More on the SB200 vote from Save Lake Peigneur

Why SB200 Failed

Money talks and if it is not in my backyard,  who cares?  4,000 people in the area around Jefferson Island Storage & Hub.  Chicot Aquifer only water source for 15 parishes!

NAYS Senators

• Alario Westwego        
• Adley Benton          
• Amedee Gonzales  
• Buffington Keithville
• Chabert, Houma      
• Claitor Baton Rouge
• Donahue, Mandeville         
• Erdey Livingston     
• Gallot  Ruston         
• Heitmeier New Orleans      
• Kostelka Monroe     
• Martiny Metairie,     
• Murray New Orleans          
• Riser Columbia,      
• Smith, G. Norco      
• Smith J. Leesville    
• Tarver Shreveport   
• Walsworth West Monroe    
• White E. Baton Rouge, Livingston, St. Helena Tangipahoa     

Total — 19     

Senators ABSENT 5/21/2013 but how they voted May 7 1st time SB200 was on floor.

• Brown, Napoleonville Yea
• Guillory, St. Martinville, there 5/21/2013 seen talking to lobbyists, absent May 7th
• Long, Winnfield Nay

Senators that changed their vote 5/21 from Yea to Nay

Senator Jack Donahue   -  District 11
E-mail    -   donahuej ‘at’ legis.la.gov
Mandeville, LA 70448
(985) 727-7949

Senator Dale M. Erdey   -  District 13
E-mail   -   erdeyd ‘at’ legis.la.gov
Livingston, LA 70754
(225) 686-2881

Senator David Heitmeier   -  District 7
E-mail   -   HeitmeierD ‘at’ legis.la.gov
New Orleans, LA 70114
(504) 361-6356

One of the 20 AGL RESOURCES Lobbyists, MARJORIE A. MCKEITHEN, an attorney – was Secretary of the Louisiana Mineral and Energy Board and Assistant Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, Office of Mineral Resources, where she oversaw the granting and administering of mineral leases, storage agreements and alternative energy agreements on state-owned lands and water bottoms. Her father is W. Fox McKeithen
Her Firm: JONES WALKER, LLP Lobbyist for PERRYVILLE GAS STORAGE, LLC, ENTERPRISE PRODUCTS PARTNERS, L.P., ARCADIA GAS STORAGE

Wed. News, Legal Round-Up

A new Situation Summary is out (5-21) They are back to CODE 1 at Lake FUBAR (p.33) What does p. 41 mean? “Continue clearing area for site #2“   Is DOTD rent-a-road-crew for Texas Brine at taxpayer expense??

Louisiana Senate committee approves sinkhole bills – House Bills 493 and 494

KADN – SB200 denied at the mercy of Lake Peigneur residents; AGL Resources in favor

LAFAYETTE, LA (KADN) — The residents of Lake Peigneur are fired up as ever after the bill, SB200, to stop the permitting process of AGL Resources in Lake Peignuer was denied by a mere two votes last night.  AGL Resources began their quest to create additional caverns in Lake Peigneur eight years ago, and with recent unexplained bubbling happening in the lake, citizens are concerned. . . .

Water crisis: Louisiana – Lake Peigneur bill defeated

Press Release by Save Lake Peigneur on the vote -

Friends:

Senator Mills SB200 was reconsidered today. With a few hours notice we gathered 10 residents and Kathy Wascom, our lobbyist from LEAN to support our bill.

AGL had an estimated 20 lobbyists of extremely well-paid lobbyists.

Although we lost by a mere 2 votes, ordinary citizens battled against the extremely experienced lobbyists. In that sense we did not lose.

As always, Senator Mills was outstanding, in fact I was pleased to hear one of the lobbyists complain that his persistence and commitment was annoying.

We continue to applaud his integrity. We are also very grateful to the support we received from the 17 senators who supported SB200, including Senator Perry and Senator Cortez. Senator Guillory from St. Martinville remained absent although the parish government and law enforcement officials were staunch in their support of SB200.

The purpose of the bill was to stop the permitting process for at least 5 years to give time to truly study the numerous issues of concern; bubbling in the lake, contamination of the Chicot Aquifer, property devaluation and geological anomalies.

The state’s policies failed the residents of Bayou Corne. After nine months there is no resolution. SB200 would have assured clear unbiased solution. The 19 senators who voted against SB200 have gambled with the lives of 4000 Lake Peigneur residents as well as the drinking water for numerous parishes from the Chicot Aquifer.

Eight years have passed since AGL Resources began their quest to create
additional caverns in Lake Peigneur. The Bayou Corne disaster and today’s loss has made us more determined to protect our homes and environment.

Nara Crowley
Board of Directors
Save Lake Peigneur, Inc.

Judge greenlights class-action status for [4] sinkhole lawsuits

“U.S. District Judge Jay C. Zainey also will give Texas Brine Co. 30 more days to directly negotiate stalled out-of-court settlements with evacuated residents lacking legal representation.”

House near sinkhole burns after lightning strike  – lucky it didn’t set something off!

Lake Peigneur bill defeated in Senate

1.7 quake in Spring City, Tennessee < MAP  <<< Look how CLOSE it is to Watts Bar nuke plant

WAFB – Court approves sinkhole class-action suit

“Texas Brine had committed to issuing settlement offers within 45 days of property inspections. As of May 20, 66 inspected properties had reached the 45-day window. On May 24, 85 properties will be on the 45th day since inspection and 87 properties will be on the 45th day since inspection on May 31.”

Mississippi – Oyster leaseholders lose suit blaming oil spill berms for damage
Oyster growers on both sides of the Mississippi River who sued the state, dredge operators and BP claiming damages to their oyster leases in 2010 during the construction of berms designed to capture oil during the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill had their lawsuit thrown out in two different federal courts on Monday. . . .

Breaking News – Jindal Comes Out of Stupor

WDSU -

Jindal orders review of all Texas Brine permits
Gov. cites company’s ‘inability to meet’ commitments

http://www.wdsu.com/news/around-louisiana/jindal-orders-review-of-all-texas-brine-permits/-/9853348/20223178/-/hw7jht/-/index.html

“It has become clear that Texas Brine is trying to run out the clock on the citizens of Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou by hiding behind insurance companies, lawyers and lobbyists,” Jindal said in a statement released Monday afternoon. “That is unacceptable. Texas Brine is responsible for the sinkhole, and they need to clean up the mess they’ve made and do right by the people of Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou by issuing long overdue settlement offers.”

PART 1

LINK -  http://youtu.be/7RR7v7667Eo

PART 2

LINK -  http://youtu.be/dTnLPRDXe0A

Thanks, Walter, for this tip -

A Plea for SB200 by Mike Schaff

To all:

After reading  Mr. David Mitchell’s article in The Advocate on May 9, it outrages me as it should ALL OF YOU to learn from the dome operators on the salt domes throughout the state that the guidelines previously existing for the distance to mine caverns from the edge of domes was determined by “rule of thumb”.

Even though this will later be changed to 300’ minimum, what else don’t we know about mining and storage regulations as they are now written?  Also, Even with the latest 3-D technology, as we were advised in our latest town hall meeting by the Texas Brine vice president himself, these surveys are only accurate to plus or minus 75 feet! When the failed cavern was mined originally, it was thought that there was 600 feet between the edgeof the salt and the cavern. This was discovered to be painfully incorrect and we are faced with its terrible consequences.

Is it just me or does anyone in our legislature think that it may be very wise and prudent to suspend any further mining and ESPECIALLY storage of hydrocarbons inside of the salt domes until this travesty regarding LDNR rules can be investigated further and strengthened to ensure this never happens again?

I’ve stated before to anyone who cared to listen that the rules for above ground storage consists of volumes of calculations, rules, verifications, testing, inspections, fabrication methods and techniques, qualification requirements for welding as well as for welders, material properties, material stresses, wind effect calculations, etc., etc., etc. These rules and regulations are located in the manuals of ASME Section VIII as well as in various API specifications. No fabrication shop can sell even the tiniest pressure vessel to these very same companies who use the multi-million gallon caverns for storage without following these specifications to the tee. AGL, Texas Brine, Dow Chemical, CrossTex, Chevron and all the rest expect and demand (as they well should) that we certify and insure these vessels to the appropriate specifications. Yet we in the state of Louisiana allow these very same companies to operate ONE HUNDRED MILLION GALLON highly pressurized vessels by “RULE OF THUMB”. For heaven’s sake, these caverns are larger than the combined volume of what the twin towers in New York once were.

Excuse my outrage.

I hope that each and every one of you share my incredulousness.

Please help us to straighten out this mess. Let’s get some scientific reassurance that what is stored beneath our communities will remain there as intended. Let’s not have another Grand Bayou, Louisiana incident as we had on Christmas Eve 2003. Let’s not have another Hutchinson, Kansas disaster which claimed several lives. Let us join together and tell lobbyist Marjorie McKeithen and her colleagues that enough is enough. When arguing for the defeat of Senator Mills’ SB200 she stated in front of the Senate Natural Resources Committee that there was never a failure of a storage cavern facility and that the Bayou Corne accident had nothing to do with “storage caverns”, just tell her THANK the Good Lord that it was NOT a storage cavern… but that right next door in Grand Bayou, it was a storage cavern that caused the evacuation and eventual relocation of the entire town. It was a storage cavern in Hutchinson Kansas where lives were lost. It was a storage cavern where exactly 20 years ago this week in Brenham, Texas where a police officer found the lifeless body of a blue-eyed, blonde-haired 5-year-old boy named Derrick Meinen and two of his neighbors after a storage cavern explosion there. The scene was that of a town ripped to shreds by a vicious tornado, but the truly disgusting aspect is that these loss of lives were caused by man’s lackadaisical attitude to safety and knowledge of the geological stresses and factors when utilizing this type of storage.

Read about the grief and devastation here on the Brenham Texas incident:
http://www.theeagle.com/blogs/fajitas_for_one/article_cab6128c-019b-11e2-8e7e-0019bb2963f4.html

And here on the Hutchinson, Kansas tragedy:
http://www.hutchnews.com/Todaystop/Sun–explosions-reflection–1

I’m angry… as you should be too. It’s time to call a moratorium on these storage caverns until these regulations can be strengthened so there is no doubt that the citizens of this state will be safe and our aquifers protected.

Vote FOR SB200 when it comes up for reconsideration. Vote FOR SB214 when it is introduced. It is your profound duty to the residents who depend on the Chicot Aquifer for their sole source of drinking water and the safety of all residents who live next to salt domes in our state.

Mike Schaff

Dumbfounded resident of Bayou Corne

Found: How much METHANE is in well-water in Bayou Corne

This Sept. 2012 DNR map has just been put up on the ‘Methane’ page.  Amounts of methane exceed 20,000 ug/l in some wells.

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR FULL SIZE

On the measurement (ug/l) Freedomrox says -

ppm stands for parts per million. There is 1000g in a kg, 1,000,000 mg in a kg, and 1,000,000,000 ug in a kg.

1000ug/kg is therefore 1ppm

1800ug/L is 1.8ppm.

So we are talking about 20.4 ppm. Essentially useless as a water well because of gas infiltration, and highly dangerous to liquid products, without extensive liberation and filtration of methane gas.

Wed. (seismic) News, Rad News

New Madrid Fault Zone itchy -

2.4 quake Damascus, Arkansas < MAP
1.7 quake Graysville, Tennessee < MAP <      Next to Watts Bar nuke plant (!)
1.6 quake Philadelphia, Tennessee < MAP
2.3 quake Mineral, Virginia < MAP <      Next to North Anna nuke plant(!)

corrected –

HUGE, HUGE worldwide BIG earthquake activity today recently – USGS list - ALL TODAY

6.8  39km W of Agrihan, Northern Mariana Islands2013-05-14 00:32:25 UTC601.8 km deep
6.5  139km NW of Neiafu, Tonga 2013-05-11 20:46:56 UTC205.4 km deep
6.5  31km N of Rabaul, Papua New Guinea 2013-04-23 23:14:42 UTC23.3 km deep
6.0  20km NNW of La Union, Mexico 2013-04-22 01:16:33 UTC30.0 km deep
6.6  56km WSW of Linqiong, China 2013-04-20 00:02:47 UTC14.0 km deep
7.2  251km ENE of Kuril’sk, Russia 2013-04-19 03:05:52 UTC112.2 km deep
6.6  23km ESE of Aitape, Papua New Guinea 2013-04-16 22:55:27 UTC13.0 km deep
7.7  83km E of Khash, Iran 2013-04-16 10:44:20 UTC82.0 km deep

        frack-quakes today:
4.2  8km ENE of Luther, Oklahoma 2013-04-16 10:16:53 UTC5.0 km deep
4.4  12km ENE of Luther, Oklahoma 2013-04-16 06:56:30 UTC5.0 km deep

Maybe it has to do with this (except OK quakes) -

Fourth major solar flare in 48 hours – X1.2 peaked at 1:47 UTC today

Above big list ISN’T today … but there are big quakes recently!  We got confused by the ‘new’ USGS website.

OTHER

DNR put out the Inspection Report for May 13.

S.C. -    Emergency Manager: No reason for concern after radioactive leak at nuclear station

New Situation Summary is Out, Flash Flood Watch

Dated 5-7 – http://classic.edsuite.com/proposals/proposals_280/situation_summary_05072013_fi_635.pdf

These summaries never have ANY update on buy outs.

DNR Inspection Report dated May 8.  Texas Brine report to DNR – they are taking water samples and measurements during the Code 3.

Erin Brockovich’s website has added a Bayou Corne page with tool to send her info.

Assumption Parish has a FLASH FLOOD WATCH from Friday morning through late Saturday night.

FRIDAY UPDATE:  Assumption Parish – Severe Thunderstorm Watch,  Areal Flood Advisory & Flash Flood Watch

See Weather Button on the right sidebar for updated weather report →

Lightening (boxes) Added to This Map:

Monday News, Crosstex Switcheroo and Flood Risk Maps

New DNR Inspection Report says water level inside the berm is dropping. See end of report.

Thanks to Freedomrox for tip -

Crosstex came out with a batch of updates(!). The latest one is for April 23^rd.  Now they are only a WEEK behind with the “daily” updates   For APRIL 23:

Well #1 – 48,533 barrels of normal butane
Well #2 – 28,862 barrels of lpg mix

So propane was sold off or moved out? LPG mix … what’s that?

Liquefied Petroleum Gas = LPG.

This example is 60% C3H8 Propane / 40% C4H10 Butane but we can’t say what “mix” Crosstex has down there. Propane is now a “mix” with butane! That sounds real safe next to a collapsing salt dome! Let’s look some more!

LPG Material Safety Data Sheet < oh! It’s highly flammable and is explosive if mixed with air!

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR FULL SIZE

The Advocate – A bump of water coming down the Mississippi River has prompted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to start conducting twice-a-week levee inspections along the lower Mississippi River.

A standing river flood warning is continued -

...THE FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES FOR THE FOLLOWING RIVERS IN
LOUISIANA...
  MISSISSIPPI RIVER AT RED RIVER LANDING AFFECTING EAST BATON
  ROUGE...POINTE COUPEE AND WEST FELICIANA PARISHES . . . . (more)

The rivers are on this map  Donaldson forecast (not far from Lake FUBAR) and Baton Rouge:

Lake FUBAR is in  PANEL 50, section 22007C0050D  in this flood risk map
Panel 50 map   But it’s a 1975 map. FEMA is using old maps.

2.3 quake in Triana, Alabama < MAP

QUESTIONS FOR HELICORDER SUBCONTRACTOR

1. Where is the updated website promised in January under Directive 1? Is Ceri it, because if so..it isn’t updated with the additional Geo Wells?
2. At what microvolt is each geophone set at, in all locations, LA10-16, and where are the large deep geophone readings.. GEOPHONE WELLS 1,2, and 3? They are in operation, yet the public is not receiving any readings…why?
3. Can the e-mail given at the top of the page get fixed? No one getting answers back.