Sinkhole: Now 372 feet diameter, Only 1500 feet from butane-filled cavern

Sinkhole: Now 372 feet diameter, Only 1500 feet from butane-filled cavern by Deborah Dupre, August 7, 2012, examiner
Analysts’ reports further hint that Texas Brine Company’s cavern failed, but the butane cavern failing is today’s worst-case scenario. If a nearby butane-filled cavern fails, as it appears the brine cavern did, “it could cause an explosion felt up to two miles away,” Fox News 8 reported Tuesday morning. “That’s the worst-case scenario.” “All we can tell you right now is we still have bubbling in the bayou and we still don’t know what happened and some scientists have pointed out to us that it could go from 200 feet to 2000 feet real quickly. We don’t know,” said Assumption Parish Sheriff Michael Waguespack on Monday. After releasing information to the public Monday that the bayou sinkhole is over 380 feet deep, researchers report Tuesday that the diameter of the hole is now 372 feet and has now “swallowed” an acre of the once pristine swampland before oil, gas and salt miners arrived. Water analysis shows that the water in the sinkhole is comprised mainly of salt water and diesel, both used to stabilize unused salt caverns, officials say. Some closed salt caverns have diesel fuel at the top as a “pad” to prevent erosion of the salt from the brine, explained John Boudreaux, director of the Assumption Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Monday’s disclosures possibly point to Louisiana Department of Natural Resources officials’ suggestions Friday that the sinkhole was caused by the possibly failed Texas Brine cavern. “It’s suspect,”