This update is the 12th article in this Opednews series about the Bayou Corne sinkhole.
BACKGROUND: In Spring of 2012, Louisiana's Corne and Grand Bayou residents noticed strange bubbling in the bayou for many weeks, and they reported smelling burnt diesel fuel and sulfur. Then suddenly a sinkhole the size of three football fields appeared on Aug. 3, swallowing scores of 100-foot tall cypress trees. The sinkhole resulted from the failure of Texas Brine Company's abandoned underground brine cavern. The Department of Natural Resources issued a Declaration of Emergency on Aug. 6, and 150 families were evacuated.
For maps, diagrams and additional information, please see the eleven previous articles in this series, listed at the end of this article.
Bayou Corne Flyover, March 1, 2013
(Image by Assumption Parish Police Jury, used with permission) Details DMCA
Another area caved in on the morning of the 28th. This is the third such cave-in in just 11 days, which is a record for this site.
The access ramp from the Oxy 3 well pad to the sinkhole has reportedly been lost in the cave-in, along with a number of trees adjacent to the ramp.
The announcement, in full:
The Office of Conservation, in consultation with Assumption Parish Incident Command, is advising the public that the Oxy 3/sinkhole monitoring alert status has been raised to Code 2 -- requiring all work directly in and over the sinkhole to cease until further notice. Seismic monitoring has detected elevated subsurface activity in the area around the sinkhole and Oxy 3 area indicative of fluid and gas movement below the sinkhole, and a further slough-in was observed along the southeastern side of the sinkhole this morning, with the access ramp from the Oxy 3 well pad to the sinkhole having sloughed in, along with several trees on either side of the ramp.
Previous articles in this series:
11. Bayou Corne Sinkhole Swallows 25 More Trees (March 26, 2013) click here=164412&submit=Back
10. Over 90 "Micro" Earthquakes Overnight at the Bayou Corne Sinkhole (MAR. 13, 2013) click here
9. Nightmare Sinkhole Out of Control, Cave-ins Continue at Bayou Corne (Feb. 13, 2013) at click here
8. Just Released: Wildly Bubbling Gases Near Catastrophic Louisiana Sinkhole (Jan. 22, 2013) at click here
7. Gov. Jindal Ignores Sinkhole Disaster; Activists & Scientists Demand Assistance for Traumatized Residents (Jan. 20, 2013) at click here
6. Sudden Seismic Activity in Louisiana Bayou: Sinkhole Burps, Pad Cracks, Police Copter Arrives UPDATED (Jan. 19, 2013) at click here
5. Bayou Sinkhole Site Update: Flammable Tap Water (Nov. 2, 2012) at click here(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
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