By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 18:02 EST, 16 August 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 08:28 EST, 17 August 2012 . A ginormous 400-foot deep sinkhole in Louisiana is expanding and today swallowed a boat. Two clean-up workers who were in the boat had to be rescued before they too disappeared into the watery mass, which today grew by another 50ft, authorities said. The vessel was tied to a tree on the south west side of the site as the workers cleaned up diesel in the sinkhole. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO . Sinkhole: A ginormous 400-foot deep sinkhole, pictured on August 16, swallowed another 50-feet of land today as well as a boat . The piece of land where the tree was standing sunk into the growing pool of water, pulling the boat in with it. The workers were rescued by air boat and did not suffer any injuries but all clean up operations at the site have now been suspended until further notice due to concerns over safety. 'Early this morning they started the clean up operation of the diesel,' said John Boudreaux, director of Office of Emergency Preparedness for Assumption Parish. 'Two of the workers were in a small John's boat and had a rope skimmer. The boat was tied to trees but that edge slouched and basically the boat started to go in with it. There was an air boat nearby and they were rescued as the trees went in and took the boat in too.' The gaping hole now measures about 526-feet from northeast to southwest and 640-feet from northwest to southeast. Sunken: A boat similar to the one pictured disappeared into the growing sinkhole this morning but its two crew were rescued . Governor's Office of Emergency . Preparedness spokesman Christina Stevens said scientists who looked at . the site had anticipated the sinkhole to grow and believe its maximum . size would get to 1400-ft across. 'We haven't got there yet but even at that size it would not be a threat to any homes,' she said. Officials still fear possible explosions from nearby gas-filled caverns. Last week, the massive sinkhole in . the Louisiana bayou swallowed all of the 100-foot trees in the . surrounding area and led to mandatory evacuations. About 150 people were ordered to . leave their residences after the gaping hole opened in Assumption Parish . amid fears of potential radiation leaks and natural gas explosions. Growing: The boat was tied to a tree on the southwest side of the site, pictured today . But . despite the authorities enacting the mandatory evacuation, most people . chose to stay following allegations of a cover-up and industrial . mismanagement from the owners of a nearby salt cavern. As state scientists monitored the toxicity of naturally occurring radiation at a slurry hole in Assumption Parish, residents said last Thursday they were furious with their public state officials because they think they have been withholding information. The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality said the slurry hole near Bayou Corne is near areas that have been used for oil and gas exploration. Low levels of radioactivity may be remaining from the work, though not at harmful levels, officials say. 'Out of abundance of caution and . because of the ongoing incident, I have decided to further enhance our . monitoring efforts,' DEQ Secretary Peggy Hatch said in a statement. Officials . said the first set of 15 samples from the area show that there are no . detectable levels of naturally occurring radioactive material on the . surface of the sinkhole and Hatch said they're confident residents . aren't at risk of exposure. Evacuated: Residents remain evacuated from the area . Department . spokesman Rodney Mallett said such material tends to accumulate in low . levels on equipment used to drill for oil and gas. Gas bubbles have been erupting in the . area for weeks. Residents have been especially alarmed at the . possibility of a natural gas explosion after 28 residents in Grand Bayou . had to evacuate their homes on Christmas 2003 because natural gas was . seeping from a salt dome storage cavern and bubbling up into water . wells. Residents have . also been reporting earthquakes but despite a battery of tests conducted . by federal, parish and local officials, no one has been able to figure . out the source of the tremors. Randy . Rousseau, who lives in Grand Bayou and owns a body shop in Belle Rose, . said he'd noticed tremors for years. He eventually moved out of his . house because he didn't feel safe and has been unable to sell it because . the property value plummeted after several small sinkholes opened up in . his yard. Before: The sinkhole was much smaller last Thursday, pictured . Scientists said at a community . meeting last Tuesday the sinkhole might be related to a brine cavern . owned by Houston-based Texas Brine Co. contained within an underground . salt dome. It has been reported that local . officials at Texas Brine have known since at least January 2011 that . there have been problems with the structural integrity of a brine cavern . that was plugged in June 2010. Officials did not mention those issues . at the meeting. 'It's . what I've been saying all along, that they've been hiding things,' Rousseau said. 'I think our local officials are trying to do the best . they can, but I think they're being hindered by the higher-ups hiding . things.' Rousseau said he was especially . worried after a parish official had him fill out a form asking him to . list his next of kin last Thursday morning. 'That's . a little disturbing to me. They said it's in case they can't reach us . to evacuate. But I mean, come on. They can reach everyone,' he said. Rep. Joe Harrison, R-Napoleonville, said he wanted more transparency and . answers from the Office of Conservation. He said he had no idea about . structural issues within the brine cavern until he read about them in . the paper. 'There is a serious lack of competence now in the state, and we knew nothing. Nothing. Why did they close the mine? We didn't get any answers. It's a real lack of competence now,' Harrison said. Some residents in the area said that they had been experiencing tremors for years before the enormous sinkhole opened up . Sonny Cranch, spokesman for Texas Brine, said they were continuing to monitor the area for any changes. 'We've installed booms around the . perimeter of the sinkhole to contain any floating contaminants, the . diesel, anything else,' Cranch said. Dr. Madhurendu Kumar, director of the . state Department of Natural Resources' oil and gas division, said the . sinkhole could have been caused by structural problems within the salt . dome that sits underneath it. The wall of salt between the brine cavern and the salt dome might be thinner than experts were led to believe, he said. He said this sinkhole was unusual because it sits on the edge of the dome, when sinkholes normally sit right on top. The owners of four natural gas pipelines nearby were asked to depressurize and vent off their pipelines as a precaution after the slurry area bent a 400-foot-long section of pipeline. Governor Bobby Jindal declared a . state of emergency Friday in Assumption Parish and ordered an immediate . evacuation of 150 homes and several businesses. The evacuation remains . in effect. Low levels of radioactivity may be emanating, though not at harmful levels, officials said . Officials said last Friday that it will be at . least 40 days before they get definitive answers about an enormous . sinkhole that opened up in Assumption Parish. Mark Cartwright, president of United Brine Services, a subsidiary of . Texas Brine Co., said the company spent the last week 'intensely . focused' on an emergency response as they try to figure out the cause . behind a sinkhole near Bayou Corne. Cartwright said they'll be drilling a relief well to investigate a . brine cavern they own, which is housed within the Napoleonville salt . dome. It will take at least 40 days to drill the well, and scientists . have speculated that the sinkhole might . be related to structural problems within the cavern. 'Our efforts are going to be more focused on diagnostics, and looking . into what caused this event,' Cartwright said at a press conference in . Gonzales. Commissioner of Conservation Jim Welsh ordered the company last Thursday . to drill a well and investigate the salt cavern and 'further evaluate . potential causes of the subsidence near its well site,' as well as . obtain samples of cavern content. Cartwright said the company was just as shocked as anyone else when . the sinkhole erupted two weeks ago, swallowing up an acre of bald cypress . trees and leaving diesel fumes and slurry water in its wake.
Huge 400-foot deep hole swallows another 50-feet of land today .
Two clean-up workers had to be rescued by air boat as their vessel disappeared into the pool of water .
Fears remain that low levels of radiation are being emitted from the sinkhole .
Gas bubbles have been bubbling in the Louisiana bayou for weeks and residents have felt small tremors for years .
Scientists expect it to continue growing .
Some residents have refused to leave their homes .
By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 18:02 EST, 16 August 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 08:28 EST, 17 August 2012 . A ginormous 400-foot deep sinkhole in Louisiana is expanding and today swallowed a boat. Two clean-up workers who were in the boat had to be rescued before they too disappeared into the watery mass, which today grew by another 50ft, authorities said. The vessel was tied to a tree on the south west side of the site as the workers cleaned up diesel in the sinkhole. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO . Sinkhole: A ginormous 400-foot deep sinkhole, pictured on August 16, swallowed another 50-feet of land today as well as a boat . The piece of land where the tree was standing sunk into the growing pool of water, pulling the boat in with it. The workers were rescued by air boat and did not suffer any injuries but all clean up operations at the site have now been suspended until further notice due to concerns over safety. 'Early this morning they started the clean up operation of the diesel,' said John Boudreaux, director of Office of Emergency Preparedness for Assumption Parish. 'Two of the workers were in a small John's boat and had a rope skimmer. The boat was tied to trees but that edge slouched and basically the boat started to go in with it. There was an air boat nearby and they were rescued as the trees went in and took the boat in too.' The gaping hole now measures about 526-feet from northeast to southwest and 640-feet from northwest to southeast. Sunken: A boat similar to the one pictured disappeared into the growing sinkhole this morning but its two crew were rescued . Governor's Office of Emergency . Preparedness spokesman Christina Stevens said scientists who looked at . the site had anticipated the sinkhole to grow and believe its maximum . size would get to 1400-ft across. 'We haven't got there yet but even at that size it would not be a threat to any homes,' she said. Officials still fear possible explosions from nearby gas-filled caverns. Last week, the massive sinkhole in . the Louisiana bayou swallowed all of the 100-foot trees in the . surrounding area and led to mandatory evacuations. About 150 people were ordered to . leave their residences after the gaping hole opened in Assumption Parish . amid fears of potential radiation leaks and natural gas explosions. Growing: The boat was tied to a tree on the southwest side of the site, pictured today . But . despite the authorities enacting the mandatory evacuation, most people . chose to stay following allegations of a cover-up and industrial . mismanagement from the owners of a nearby salt cavern. As state scientists monitored the toxicity of naturally occurring radiation at a slurry hole in Assumption Parish, residents said last Thursday they were furious with their public state officials because they think they have been withholding information. The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality said the slurry hole near Bayou Corne is near areas that have been used for oil and gas exploration. Low levels of radioactivity may be remaining from the work, though not at harmful levels, officials say. 'Out of abundance of caution and . because of the ongoing incident, I have decided to further enhance our . monitoring efforts,' DEQ Secretary Peggy Hatch said in a statement. Officials . said the first set of 15 samples from the area show that there are no . detectable levels of naturally occurring radioactive material on the . surface of the sinkhole and Hatch said they're confident residents . aren't at risk of exposure. Evacuated: Residents remain evacuated from the area . Department . spokesman Rodney Mallett said such material tends to accumulate in low . levels on equipment used to drill for oil and gas. Gas bubbles have been erupting in the . area for weeks. Residents have been especially alarmed at the . possibility of a natural gas explosion after 28 residents in Grand Bayou . had to evacuate their homes on Christmas 2003 because natural gas was . seeping from a salt dome storage cavern and bubbling up into water . wells. Residents have . also been reporting earthquakes but despite a battery of tests conducted . by federal, parish and local officials, no one has been able to figure . out the source of the tremors. Randy . Rousseau, who lives in Grand Bayou and owns a body shop in Belle Rose, . said he'd noticed tremors for years. He eventually moved out of his . house because he didn't feel safe and has been unable to sell it because . the property value plummeted after several small sinkholes opened up in . his yard. Before: The sinkhole was much smaller last Thursday, pictured . Scientists said at a community . meeting last Tuesday the sinkhole might be related to a brine cavern . owned by Houston-based Texas Brine Co. contained within an underground . salt dome. It has been reported that local . officials at Texas Brine have known since at least January 2011 that . there have been problems with the structural integrity of a brine cavern . that was plugged in June 2010. Officials did not mention those issues . at the meeting. 'It's . what I've been saying all along, that they've been hiding things,' Rousseau said. 'I think our local officials are trying to do the best . they can, but I think they're being hindered by the higher-ups hiding . things.' Rousseau said he was especially . worried after a parish official had him fill out a form asking him to . list his next of kin last Thursday morning. 'That's . a little disturbing to me. They said it's in case they can't reach us . to evacuate. But I mean, come on. They can reach everyone,' he said. Rep. Joe Harrison, R-Napoleonville, said he wanted more transparency and . answers from the Office of Conservation. He said he had no idea about . structural issues within the brine cavern until he read about them in . the paper. 'There is a serious lack of competence now in the state, and we knew nothing. Nothing. Why did they close the mine? We didn't get any answers. It's a real lack of competence now,' Harrison said. Some residents in the area said that they had been experiencing tremors for years before the enormous sinkhole opened up . Sonny Cranch, spokesman for Texas Brine, said they were continuing to monitor the area for any changes. 'We've installed booms around the . perimeter of the sinkhole to contain any floating contaminants, the . diesel, anything else,' Cranch said. Dr. Madhurendu Kumar, director of the . state Department of Natural Resources' oil and gas division, said the . sinkhole could have been caused by structural problems within the salt . dome that sits underneath it. The wall of salt between the brine cavern and the salt dome might be thinner than experts were led to believe, he said. He said this sinkhole was unusual because it sits on the edge of the dome, when sinkholes normally sit right on top. The owners of four natural gas pipelines nearby were asked to depressurize and vent off their pipelines as a precaution after the slurry area bent a 400-foot-long section of pipeline. Governor Bobby Jindal declared a . state of emergency Friday in Assumption Parish and ordered an immediate . evacuation of 150 homes and several businesses. The evacuation remains . in effect. Low levels of radioactivity may be emanating, though not at harmful levels, officials said . Officials said last Friday that it will be at . least 40 days before they get definitive answers about an enormous . sinkhole that opened up in Assumption Parish. Mark Cartwright, president of United Brine Services, a subsidiary of . Texas Brine Co., said the company spent the last week 'intensely . focused' on an emergency response as they try to figure out the cause . behind a sinkhole near Bayou Corne. Cartwright said they'll be drilling a relief well to investigate a . brine cavern they own, which is housed within the Napoleonville salt . dome. It will take at least 40 days to drill the well, and scientists . have speculated that the sinkhole might . be related to structural problems within the cavern. 'Our efforts are going to be more focused on diagnostics, and looking . into what caused this event,' Cartwright said at a press conference in . Gonzales. Commissioner of Conservation Jim Welsh ordered the company last Thursday . to drill a well and investigate the salt cavern and 'further evaluate . potential causes of the subsidence near its well site,' as well as . obtain samples of cavern content. Cartwright said the company was just as shocked as anyone else when . the sinkhole erupted two weeks ago, swallowing up an acre of bald cypress . trees and leaving diesel fumes and slurry water in its wake.
August 2012 . A ginormous 400-foot deep sinkhole boat. Two clean-up workers who were in the boat had to be rescued before they too disappeared another 50-feet of land today as well as a boat . sunk into the growing pool of water, pulling the boat in with it. The workers were rescued by air workers were in a small John's boat and had a sinkhole in . the Louisiana bayou swallowed all people were ordered to . leave their residences Evacuated: Residents remain evacuated from the bubbles have been erupting in the . area for now,' Harrison said. Some residents in the area said that they had been experiencing tremors for