Non-government organization LEAN's aerial photographs of Bayou Corne’s sinkhole, near a collapsed salt dome storage cavern that supplies petrochemical companies, show it covered with crude oil, a health and safety hazard that has become a human rights violation in an expanding vicinity, as more residents are recognizing and calling on the governor to do the same.
“A thick slick of crude oil can be seen covering much of the sinkhole,” said pilot Lance Ryberg, associated with Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN).
“Oil and water can be seen flowing from the sinkhole into the adjacent environment.”
Ryberg said the foul odor from the contaminated sinkhole was the worst he's ever experienced.
Cain Burdeaou with Associated Press reported through WWL TV Saturday that “the collapse of a side wall of an underground salt cavern that Houston-based Texas Brine Co. LLC operated. The company extracted brine and piped it to nearby petrochemical facilities.”
"We have a sense of what happened, now we're trying to figure out what is still happening," said Patrick Courreges, a spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
Read More BY: DEBORAH DUPRE
Sun Oct 14, 2012 4:27 pm