Louisiana sinkhole: What are they not telling us?

UPDATE: see LEAN for a map and updates.

Not much good news about the sinkhole in Louisiana.

If you haven’t seen this video by dutchsinse you might want to watch it.

The word I’m getting from on the ground is there has been testing for radioactivity but the results have not yet been released. The residents no longer trust anyone in authority so they are doing their own testing. It makes us wonder what else “they” are not sharing.

Texas Brine was using the cavern for drilling waste so fracking is a factor whether the frackers like it or not. With no fracking there would be no fracking waste.

The state knew radioactivity was a problem but did not warn the residents.

Along with a massive sinkhole, anger is growing in Assumption Parish, La. as details emerge that state and corporate officials knew for over a year about the potential for structural failure at a salt mine used to store oil and gas drilling waste but failed to alert local residents.

Adding to the alarm is the fact that Texas Brine, the Houston-based company that owns the mine, received a permit from the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources in 1995 to dispose of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) from oil and gas exploration in the cavern, part of the Napoleonville Salt Dome.

[…]

NORM is naturally present in geologic formations that contain oil and gas deposits and is released through drilling activities. Because the extraction process concentrates the radionuclides, they are also referred to as “technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material,” or TENORM. These materials include uranium, thorium, radium and their decay products.

Drilling for both oil and natural gas create NORM/TENORM disposal issues. Last year, a New York Times investigation found that wastewater produced by fracking for natural gas was tainted with higher levels of radioactive materials than previously known and was being hauled to sewage plants unable to treat it properly, resulting in releases to rivers and risks to the environment and human health.

The average radiation levels of soils across the United States range from a low of 0.2 picocuries per gram to 4.2 pCi/g, with Gulf Coast soils among those more likely to contain radioactive material. In comparison, produced water from oil and gas production can range from a low of 0.1 pCi/g to 9,000 pCi/g, according to the EPA.

SOURCE

In my first post about the sinkhole, I quoted a worker who posted a comment on a message board. He said there were 51 caverns and 19 of them hold hydrocarbons/waste from hydrocarbons.

I’m just going to say this again: The waste from fracking shale has to go somewhere. We KNOW this waste  contains toxic and carcinogenic chemicals and hydrocarbons from the formations. We also know it can contain heavy metals and radioactive materials. NORM has a 1622 year half-life. MASSIVE amounts of this waste are generated from fracking and the industry has loopholes that allows mishandling of the waste. GET USED TO CATASTROPHES.

Please check the comments because my readers are great at adding additional information. It’s sort of like a group research project.

Breaking sinkhole post

Update on sinkhole

Update 2 on sinkhole