The Advocate - 1/07/13, David J. Mitchell
Advocate staff file photo by HEATHER MCCLELLAND -- Assumption Parish officials are trying to figure out how to increase the pace at which vent wells are installed at a sinkhole near the Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou communities so methane gas can be burned off and residents can return home. The sinkhole, which formed in August, was photographed Dec. 13.
One-tenth to one-twentieth of the methane gas estimated to be trapped under the Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou communities in northern Assumption Parish has been burned off so far, according to parish emergency response officials.
Scientists believe the failure of an abandoned underground salt cavern owned by Texas Brine Co. LLC set in motion a series of events that scrambled the substrata thousands of feet deep, creating a 8.5-acre sinkhole at the surface and unleashing oil and gas from nearby natural formations underground.
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