Collapse of cavern under N.M. city feared
The cavern was formed over three decades as oil-field service companies pumped fresh water into a salt layer more than 400 feet below the surface and extracted several million barrels of brine to help with drilling. State regulators flagged it as a potential danger after concluding that it was similar to two wells northwest of Carlsbad that collapsed without warning last year.
Over the past few decades, communities in Texas, Kansas, Michigan, Canada and Europe learned of similar underground danger only after cracks appeared and the ground began to sink. Regulators are trying to determine how to prevent collapses by better managing a practice that is used throughout the world.
It sounds like Wink, Texas is the location of the next drilling related sinkhole in Texas.
About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
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They'll be doing sonar testing soon, and I'll be posting pics. Haven't been able to get back out there during the day, maybe on Wednesday. I'll probably take a few days off from work when the sonar testing begins. I'll keep ya posted.
I drove through this area over the weekend, it was not good.
About 10 miles NE of the Artesia, NM the symptoms began. I began to feel the impact of Petroleum and Gas before I could even see the smoke stacks of the refinery.
It all went downhill from there.
Unlike the Barnett Shale, the area is not heavily populated, it was truly a nightmare.
It smelled heavily of Hydrogen Sulphide Gas and a chemical that burned the inside of my sinus cavities. I did my best to cover my mouth and nose, but little helps, I still have to breath.
This continued for about 40 miles: flares, smells, concern for the citizens that inhabit the area, for I am just a passer by.
Headache, Dizziness, loss of concentration, just a few of my symptoms.
Waking in Carlsbad, exiting the hotel, and being hit with Nepalm in the morning, the clear smell of H2S, is no way to exist.
This area made the Barnett Shale seem like the Garden of Eden in comparison.
My thoughts and prayers go out to those effected by the oil and gas in SE New Mexico, mostly Texas based companies, ironically or maybe not.
Citizens unite you can make a difference.
You should not have to live in the face of all those chemicals that are clearly in the air in that area.
On our return drive, I could not drive, to risk our lives, I did, see the turn off to the sinkhole.
Sinkholes and Fracking:
Where are we going to go
and
where are we going to end up???
I do know, that if we continue to believe the propaganda set forth by the American Petroleum Institute, and Energy in Depth, and the Right Wing Political Agenda; we will be swallowed by a bigger ‘sinkhole’ than we already are.
Today, blood in the mucous of my nose.
SE New Mexico, I am sorry, you’re having to experience the untold truth of Gas Drilling. Please speak up and let us hear from you, your cases of contaminated water, your ill health effects.
We want to hear your voice, we are here to help you feel like you are not alone.
There was no worse place for me to be than the feeling of being alone in the midst of all that I was going through.
I have Multiple sclerosis. It is still unknown what causes it and there is no cure. I wonder if it is from something environmental in Carlsbad,NM
It’s an autoimmune disease. More science is surfacing that shows the cause could be environmental.