Lake Peigneur

Thursday, November 21, 1980: this day may seem of little importance. However, if you were living near New Iberia, LA, you will probably never be able to forget the strange series of events.

It started just like any other. The sun was just about to rise on Lake Peigneur. Located on this 1,300 acre lake, which was three feet in depth, was Jefferson Island, home to the beautiful Live Oak Gardens botanical park. Contrasting with this natural beauty were the many oil and gas wells dotting the lake's perimeter.

Here we find the Wilson Brothers Corporation, which had been hired by Texaco, drilling a test hole at Well No. 20. The first 1,227 feet of drilling was smooth, but something went wrong at 1,228 feet.

The five-man night crew had run into some drilling problems and decided to stay until the seven men day crew arrived at 06:00. By 06:30, the drilling rig started to tilt. The crew suspected that the drilling rig was collapsing. They radioed Texaco's district office, in New Iberia. Both crews abandoned the platform.

The water of Lake Peigneur started to turn, forming a giant whirlpool. A large crater developed in the bottom of the lake. It was like someone pulled the stopper out of the bottom of a giant bathtub.

The crater grew larger (to sixty yards in diameter). The water swiftly drained. The lake had been connected by the Delcambre Canal to the Gulf of Mexico, twelve miles away. The ever-emptying lake caused the canal to lower by 3.5 feet and to start flowing in reverse. A 50 foot waterfall (the highest ever to exist in the state) formed where the canal water emptied into the crater.

The whirlpool sucked up the $5 million Texaco drilling platform, a second drilling rig, a tugboat, eleven barges, a barge loading dock, 70 acres of Jefferson Island and its botanical gardens, parts of greenhouses, a house trailer, trucks, tractors, a parking lot, tons of mud, trees, and who knows what else. A natural gas fire erupted where the Texaco well was being drilled. Oh...and...the estimated 1.5 billion gallons of water that seemed to magically drain down the hole.

Texaco was drilling on the edge of a salt dome. Salt domes tend to be the home of salt mines. They drilled right into the third level of the Diamond Crystal Salt Mine that had been operating nearby.

Texaco was not unaware of the salt mine. They knew it was in the vicinity, but they did not know that it was exactly where they were drilling. Texaco had contacted the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, which, in turn, had contacted Diamond Crystal. The necessary communications failed to take place and the disaster occurred.

Of course, freshwater in a salt mine is a big problem. When the water comes in contact with the salt, the salt dissolves. In a salt mine, most of the sodium chloride is removed and pillars of salt are left in place to support the roof (most of the tunnels were as wide as four lane highways with 80 foot high ceilings). When these pillars dissolve, all the land on the surface will cave.

At the time, there were 50 workers in the mine. An electrician working in the mine noticed water was collecting at his feet and heard the gurgling of water. He called the alarm. The mineworkers had just held a safety drill on the previous Saturday, so they knew exactly what to do. The lights were flashed on and off three times and a paging system was used to contact all workers of the evacuation order. Nine workers working at 1,300 feet below found safety in a steel cage, and were hoisted to safety.

The remaining 41 workers were at 1,500 feet below the surface on the fourth level. They quickly ran up to the third level, only to find that the corridor to the elevators were blocked by waist-deep water. The workers were able to use some of the carts and diesel powered vehicles in the mine to drive to the 1,000 foot level, where they caught an elevator to the surface.

There was no loss of human life. One man, Leonce Viator, Jr., was actually out fishing with his nephew Timmy on his 14 foot aluminum boat when the disaster struck. The water drained so quickly that the boat got stuck in the mud and they were able to walk away!

A disaster like this leads to endless lawsuits. Diamond Crystal sued Texaco. Texaco counter-sued Diamond Crystal. The Live Oak Gardens sued both Diamond Crystal and Texaco. One woman sued Texaco and Wilson Brothers for $1.45 million for injuries (bruised ribs and an injured back) received while escaping from the salt mine.

Eventually, the land above the salt mine stabilized and life returned to normal. The Live Oak Gardens was rebuilt on its remaining land. Nine of the barges eventually popped back up like corks (the drilling rigs and tug were never to be seen again). The salt mine was permanently closed, but most of the workers were able to find suitable employment. The torrent of water helped dredge Delcambre Canal so that it was two to four feet deeper. And of course, the three foot deep Lake Peigneur was now 1,300 feet deep!