Louisiana Levies More Fines Against Texas Brine over Sinkhole
The Louisiana Office of Conservation has levied an additional $160,000 fine against Texas Brine Co. LLC. over a massive sinkhole.
Commissioner James Welsh said the fine levied Dec. 17 is for continued failure to comply with his directives for an 8-acre sinkhole and oil and methane releases in northern Assumption Parish.
Welsh fined the Houston company $80,000 for failing to install a containment system around the brine-filled, oil-tinged sinkhole near Bayou Corne, and another $80,000 for failing to install in-home methane monitors and home ventilation systems in slab foundation structures in the area.
The Advocate reports the new fines come in addition to $100,000 in fines Welsh issued on Dec. 1 and bring total company fines in relation to the sinkhole response to $260,000.
The state of Louisiana previously sent a $3.5 million bill to Texas Brine Co., which it blames for the massive sinkhole. Attorney General Buddy Caldwell demanded payment from saying it’s the tally so far of state response efforts to the sinkhole from six different agencies
Missed deadlines for sinkhole containment and methane detection prompted about $90,000 of the $100,000 in fines levied Dec. 1, Conservation officials have said. The directives stem from a Nov. 12 order.
The containment system is intended to keep contaminants from spreading outside the sinkhole, where oil retardant boom is already installed.
Welsh said his office’s goal is to protect the public and the environment and get evacuated Bayou Corne residents back home as soon as possible.
“If monetary penalties are what is required to provide Texas Brine with the same sense of urgency Conservation feels in addressing the problems caused by the failure of the company’s cavern, then we’ll continue to make clear to the company the cost of its inaction,” he said in the statement.
Patrick Courreges, spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, which includes Conservation, said Texas Brine has not paid the first round of fines.
Welsh notified the company that it had to pay the new fines, comply with the directives immediately and could face further fines with continued failure.
Scientists believe the sidewall of an abandoned Texas Brine salt cavern failed deep underground. This failure, scientists say, set in motion a series of events that created the sinkhole, released methane and crude oil into the sinkhole and cavern, and unleashed methane also in a underground aquifer and into surface waterways in the area.
The sinkhole is located between the Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou communities south of La. 70 South on property leased by Texas Brine from Occidental Petroleum Corp. Texas Brine supplies brine to the Los Angeles-based company.
About 150 households in Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou were evacuated Aug. 3 after the sinkhole was found. The evacuation remains in place, more than four months later.
A Texas Brine spokesman said they have been working on the orders but the work is taking time, including lining up landowner agreements for the monitor installation and doing the engineering, permitting and separate landowner agreements to design and build a containment system in the swamp surrounding the sinkhole.
“Texas Brine has been working in good faith and as quickly as we can to respond to the order,” said Sonny Cranch, spokesman for Texas Brine.