Oil industry sinkhole threatens to swallow city

[Are_grits_groceries]

The New Mexico city which is home to Carlsbad Caverns National Park could collapse because of irresponsible extraction practices by the oil industry.

BAD CAVERNS: Unlike the Carlsbad Caverns, collapsed brine wells like this one in nearby Artesia, New Mexico, aren't natural.

<snip>
In fact, the massive sinkhole currently running through the center of town was created by the oil industry. As MSNBC reports, it was formed over three decades as oil field service companies pumped fresh water into a salt layer more than 400 feet below the surface and extracted several million barrels of brine to help with drilling.

If it collapses, the unnatural cavern is likely to take with it a church, a highway, several businesses and a trailer park. Massive fissures currently cleave through town, and one business owner has said that structural cracks have even formed in his store.

"It would be like a bomb going off in the middle of town," said Jim Griswold, a hydrologist with the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division. The problem is so severe that the Eddy County Commission declared a state of emergency last Thursday, and they hope that state and federal funds will arrive in time to fill the cavern before it collapses.
<snip>
Alarms placed to monitor the sinkhole should give authorities at least a few hours' warning to evacuate Carlsbad's residents in the event of an imminent cave-in, but the costs of the sinkhole might already be inevitable. Damages to local crops could exceed $100 million.

In regular industry fashion, the oil field service company that owns the site where the cavern is located, I&W Trucking, contends the state is overreacting. But if anyone knows how to judge the dangers of a giant hole in the ground, it's the 26,000 residents of Carlsbad, New Mexico.
<snip>
Meanwhile, I&W Trucking have abandoned their brine operation and moved down the road.

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/oil-industry-sinkhole-threatens-to-swallow-city

A sinkhole evacuation warning??? Remember this the next time you think you have a problem.

Don't overract, but meanwhile we'll just mosey down the road a bit.

[geckosfeet]

1. Those darned oil industry folks. Always playing tricks.

[NMDemDist2]

2. well, that's a bit overblown.

but it is a concern and it is there. but it won't 'swallow the city'

and those 'monitors' are useless, or at least that's the scuttlebutt around town

[comtec]

3. As horrible as this is.... That pictureis kind kewl

I know, and yes it's horrible!
But it still looks kewl (until it collapses and hurts a great many people =<)[br />
I wonder what the plausibility is of building IN that area a bunch of I-beams to hold the ground up?

Also... why wait... seriously, move everyone, blow it, then rebuild with a really big winding way down...

It would IMHO, be a very kewl attraction to get tourists... The underground (sunken) city!

BTW... SUE THE OIL COMPANY FOR EVERY, FUCKING, RED, BLOODY PENNY THEY HAVE!!!!!

THEN go after those monster CEO'S!

There's NO WAY this happened without them KNOWING, and deciding to do it anyway!

NONE!