For residents in Assumption Parish, the boiling, gas-belching
bayou, with its expanding toxic sinkhole and quaking earth is no
longer a mystery; but there is little comfort in knowing the
source of the little-known event that has forced them out of
their homes. Located about 45 miles south of Baton Rouge,
Assumption Parish carries all the charms and curses of southern
Louisiana. Networks of bayous, dotted with trees heavy with
Spanish moss, connect with the Mississippi River as it slowly
ambles toward the Gulf of Mexico. Fishermen and farmers make
their homes there, and so does the oil and gas industry, which
has woven its own network of wells, pipelines and processing
facilities across the lowland landscape. The first sign of the
oncoming disaster was the mysterious appearance of bubbles in
the bayous in the spring of 2012. For months the residents of a
rural community in Assumption Parish wondered why the waters
seemed to be boiling in certain spots as they navigated the
bayous in their fishing boats. Then