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Oil industry sinkhole threatens to swallow city
Parts of the New Mexico town near Carlsbad Caverns National Park could collapse because of irresponsible extraction practices by the oil industry.
Tue, Nov 10 2009 at 4:30 AM
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BAD CAVERNS: Unlike the Carlsbad Caverns, collapsed brine wells like this one in nearby Artesia, N.M., aren't natural. (Photo: National Cave And Karst Research Institute/AP)
Related on MNN: Rescuers dig our from monstrous sinkhole in Guatemala
"U.S. 285 south subject to sinkhole 1,000 feet ahead," reads a bright yellow sign along the stretch of highway heading through Carlsbad, N.M.
Normally a motorist driving through the area might not find a sign like that unusual. The city is, after all, home to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, a network of some of the largest natural caverns in North America. But on this occasion, the sign's sharp colors make the message clear: what's happening in Carlsbad is not natural.
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.
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, N.M.
"It's a nightmare," said Ellie Fletcher, a local resident. "I would like to forget about it, but I can't forget about it because it's right there."
Meanwhile, I&W Trucking has abandoned its brine operation and moved down the road.
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THE SINKHOLES..... a rock band from NM?
No, not a rock band, but a family-friendly euphemism for those guys up in the Roundhouse in Santa Fe, who failed to ride herd on the brine salesmen. Actually, unless things have improved greatly from the time I lived in NM, if they simply filled the pit with all of the rock bands from NM, at least the cultural state of the place would be elevated considerably.
I live in carlsbad and 3 days ago they removed all equipment that was used to study the seismic activity in the hopes that they could call it a natraul disaster to late now though the highway has holes popin left and right and someone built a hotel right on the sinkhole it was built 3 days ago
I live a 1/2 mile from this sinkhole. The article is accurate. There are structural cracks in the store next to the property. Both a major highway and a large canal runs right over the area where the sinkhole has formed. Before I moved to NM, I didn't even know about brine water extraction for drilling. I got used to other places where environmental standards are higher and safety measures are stronger. Exploitation of resources for short term gain rules here.
The oil company should pay to relocate those people before anything else happens!!
Actually, if they can fill the void with cucumbers, or locally grown Hatch chili peppers they could have the World's Largest Pickle Mine ! (Probably the world's only pickle mine, come to think of it) Concession fees from the resulting Gen-u-ine Southwest Tourist Trap would surely pay for re-locating the town a la village of Knapsack, Germany, which was polluted out of existance some decades ago.
it aint no oil company or i and w really how they gonna make a hole to get bigger and bigger its mother nature the time is co9ming fools look around u one disaster after another
What time is coming?
Judging by a number of the posted comments with their spelling and grammatical errors, and their faulty logic, I have to conclude they are NOT "smarter than a 5th grader"!
For proof, just read these comments.
Roy - you are absolutely right! Those doing most of the bitching don't mind having access to relatively cheer gas, compared to most of the world. They make the oil companies out to be the bad guys, but, they don't mind taking that welfare money and paying for that nice new vehicle and selling their food stamps to buy drugs and alcohol! Maybe a few sinkholes will swallow them up and spit them out in North Korea!
Maybe all the crooked cops in Carlsbad,N.M. will fall in it. and the WIPP Site and their radiation.
But seriously, this points out that oil drilling practices anywhere can hurt innocent people, while huge companies make big profits and spit in your face at your loss of property...or worse. If you have a mortgage on the house, and it's destroyed by something like this, you still owe the bank that money. We need to be outraged, not laughing.
Yet another example of how WE have placed "value" on something that doens't "value" US. Are we going to start listening? We are Here. The resident in the artical want to "forget" about it, but she can't, IT'S right There!
Here we are, Humans.
Enter your comments here Spelling and grammar show your ignorance. Have someone with a grade-school education help you with your next post.
I think terrorists did it! Americans should go and spread their freedom again. haha. haha.
Haha i hope whole america sinks in that hole.
go live in the middle east somewhere and have a great time.
What about that constantly burning natural gas mine in Turkmenistan?
And it shouldn't be the innocent citizens of the town but the SOB's that own the company I&W Trucking.
This is proof that god hates all Carlsbads except Carlsbad, Ca. Karlsbad, Czech Repubic is next.
what kind of comment is that? seriously, under the face of imminent danger to actual human beings, who makes comments as tasteless and ignorant as that?
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