinking the isotopes are probably naturally occurring, but have been brought to the surface in a rush by man-made pumping of water into the salt dome" is my first guess also, but it's just a guess.
I love the way this community dissects incoming material. The process isn't linear, but it tends to be effective and I think we are getting better at it all the time.
Can anyone remember "life before Enenews"?
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Yeah, as aigeezer notes, I've been here a while. Discovered enenews in the early days after Fukushima.
Yes, you're right I could have spent several hours researching normal radiation levels in deep groundwater in that area of the world. (I know it varies a lot depending on the overall geology.)
But I didn't. Because my primary point was that picocuries is an extremely tiny amount, and my gut feeling is this aspect (the radioactivity from the sinkhole) isn't worth being concerned about, and is being blown out of proportion.
What my gut does tell me is a concern, is the way the local authorities are enforcing mandatory evacuations. OK, so a salt dome got a stupid number of brine caverns put in it, and now there's a sink hole, plus assorted gasses bubbling up. And the nearby deep storage butane cavern needs to be emptied asap, before it empties itself spectacularly.
But as disasters go, this one seems minor and with no potential for anything but messing up a square mile or so of swamp. Certainly nothing like the Indonesian mud volcano man-made catastrophe.
I think perhaps that Fukushima has made us all skittish about the word 'radiation'. But it's important to keep in mind that there is a natural background level of radiation, and while 'less is better' with radiation, there's no point panicking senselessly about small variations.
Much better to panic rationally about real threats, like the ongoing fallout globally from Fukushima.
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Dear Bread and Butter,
But, gotta love folks sharing here though!
Heartfelt respect always.
Aloha.
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Dear adagi,
yes, enenwsers rock! And you keep up the aloha spirit, ok?
Great you're here
*peace
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Dear Bread and Butter,
Great respects, and will do
Aloha.
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Here we go again. Why hasn't this been on a special news report along with our officials speaking? I shouldn't be surprised, because Fukushima hasn't been either.
I get more information here, than what the media has given us. Thank you Enenews.
I am sure there are tons of things to be uncovered that the media could report on. What about the people who are out of their homes and so on? Enenews keeps finding out information, why can't the media?
There are people who don't know what is going on in Louisiana. I told 6 people, they had no clue.
At least this time we have the data, I hope they aren't pushing anything under the carpet, not telling us. My trust level has been weakened.
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Dear WindorSolarPlease,
Don't despair. You have alot going on and we will not fail you. You are dearly respected here. Please believe that your postings are truly making a difference!
Your precious energy is not lost here, with us, on ENENews
Take good care.
Aloha and Peace.
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Hi andagi
Maybe I expect to much? Media is here to report the real news, not the news corporate wants people to hear.
Officials should carry out the duties of their office and not be owned or feel the need to repay back. Instead they should work in behalf of the public, the country, and try to keep the peace.
Every Country should do what is right, for the betterment of this world.
We have serious problems that has not been addressed to the public, and I think we all deserve and have the right for more information.
Thank you andagi for your sweet words
Enenews and people here rock!!!
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Dear WindorSolarPlease,
You so eloquently state such wonderful truths. In light of these, in today's world, you might even consider raising the bar of your expectations
Keep posting!
Aloha.
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WindorSolarPlease,
I get my news here too. I am here everyday "lurking."
I'm grateful for all of ya'll.
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Hi rotnpumpkin
There are so many intelligent people here, they are constantly teaching me things. Gotta love it when the truth comes peeking out.
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The trap&plug system has failed.
The piping system has failed.
These are leaking, collapsing, bent and warped.
What they are trap-and-plugging-and-pumping is unnaturally unnatural for a clean,
healthy and safe environment.
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(Sorry to post from the WNA), here's some info about NORM (Naturally-Occurring Radioactive Materials)
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf30.html
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You have to tolerate the uneducated, these are the people that will end nuclear power, the educated have the answers but not the will to fight, ( exceptions to all rules ), we must inform the uneducated and get them on our side, as it is only about 2 percent of the population is following this nuclear holocaust.
Please don't criticize because of spelling and grammar, some of our best scientists are dexlexic, like myself.
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Louisiana sinkhole saltier the deeper it gets
"Although earthquakes numbering in the thousands for months before the sinkhole developed have ceased, seismic activity is still being recorded from the sinkhole vicinity"
http://www.examiner.com/article/louisiana-sinkhole-saltier-the-deeper-it-gets
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We could have hundreds of thousands of these small quakes, the USGS doesn't like that word so they are called, "tremors" and since they are man-made by the petroleum corporations, they are not recorded. What is bothersome to me is that the DNR allowed "non-natural radioactive materials" to be stored and when the Brine water was used in industry, the nuclear material must have been included. With fracking and the melting of the salt to make larger caverns, fresh water is being used and made toxic for the sake of profit. In the not so distant future, fresh water will be the new oil and more costly.
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You're on to something with those three posts, Heart. Darned if I know what, exactly… the Orwellian theme that there used to be earthquakes but now it's just seismic activity, and the various "depth stories" that sure don't appear to be consistent.
I've been wondering what the now-delayed cleanup story was all about. What do you clean up when a sinkhole forms? One news story said they were going to make it a lake, whatever that means – isn't it already a lake in all but name?
Gotta love the media. The more they write the less we know. Oh – inspiration just hit – I googled "youtube louisiana sinkhole" and got a ton of hits. Perhaps there's some citizen journalist stuff in there that can tell us more.
You've flagged some of the anomalies, for sure.
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Heart, I'm finding a ton of what I think is important, relevant stuff in that search ("youtube louisiana sinkhole"). I'll post one link that I don't recall seeing anywhere before. It's the kind of thing that should be here somewhere, so I apologize if it's already here and I missed it.
It's from msMilkytheClown from back in 2010 and it's called "Oil Drilling into a Salt Dome: Catastrophic Failure: Evidence Lake Peigneur 1980 Disaster BP". Spectacular film clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhwjSI3UOIw&feature=player_embedded#!
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Thanks for this ..aigeezer.
I'll watch it now.
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Thanks, Heart. "Good Ole Boys taking Care of the Louisiana Sinkhole" is another video that caught my eye because it plays up some political angles. I have no idea whether it is fair or not, but it suggests political shenanigans:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzA8dD6c5bo
That msMilkytheClown video though was a real eye-opener for me – spectacular film footage about salt-dome drilling gone wrong. That must be the kind of thing "the authorities" are worried about, although nobody seems to mention it.
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The 'good old boys'.
The corruption in the government in Louisiana is legendary.
But..they have been duped..by their own corruption.
Too much 'rubbing elbows with the boss'.
They have forgotten…the working man.
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"In early September 2010, Texas Brine 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. A DNR permit for that work was issued in May 2010."
http://www.examiner.com/article/sinkhole-cavern-is-not-gas-bubbles-source-environmentalists-say
If the salt cavern is the problem.. how can the sinkhole only be 400 feet deep?
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Drilling was expected to begin on August 19, Waguespack said last week. "They have to drill down at least 3,000 feet and directly into the cavern to try to find the source of the bubbling," he said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-buchanan/louisiana-sinkhole_b_1810972.html
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Louisiana Weekly for August 22,2012:
Last week,Sonny Cranch, spokesman for Texas Brine, said the site is NOT radioactive. That's been confirmed by Louisiana Dept. Of environmental tests and by the state Dept. Of Natural Resources..
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If I add this values it's 130.976 pCi/L
> http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=130.976+pCi%2FL
20 times EPA-limit for yor home… nice.
In this early stages…
By the way, "that are above the minimum detectable concentration (MDC)"
Great science: 20 times EPA-limit is just above MDC.
Welcome to the 21th century…
h.
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