Published: October 20th, 2012 at 12:26 pm ET
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Title: 9:00 a.m. Update
Source: Assumption Parish Police Jury
Date: Oct. 20, 2012
Clean up continues today at the sinkhole site.
We’ve received many inquiries regarding the flyover videos posted on yesterday – specific to the growth towards the pipeline right of way. This appearance of growth is due to hydrocarbon contaminated vegetative debris being removed and wasn’t caused by a sinking or slough-in of the hole. Floating grass that can be seen all along the pipeline right of way was removed (on the direct perimeter of the sinkhole) during clean up efforts.
Are they saying this new area was already considered part of the sinkhole? If so, why is it not included within the border of the sinkhole on the most current sinkhole dimensions map?
To view the latest changes in the sinkhole, see:
- Latest flyover footage shows giant Louisiana sinkhole taking on new appearance (PHOTOS & VIDEOS)
- Signs of ground breaking up in areas far outside giant sinkhole's official border (PHOTOS)
Published: October 20th, 2012 at 12:26 pm ET
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sending...
I imagine the floating grass therefore is floating on a sinkhole?
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Ignore that giant perimeter of dead Cypress Trees that have stood over the bayou for centuries. That's just "contaminated vegetative debris" as well.
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The Assumpton Parish update..they are "still testing"..not providing information to residents or evacuees. See:
http://www.edsuite.com/proposals/proposals_280/assumption_update_october_19-2012_fi_503.pdf
Note the changes for this report are in red..and the amount of tests without any responses to the victims….
This will certain shove more people into legal (Lawyers!) action. And with the minimal wording of the Texas Brine documents on evacuee asssistance-it would make ANYONE worried. Wonder what government official signed off on the TEXAS BRINE boilerplate..and what other companies also use the same wording? Lots of cookie cutter documents I bet…
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Keep in mind that the official differentiate between the hole and the subsidence region. The hole goes down hundreds of feet. The subsidence area only goes down a few feet, though with all the oil present, it's difficult to determine depth visually from above. They have to use sounding line or electronic depth finders to determine that.
The subsidence area is sinking and taking on oil and water, but it's not part of the hole as the officials determine it. The hole is caused by the failure of the cavern, whereas the subsidence is caused by a shifting of the cap of the dome or a compression of strata from pressure release (oil release, etc), dropping the whole area a few feet.
So when the officials speak, don't equate surface area with the hole area.
The hole will grow in the future, rest assured on that. There will be more collapse of the cavern to swallow it down. But the subsidence area will grow faster. It has already spread to the area of most of the dead cypress tress, even if the water/contaminants are not yet visible on the surface. It's just a matter of time.
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Gotcha thanks for the clarification.
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Don't buy into it Anthony or other people here. There was an entire row of trees well in front of the "floating grass" and it seems to me those trees had to be swallowed by same hole…they are just trying to mince and dice words and meanings…trying to confuse people. The mumbo jumbo is lawyer-speak only.
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Yeah right…Are you going to believe the officials or your lying eyes!
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My comment posted to the wrong story, prob my bad as first time talker loooong time follower. They already know how big this thing is gonna be. We don't, but you can bet they do! They have years/trigs of data. Plenty of quantum computers to process.
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Hi krugthecaveman, welcome. We know that they have brought in international experts because it was puzzling, and there is so much going on in that little area with the various drilling, storing, extracting. Unfortunately, until quite recently because of this event, TexasBrine had been operating on outdated geologic maps, which helped bring about this event. The hadn't wanted to pay for a copy of the surveys that had been done. Thx to PavewayIII, Mark and others for this info! I agree, they have a sense of the scope of this, and if push comes to shove, they will simply cap off the wells, retrieve the stored hydrocarbons, not sure what they would do with fracking chemicals, and, then, cement it. My concern is that none of this stuff will remain in impermanent holes and human made caverns forever. Especially the fracking fluid which is corrosive and has a lower viscosity than the oil. Maybe generations, but, it will eventually move, as does all fluid.
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Vic – the only place I have ever seen anything about fracking fluid in this particular cavern has been a rumor started (as far as I can tell) right here on ENENews.
Texas Brine has never pulled a permit for this as a disposal well and it just doesn't make sense that they would use it for that. They might have dozens of other disposal wells in some salt dome somewhere that they used for fracking waste disposal (no idea), but I've just never seen any evidence of this here.
They had to pull a different kind of a permit to reinject their NORM pipe scale as most brine wells eventually do, but this does not change the basic class of the well from a brine well to a disposal well. And of course I'm just talking regulated activity and what they could or are suppose to do. I wouldn't expect them to document their own illegal activity, but surely someone must have some basis for the repeated 'fracking fluid' suggestions here.
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PW3 typed these pixels of light:
"Texas Brine has never pulled a permit for this as a disposal well and it just doesn't make sense that they would use it for that."
SP: I agree… Around here there are no salt domes and the fracking disposal tankers just drive down to a tributary to the Brazos and dump it in the creek. Rick Perry's appointed regulators pretend radioactive sludge is bat guano. The majority of elected state and local officials are either bought and paid for or they just look the other way.
The Cajun frackers aren't any more eco-friendly … Lots of lonely roads leading down to the bayou. Pull that truck right alongside and dump the drilling waste. The truckers hate that part of their job, because they know it is dead wrong. But they continue to do it for the same reason Africans slaughter elephants for meat and ivory…their family at home needs food and necessities. The present needs outweigh what might kill people in the near future.
Thanks about the Summary document followup, I figured the officials had date issues in that press release. Probably type 10 words a minute.
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@PavewayIII.. Texas Brine, the Houston-based company that owns the mine, received a permit from the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources in 1995 to dispose of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) from oil and gas exploration in the cavern, part of the Napoleonville Salt Dome.
http://www.southernstudies.org/2012/08/environmental-disaster-on-louisiana-bayou-highlights-radioactive-hazards-of-oil-and-gas-dril
Waguespack and Boudreaux said then-DNR Secretary Scott Angelle told them in a meeting Saturday, a day after the sinkhole appeared, that the salt cavern may well have had “problems” in 2010, but Angelle did not disclose the failed integrity test.
http://enenews.com/govt-spokeswoman-this-is-extremely-serious-louisiana-governor-declares-emergency-allows-homeland-security-to-assist-if-necessary-multiple-caverns-have-radioactive-materials
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Its storage customers include Houston-based Kinder Morgan, an oil and gas pipeline operator that's also one of the largest oil producers in Texas, and CenterPoint Energy, a natural gas utility also based in Houston.
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The truth is everyone involved is now just a spectator. No expert will ever really know its true cause or be allowed to reveal it and consequently how to fix it. Like Lake Peigneur in 1980, we all just have to watch it grow. Remember that when water comes in contact with salt, it liquifies…how much salt is down there?
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I just mean that all of the officials involved are saying that the sinkhole is not growing. We think it is by the looks of the latest flyovers. Shows they know big it will be them.
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At this point I think certain members of Texas Brine, the Texas government, and Louisiana government are probably booking very long "holiday vacation trips" overseas (and in places where they cannot be indicted) and will never face trial.
For non-US folk this will give you an idea of how the weather can be near the sinkhole area:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Atlantic_hurricane_season#November.2C_December.2C_and_January
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Well I use to use a laser to measure exact ladscape. One laser a bit away. Let's say two or three hundred feet away pointing its beam on to a stick that is stuck safe in the ground as close the hole as possible. Or in the watery ground a bit out in the "hole" Than it would show if the land is sinking or not. But you have to be rather sure that the laser is not standing on a new hole. And see to that the stick is fixed in the wet ground.
Maybe the hole in the ground somewhere down there is not growing, but the wet area is defiantly growing – that is no question about that.
Maybe they will try to make people feel safe, not so many people are looking so deep into things – many don't care for reading anything but the local stuff..
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This is SO RIDICULOUS!~ They are just being ass#oles talking down to the public now!
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HMMMM!!??? If the ground is sinking, doesn't that make it part of the "sink" hole!!!??
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also if it's brine disposal where did all the oil come from? is there really that much oil in drilling brine? nd if not is there a natural oilformation leaking into this?? Or is the pipeline cracked and leaking? Maybe for a long time and caused the ground to wash off into the hole and into the cavern? Hmmm??
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"The Lousiana Black EYE", The Sink hole", "Watch it grow live" "$1.oo an hour, stay as long as you like.' ' No Insurance, You're on your own!!" Please. This IS America!! Somebody make some money off of this!!
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