Texas Brine was drilling a well in the area and came to close the sides of a salt dome or something to that effect.
Ok, I thought I would put together a little "run down" of the sinkhole events leading up to the situation today, those who just recently started following this story and are trying to play catch up, or those that are having trouble putting the pieces together. Here it goes
First, the napoleonville salt dome is a 1x3 mile underground natural salt deposit. Salt domes are used by petrochemical companies to store crude oil, natural gas (methane), liquefied petroleum gas, and radioactive or toxic wastes, among other things, after they have been mined, and caverns or wells created. For more info on specifics of salt domes and their uses, please refer to this page:
The Nepoleonville salt dome has roughly 50 caverns in it (exact number is unclear because I've heard so many different ones). One of these caverns drilled and owned by the company Texas Brine is situated on the west edge of the salt dome. On August 3rd, 2012 it was discovered that a sinkhole or "slurry", about the size of one football field, had appeared roughly above this cavern now known as Oxy Geismar Well #3. This came after months of various bubble sites being found in the surrounding bayous, and "tremors" felt by locals. These bubbles are now known to be methane gas.
At first is was unknown what had caused the sinkhole, but later found that TB's (Texas Brine's) cavern had collapsed resulting in the "cave in". It is now known that the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) knew that there was integrity problems with this cavern at least since January of 2011. There is a letter from TB to DNR stating that their cavern had failed a pressure test...this was ignored, and not admitted until someone dug up that letter. The story is the same with radioactive waste that was being stored in the cavern. On Aug. 25, 1995 DNR signed a permit allowing TB to store NORM (naturally occurring radioactive material) in Oxy well #3. The Advocate reported: "The radioactivity of scale, a common byproduct of oil and gas exploration and production, can vary widely from background levels to much higher", the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says. DEQ officials said Wednesday "NORM materials can be harmful if ingested and confirmed they had not been testing the sinkhole for radioactivity." I'm told that the amount of Norm on site is not enough to pose any health hazards.
It was discovered that the methane bubbles were coming from the Mississippi Alluvial Aquifer. This aquifer runs over the top of the salt dome, and under the bayous and swamps of the area. It is still unclear why the methane has built up there, but they have drilled wells down into it to vent and flare off the methane there in an attempt to relieve the pressure. Currently there are five vent wells completed in the alluvial aquifer and one, Relief Well #2, completed in the cap rock. Four of the vent wells have positive wellhead pressure indicating gas accumulation; the fifth well has no wellhead pressure. The venting was at first unsuccessful due to the wells becoming clogged. Three of the wells are daily flaring methane at a rate of 12 - 32 mcf/day, as stated by the latest field update submitted by the office of conservation.
http://assumptionla.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/825-p-m-bayou-corne-field-update/
And the two facebook pages created, and maintained by locals at:
http://www.facebook.com/BayouCorneSinkhole and
http://www.facebook.com/groups/170121413123913/[/SIZE]