DEQ says the Texas Brine is in compliance, but the what-if ramifications if the salt dome has failed are sobering, indeed.
The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality has asked the operator of a salt cavern near a sinkhole in northern Assumption Parish to describe what would happen if all butane that could be held in the underground storage facility were released to the surface, state officials said Tuesday.
DEQ Secretary Peggy Hatch asked for the updated worst-case scenario from Crosstex Energy LP of Dallas by close of business Wednesday after reviewing the company’s current risk management plan for the cavern, state officials said in a news release.
The Crosstex salt cavern, which holds 940,000 barrels of liquid butane under pressure, is 1,600 feet from the sinkhole on the adjacent Texas Brine Co. LLC property south of La. 70 south.
DEQ officials said Tuesday there are “a lot of dynamic things” happening around the butane cavern, including expected well drilling, and community concerns have arisen.Jill McMillan, spokeswoman for Crosstex said:
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DNR scientists suspect the Texas Brine cavern may have been carved too close to the edge of the Napoleonville Dome and failed, releasing its brine contents and causing the sinkhole.
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DEQ officials said Crosstex’s updated plan submitted in January considers risks for butane, natural gas and other gases and suggests a full release might lead to windows being broken at two-thirds of mile. Piehler said two-thirds of a mile is close to the Bayou Corne community, which has about 150 residences, but does not actually include it.
“Based on these findings to date, we believe our facilities have not been impacted by the slurry-filled sinkhole, and there has been no indication their integrity has been compromised,” she said in the email.Let's hope and pray that none of the worst-case scenarios happen, nor a scenario that none of the experts have thought of, and we hear the lament, "Who would ever have expected...?" That amount of butane under pressure sounds quite dangerous to me, and I hope the authorities are not playing down the seriousness of the situation as authorities are wont to do.
For those of you who may be concerned about us, we are about 30 miles away from the site and presumably safe.
Thanks to MM for his concern. I planned to post on the situation yesterday but never got around to it.
IANAEngineer/Geologist/Anyone actually competent in this area and have no access to any details but...it would seem the butane is in barrels, which means the brine from the imploded cavern would need to 1)reach the cavern in which the butane is stored and 2)rapidly corrode or otherwise rapidly damage at least one barrel in a way that could cause the butane to explode and catastrophically affect neighboring barrels in a chain reaction situation. While 1) is certainly possible, I think 2) would not happen without Crosstex noticing it in time to take appropriate steps--at the very least, alert people to get the heck out of Dodge in time. They may have done nothing before, but there's nothing to concentrate a man's mind like a hanging (to quote the good Dr. Samuel) and Crosstex's attention is undoubtedly now attuned to the possibilities of major lawsuits if something happens, and they would have to be very stupid to ignore such the prospect of being sued. (And I don't know if the brine could damage a barrel rapidly enough to cause an explosion as opposed to merely a slow leak that might dissipate easily.)
ReplyDeleteWhich is not to say I don't think something might happen, but I do think Crosstex would be able to minimize the effects if something does happen.
kishnevi, call me paranoid, but I do not entirely trust DEQ, DNR, nor the company. I think of BP... If the butane is in barrels, that would relieve some of my anxiety. Along with the stored butane, there are natural gas pipelines crisscrossing all over south Louisiana. I've heard that the gas is being drawn down in the pipelines near the sinkhole.
Deletekishnevi what is your source for the butane in barrels?
DeleteStay high & dry, Mimi!
ReplyDelete