It's hard to know which is the worst thing about the ongoing environmental nightmare in the southeastern Louisiana community of Bayou Corne, where a massive sinkhole has forced an evacuation after homes shook and residents were assaulted with gas odors. Is it the fact that residents of the small bayou town will be out of their homes for weeks while the Texas company that worked a giant salt cavern to produce brine drills a large relief well to figure out just what caused the sinkhole, and the extent of the problems underground? Or is it the risk that the sinkhole -- which is now wider than a football field and over 400 feet deep -- poses to the many nearby pipelines as well as a nearby well storing a large quantity of highly explosive liquid butane, which some experts worry poses the risk of an explosion that would resemble a nuclear blast? Or is it this: State regulators from the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources -- that inept, pro-industry gang with a long track record of failures -- were told of problems at the Bayou Corne salt cavern 20 months ago, yet failed to act or seemingly even grasp the extent ...
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