The Sinkhole That Swallowed a Swamp
31st October 2013
John Boudreaux, the local official coordinating the containment of the sinkhole and the accompanying methane gas leaks, is the one who shot the video. He’s hoping all the attention will inspire help from the federal government, but that hasn’t happened yet.
Waiting has become a theme in Bayou Corne.
“My estimate for just gas removal is three to five years from now, and we’ve been in this event for a year,” says Boudreaux, who’s been at the site every day by 8AM since the sinkhole showed up. “It’s quite frustrating, the amount of time it’s taken to get things accomplished.”
Worthy of remark is the blithe assumption on the part of all that if the Federal government doesn’t do something, nothing will get done. That’s the Obamanation for you.
The sinkhole is now 25 acres at the surface, more than 350 feet deep at its lowest point, and expected to double in size. It’s mostly dormant, except for occasional earthquakes and “burping,” in which large bubbles of air, oil, and gas erupt at the surface. Every now and then it sucks down a few trees from the surrounding swamp.
Sounds like a great setting for a Stephen King novel. Still no evidence that it’s any business of the government at all, much less the Federal government.
While it hasn’t actually swallowed any property — as far as massive sinkholes go, it’s pretty tame — it has caused methane to leak into a nearby aquifer. The fear is that the highly combustible gas will collect in a crevice or enclosed space and then ignite.
So there isn’t really any danger, everybody is just afraid that there might be some danger someday somehow somewhere. So the taxpayers have to pay for ‘fixing’ it. Welcome to the Obamanation.
Even after recruiting a team of international researchers to study the sinkhole, local officials still don’t know exactly what caused it or what it will do next. Scientists are using 3D seismic imaging, a mapping technique similar to sonar, to produce mangled-looking images of the subterranean topography. Just these maps take six weeks to set up and several months to process.
So they don’t really know anything about it, except that the Federal government must Do Something, and that taxpayers have to pay for it. Welcome to the Obamanation.
Louisiana, Mississippi, and parts of Texas sit atop large salt deposits shaped like domes. The easiest way to mine the salt is to dig out a cavern, pump water through, and suck it back out as brine. The salt is then extracted and sold for use in household petrochemical products such as PVC pipe, CDs, and bleach.
So the people who do that would appear to be responsible for fixing any problems that might arise. Still no evidence that it’s any business of the Federal government.
But two years later, something happened. “Our employees came to work and looked out, and the swamp had disappeared,” says Sonny Cranch, the crisis public relations specialist hired by Texas Brine.
And was replaced by — a pond. I’m sure there’s a significant difference, there, but I can’t think of it right now.
Texas Brine is now being sued by the state of Louisiana to recoup the $8 million it has spent responding to the sinkhole, most of which went to hiring scientists to figure out what’s going on. The company is also the target of a class action suit.
So they’re suing the company that did what any normal person would have thought was the right thing to do, mainly to get them to pay for the state government poking around for they don’t know what, and without any allegation that they, you know, like broke the law or anything. There’s the Obamanation red in tooth and claw.
No one feels the pain of waiting more than the residents of Bayou Corne, who saw their quiet, tight-knit community turn into the 24-hour sinkhole show. The residents who stayed — and many who left — don’t go a day without thinking about the sinkhole.
So charge admission. These people must be illegal immigrants — they have no clue as to how Real Americans react to a crisis.