Tagged: Bayou Corne

The state Department of Natural Resources says is has approved a drilling permit for a relief well near a massive sinkhole in Assumption Parish.

DNR Secretary Stephen Chustz says Houston-based Texas Brine Co. will drill into a brine cavern the company owns in the Napoleonville salt dome.

Scientists believe the cavern may be the cause of the sinkhole, which opened 10 days ago. Officials say they hope the relief well will reveal possible structural damage to the cavern.

Officials at a Houston-based brine company told residents of a rural Louisiana town that it will be at least 40 days before they get definitive answers about an enormous sinkhole that opened up in Assumption Parish.

Mark Cartwright, president of Texas Brine Co., said Friday the company spent the last week "intensely focused" on an emergency response as they try to figure out the cause behind a sinkhole near Bayou Corne.

NAPOLEONVILLE — Ascension Parish officials have reopened a four-mile section of highway near an acre of swampland that liquefied into soupy muck, toppling tall bald cypress trees and bending a 400-foot-long section of a natural gas pipeline toward the liquid acre.

Officials in Assumption Parish say gas bubbles in Bayou Corne are producing a diesel-like odor.

An area of slurry was found Friday in a swampy area between Grand Bayou and Bayou Corne, about a half mile from Louisiana Highway 70. The area is at least 2,500 feet from the nearest home, officials say.

State police are monitoring the area, seeking possible additional bubbling sites.

Officials say they don't expect any highways to be closed or evacuations ordered as a result of the increased monitoring.