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What's under Lake Peigneur?

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What’s under Lake Peigneur?

Eight hundred and fifty feet underneath Lake Peigneur is a salt dome which rose 100 million years ago from a salt bed 5 miles below the Earth’s surface. A majority of the salt dome lies beneath neighboring Jefferson Island, where the Jefferson Island Salt Mine was established in 1919, sold to Diamond Crystal Salt Mine in 1957 and was flooded and destroyed as a result of a Texaco drill bit in 1980. (see video of 1980 disaster)

The 1980 inundation of the salt mine halted industrial activity in Lake Peigneur for 14 years, until Equitable Storage Co. of Pennsylvania obtained a mining lease in 1994 from the State of Louisiana to create two salt caverns for the storage of natural gas.

How did natural gas get into the salt dome?

Man put it there. A massive cavity, or cavern, is created in the salt dome through fresh-water leaching, then casing and piping infrastructure are installed to transport natural gas for storage. Today, Atlanta-based AGL Resources, Inc. owns and operates the Jefferson Island Storage and Hub, LLC facility, or JISH, and charges a fee for storing natural gas for other companies.

Pockets of organic natural gas are also encapsulated within the salt dome due to natural geological causes. The Diamond Crystal Salt Mine experienced “blowouts” when mining activities would puncture or drill near these gas pockets. One of the blowouts resulted in the death of four miners.
(above illustration on AGL's website)

How much natural gas can these caverns store?

The two caverns operated by AGL Resources, Inc. have the capacity to store 9.4 billion cubic feet of gas (BCF), according to AGL’s website. The gas can be compressed between 700 and 2,700 pounds per square inch (PSI). Each cavern has the explosive equivalent of a small atomic bomb. The caverns may also be enlarged at the discretion of AGL Resources through additional fresh-water leaching. (see Citizen Concerns)

An October 27, 2006 press release from AGL stated a proposal “to almost triple the natural gas storage capacity” by expanding the Jefferson Island Storage and Hub to create two additional caverns.
(right illustration on AGL's website)

Does the natural gas stored under Lake Peigneur have an odor?

No. The natural gas stored beneath Lake Peigneur contains no mercaptan and is odorless. Mercaptan is added by the gas company to give gas a “rotten-egg” smell before it reaches a consumer’s home or business.

Does the existence of these caverns benefit the residents of Louisiana?

Contrary to the words of AGL spokespersons, the storage caverns underneath Lake Peigneur do not benefit the residents of Louisiana. Current and previous owners of JISH have failed to make rental and royalty payments to the State of Louisiana, leading to the termination of JISH’s mining lease, and are currently under audit by Iberia Parish for non-payment of taxes.

Residents of Lake Peigneur believe that a full audit of all of JISH’s payments due and taxes would show thousands of dollars of revenue owed to the State of Louisiana.

The salt caverns benefit AGL Resources and its shareholders. JISH is a commercial facility that basically acts as parking lot for natural gas. With some services to Louisiana companies, JISH serves other states such as Georgia, Texas and Tennessee.

(above: July 20, 2006 public meeting for Lake Peigneur, 200 attendees)

Do these two natural gas storage caverns pose a threat to the surrounding residents?

Yes. There is an indisputable history of catastrophic accidents involving salt cavern storage facilities. Since 1972, there have been ten major accidents resulting in loss of property and death in the United States. (see Citizen Concerns)

There are also pre- and post-1980 reports detailing the instability of the salt dome, as well as eyewitness reports of the impurities in the salt and blowouts in the mine from the miners of the Diamond Crystal Salt Mine.

There is also a question of the accuracy of the maps depicting the location of the flooded Diamond Crystal Salt Mine and its extremities, allowing the possibility of the mine to be closer to JISH’s salt caverns than what’s otherwise known. Texaco got it wrong, what’s to say AGL doesn’t either? (see video of 1980 Disaster)