[NMCAVER] New Mexico Stinkhole

[dirtdoc at comcast.net]

New Mexico Stinkhole
 
George has done a nice job of putting this in proper perspective.  Thank you, George.  Are you using environmentally-approved (low-carbon footprint) paint on the highway?
 
Just to make sure that my prediction is on record (and George is probably quite aware of this – I know that Dave Belski and others are), I will remind all of you that in 1984 (perhaps 1985 or 86) I remarked that a major oil field brine production facility existed at the south “Y” in Carlsbad.
 
I had all the correct numbers then, and I could probably find them down in storage, but here is the big picture.  
 
The Salado Salt is not far below ground. I recall less than 300 feet.  The Salado Salt is close to a 1,000 feet thick.  The brine production facility bought domestic water from the city of Carlsbad and pumped it down into the salt through a large injection well.  Very close by, they withdrew it from at least one production well, after it had dissolved all the salt that it could hold.  You could easily see both the injection and production wells as you turned left at the “Y”, heading from Carlsbad to Pecos.  The produced water was sold as “Ten Pound Brine” for use in drilling fluid (with the addition of  bentonite or other additives) to be able to drill through the Salado salts to reach the underlying oil and gas bearing formations without dissolving a huge cavity in the salt around the drill hole.  (The brine was already saturated with salt so it would not dissolve any more).
 
The WIPP site bought large quantities of the Ten Pound Brine for a similar purpose.  I did a number of chemical analyses in my study of fluids seeping into the WIPP.  The brine produced at the south “Y” had an unusual chemical signature, as the city water was quite hard, containing a lot of dissolved carbonate from the limestone before it was injected to produce the commercial Ten Pound Brine.  The chemical signature was unique and it clearly was not a naturally-produced groundwater.
 
My comments, over 20 years ago, are still pertinent.  They produced umpteen jillion gallons (caver genralization of a Whole Bunch) of the brine and there must be a huge water-filled cavity under the South “Y”.  So don’t be surprised if a catastrophic sink hole suddenly forms under the South “Y” in Carlsbad.  Is the overlying 300 or so feet of rock structurally strong enough to bridge the cavity?  Possibly.  Time (as always) will tell.  I am fairly certain that Belski’s back yard is quite safe, so feel free to continue to camp there.  Jumping up and down in typical caver revelry won’t make any difference.
 
Remember, it is not nice to try and fool Mother Nature!  The DirtDoc told you so.
 
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From: "George Veni" <gveni at warpdriveonline.com> 

Here is the scoop. Most of the news reports I’ve seen have the story essentially 
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