Published: September 21st, 2012 at 8:04 pm ET
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Situation Summary
Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality
Sept. 1, 2012
Emphasis Added
Activities Performed by LDEQ personnel on Saturday, September 1, 2012 through Sunday September 2, 2012 (0700 hours):
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Conducted air monitoring and provided oversight at the Texas Brine drilling site.
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At the facility’s monitoring location AM-4 (LDEQ monitoring point 9), real-time monitoring exceeded the VOC low action level 4 times at 0418 hrs with readings of 81.6 ppm of VOCs and 3.3% LEL, at 0636 hrs with a reading of 79.4 ppm, at 0659 hrs with a reading of 92.9 ppm, and at 0700 hrs with a reading of 93.7 ppm; and also exceeded the VOC high action level 2 times and the LEL low action level 1 time at 0505 hrs with readings of 125 ppm of VOCs and 4 % LEL (EPA START multirae measured 204 ppm of VOCs and 4% LEL) and at 0522 hrs with readings of 195 ppm of VOCs, 11% LEL, and 0.5 ppm [500 ppb] of H2S.
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Following confirmation of high action level exceedance with the MultiRae, EPA START notified LDEQ Incident Commander Louis Martin.
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For H2S (hydrogen sulfide), “EPA set the safe exposure level at 0.00014 ppm [0.14 ppb] to protect sensitive people such as children and the elderly.” -Source
This news report discusses hydrogen sulfide levels after the BP disaster. Levels in Venice, LA peaked at almost 1,200 ppb:
See the full situation report here
Published: September 21st, 2012 at 8:04 pm ET
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Seems like, by now, the EPA would have raised the action level in anticipation of such a situation.
What? Are they worried about losing their credibility?
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Just wondering … is it possible that this situation is related to the disaster at Macondo, the Deepwater Horizon fiasco? Nobody is saying exactly what this gas is, that is bubbling out all over the place. If it was butane, we would know by now. They call it natural gas … is that the same as methane then, which was bursting out of the seafloor all around the disaster well?
Is it possible (god I hope not) that a crack or fault connected to that area has provided an escape route for the escaping methane so far away? If such a thing happened, there will be no way at all to stop it, and the size of it is beyond estimation. I cannot see any other likely source for so much natural gas from the local area, and it seems to be under some pressure. Any thoughts?
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Interesting bit of reading. It would seem that officialdom knew a while back that the gas bubbling out of the bayou is not swamp gas, that is, biogenic. It is thermogenic, meaning that it came from a very deep source. They also know it is not from the same source as any gas stored in the salt dome, which they have analysed and found to be different. So. We have deep source gas breaking out, that is NOT coming from the dome storage. They knew this BEFORE the sinkhole even opened up, back in July. Well then, it seems a fair question … WHERE IS IT COMING FROM?????
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Very interesting comment Vivi.
I read speculation about this possibility before this event occurred….
I cannot recall where now to provide the links
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@vivvi, i agree that something is different with this sinkhole, human caused though it may be. There's the fracking sludge, some other industrial waste stored in the hollowed out salt dome, then this huge methane pocket. As you pointed out – thermogenic. While someone had to have figured this would one day happen messing around with these salt domes above old lake beds of methane, it's finally come home to roost. Is this methane formation channeled to the one under the gulf? They say not, but, then again, they failed to notice a lot here. The one under Yellowstone is massive. These methane formations are newer science with satellite mapping technology and, me thinks many in the extraction industry are choosing to ignore the information lest it force them to stop their drilling, fracking, and dumping activities.
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Hi vivvi
You might be right, that there could be a possibility that this also has something to do with this disaster, along with the salt domes..I hope not.
They are doing a bang up job with the environment.
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It's obvious what the cause is, fracking sludge has decayed the structure of the salt cavern, shifting structural balance of the dome, fracturing the wall of the dome formation, allowing the sludge and other stored compounds to escape.
This is very typical of sludge drilling sites when the fracturing of the shale reaches the water table, almost to the letter. Except here, there is no shale, only salt, which is much more vulnerable structurally.
Texas Brine ran its water/salt extraction until the cavern quit turning a profit. They were approached by a fracking concern who hired them to store the sludge of fracking operations (always a headache for frackers to get rid of that horrid stuff) in the played out cavern. The money was too good to resist, so Texas Brine dumped it in the cavern and sealed it off. Now it's reaching its final stage in escaping to the surface, like it often does from fracked wells.
The problem is that the EPA, under Bush/Chenney, gave the frackers carte blanche when it came to environmental violations. In short order, Texas Brine can not be punished by the EPA, only the owners of the salt dome for violation of a contract, which might be in violation because it contradicts federal law concerning fracking byproducts. Texas Brine will walk away scott free after a few court hearings.
Bayou Corne is a dead, a ghost town that hasn't realized it yet
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Considering the success of Fukushima causing reform in the nuclear energy in the US, I doubt this sinkhole will make any difference in fracking laws. After all, it's really any different than what has been happening all over the US where there are shale formations holding natural gas.
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@dosdos, i agree. I thought this happens fairly routinely, but not always so close to a town. Maybe not such a big sinkhole. So, while it destroys the adjacent wildlife, few people notice since wildlife is for destroying anyway, or so most people think, if it benefits a human. But, wasn't there a really large one about 2 years ago?
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Dosdos. Please reconcile your "it's a result of fracking only" theory with vivvi' s statement, it's thermogenic and not the same as any gas stored in the domes……?
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Fascinating question, irhologram. I read both those posts with interest. I hope you'll all add links where feasible so we are less likely to get bogged down in conflicting opinions without knowing the underlying evidence.
Great thread!
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I dont really know how to link posts, but the information came from the chemists analysis of the gas carried out back in June and July this year. I came across it at the Louisiana sinkhole bugle, it was called the Natural Gas Report, about 5 pages long, and the chemist explained how he reached his conclusions. He described reasons why he did not believe the gas was from any known storage in the area, and that it was thermogenic in origin.
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Thanks, vivvi. I haven't found it yet but thanks for the tips. These links seem to be in the ball park but aren't quite right yet.
The first one is topical and has lots of good embedded links, but I can't yet find your chemist's report. I have a feeling it is in here somewhere and I'm just not seeing it:
http://www.texassharon.com/2012/07/05/louisiana-gas-bubbling-bayou-in-blowout-area/
This second one is older but might be the right site (bugleboy?). It's certainly interesting reading:
http://thebugleboy.org/documents/Affirming_Gasland_Sept_2010.pdf
I used a few search phrases, ending up with "louisiana bugle thermogenic natural gas report".
Please post if you come across a link or more clues. Good stuff!
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Mantle Oil and Gas LLC is the owner of an exploratory well that blew out on 8/11/10. The well is 7,200 feet and they were drilling for oil and gas. The location of the well is near LA 70, in Assumption Parish. The well blew out at about 3:30 in the morning and was spewing a brown mist of oil, up to 200 feet into the air. Locals say that it is literally raining oil, up to a mile away.
At this point, there is speculation that the Blowout Preventer (BOP) failed. This is the type of failure that is being associated with the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, in the Gulf of Mexico. Other than general speculation about a BOP failure, details about this accident are not currently being released.
http://newsflavor.com/world/usa-canada/new-oil-well-blowout-in-assumption-parish-louisiana-video/
http://www.texassharon.com/2012/07/05/louisiana-gas-bubbling-bayou-in-blowout-area/
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Found it! Thanks for the clues, vivvi. Your memory served us well.
http://dnr.louisiana.gov/assets/OC/BC_All_Updates/DATA_SAMPLING/Isotopic_Analysis_Summary_Prof_Paul_Philp_July112012.pdf
Now we're all left with irhologram's interesting question (to dosdos originally) – "Dosdos. Please reconcile your "it's a result of fracking only" theory with vivvi's statement, it's thermogenic and not the same as any gas stored in the domes……?"
Thinking cap time!
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