HOUMA, La. (AP) - Officials say residents close to the proposed Vanguard Environmental wastewater well in Houma should not fear it will eventually become a sinkhole like the 24-acre one in Assumption Parish.
Two weeks ago, the state Supreme Court rejected Terrebonne Parish’s appeal of a lawsuit that would have stopped Vanguard from drilling.
Parish authorities and neighbors of the proposed well off New Orleans Boulevard just south of North Hollywood Road protested its proximity to local homes, schools and recreational facilities.
Since the court ruling, The Courier reports (https://bit.ly/KGf6qn ) some residents have suggested Houma could be threatened by a sinkhole similar to the one that opened near Bayou Corne in August 2012.
That sinkhole now resembles a lake with containment levees encircling it.
Though that hole, which caused the ongoing evacuation of 150 nearby families, has been tied to an injection well, it has a very different purpose and geology than the well in Houma.
State officials believe the sinkhole is the result of a failed cavern hollowed out inside the subterranean salt dome beneath the area.
The well in Houma will have high-pressure wastewater from oil and gas operations injected some 4,000 feet below the surface. The target of that well is not a salt dome but instead rock and sand formations below the surface, said Patrick Courreges, spokesman for the Department of Natural Resources, which permitted the well.
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Information from: The Courier, https://www.houmatoday.com
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