Geologist Says Feds Made ?Incredible Error? Ignoring Huge N.Y. Salt Cavern Roof Collapse
By Peter Mantius, on January 29th, 2014
Natural Resources News Service
In the 1960s, a 400,000-ton block of rock fell from the roof of an old salt cavern in the Finger Lakes region of New York ? a cavity that new owners now want to reopen and use to store highly pressurized natural gas.
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?The rubble pile remains an unknown,? Clark wrote of the fallen rock along the drilled connection between wells 30 and 31. ?It is particularly important when a cavern system is of this advanced age and is as involved with faulting as this one is, that the dimensions of all components, including the cavity and rubble pile between caverns 30 and 31, be know to the fullest extent.?
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Jacoby, who is deceased, had a different take. He identified thrust faults, tear faults and a major strike-slip fault surrounding Well 30. He noted that the strike-slip fault, in particular, had demonstrated its capacity to act as a conduit. Brine from a deep well had travelled along the strike-slip fault and been observed seeping out of the ground a half-mile north of its underground source, Jacoby noted.
FERC dismissed the strike-slip fault without discussion, saying that it passed to the east of Well 30. Neither did it address the tear faults or thrust faults...
- See more at:
http://www.dcbureau.org/20140129959...avern-roof-collapse.html#sthash.rIz3qlK6.dpuf
