A press release issued Thursday by the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources says based on samples taken from the sinkhole, Bayou Corne, and near the failed Napoleonville Salt Dome indicate Texas Brine's failed cavern is the likely source of the natural gas and crude oil that has been seeping into the area's water supply.
"We have been driven by scientific data in all of our efforts to determine the cause of the natural gas found in the aquifer, the formation of the sinkhole, and the presence of crud oil found on the surface of the sinkhole," says Commissioner of Conservation James Welsh in a prepared statement.
“Establishing how natural gas reached the aquifer and what caused the formation of the sinkhole was an important step in the process, but the work is not yet done. We will continue to hold Texas Brine accountable and ensure that this work is completed as quickly as possible, in a manner that protects their safety and the environment."
According to DNR's press release:
Welsh noted that, based on “fingerprint” analysis and other data, the source of the crude oil and natural gas that have been observed at the surface in the Bayou Corne area appears to be one or more naturally occurring oil and natural gas formations, and that the preponderance of scientific evidence indicates that the failure of the sidewall of the Texas Brine cavern provided a pathway up to the aquifer and the surface for oil and natural gas that had previously been confined thousands of feet below.
Texas Brine, according to Welsh's orders, must:
• Maintain stability of pressure in the failed cavern to prevent additional changes to the cavern or sinkhole due to pressure changes.
• Install monitoring wells in the Bayou Corne community to monitor water quality and pressures, as well as elevation benchmarks within the community for subsidence monitoring.
• Install pressure monitor at wellhead of the cavern re-entry well, designed to provide real-time data to parish emergency response agencies of any rapid pressure change.
• Upgrade and expand seismic monitoring array to cover a wider area and include real-time data processing and interpretation of micro-seismic data, with seismic data reported in real-time to parish emergency response agencies.
• Install continuous water level monitoring station at the sinkhole.
• Collect and interpret geophysical data to determine the exact structure of the zone of failure and its impact on the surface and subsurface.
An effort also is under way, according to DNR, to increase the number of "observation/vent wells" in the area to aid in the removal of the natural gas that has seeped into the aquifer near Bayou Corne.
MAY 20 This post by blogger CB Forgotston draws parallels between Gov. Bobby Jindal and two individuals he probably doesn't want to be aligned with: President Obama and former governor Edwin Edwards. CB says Jindal's trying to jack up the debt ceiling (an Obama play, according to CB) and buy votes from GOP leges who normally wouldn't go for that (an Edwards play, CB says).
MAY 20 Here's a post in the Baptist Message from an alumnus of Louisiana College. The author, Larry Burgess, calls on the leadership of the private school to take care of some pressing problems. Physical plant issues are critical and unaddressed, some faculty make so little they need government health care, and there is an atmosphere that does not encourage honest discussion, he writes. It's time to get things back in order, he says.
MAY 20 This post in Gambit tells of a benefit concert scheduled to raise money for the 19 people shot during a Mother's Day second line on Frenchmen Street in NOLA. Among them was Gambit blogger Deb Cotton, who spoke frequently about violence in the city and reported on the city's second line culture. Gambit's foundation, along with other NOLA non-profits, also is selling t-shirts to raise money for the victims.
MAY 20 Blogger Robert Mann is critical of the personal interest some legislators take in their work here, sharing the comments one NOLA solon made in explaining his decision to vote against a bill that would require people to stop discriminating against female workers. His wife might lose some salary, so he was going to have to vote against the equal pay bill, Conrad Appel said. Appel and everyone who heard him should have been ashamed, but they weren't, and that's what is wrong in that building, Mann argues.
MAY 20 American Press columnist Jim Beam writes about the budget again here, urging kudos for the House and its efforts to try to fix the budget as opposed to passing on a flawed and messy rubber-stamped document as it usually does. The Senate already is poo-pooing the effort, but instead Senators should be trying to find a way to improve it as well, Beam argues. He also has some predictions in here from LABI and CABL.
MAY 20 Here's a link to the photo gallery from Tulane's graduation this past weekend. Dr. John and Allen Toussaint played together and received honorary degrees. The Dalai Lama was so entranced by their performance he got up from his seat and walked across the stage to stand next to them. He even participated in a second line with his own personal, saffron-colored umbrella. To the graduates, he urged them to think about creating a peaceful, hopeful life and society.
MAY 20 This Picayune story questions the rhetoric of NOLA officials who say the city, aside from having a "murder problem," is safe. The talking points generally are that the criminals are killing each other, but everything else is OK. The police chief there says that even Lafayette is more dangerous than NOLA. But crime experts interviewed here say that NOLA's numbers indicate one of two things: either people are so used to violence they don't report it, or somebody's "fudging the numbers."
MAY 20 The Advocate's Mark Ballard writes about some of the background maneuvering that took place during the development of budget alternatives in the Legislature. From Rep. Joel Robideaux being called a "tax and spend liberal" to robo-call influence, Ballard lets us in on some of the work that happens behind the scenes but usually doesn't make it into the Advocate's daily coverage of the session.
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