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The backwards flow of the normally outflowing Delcambre canal temporarily created the biggest waterfall in Louisiana

Lake Peigneur is located between New Iberia, and Delcambre, Louisiana, near the northernmost tip of Vermilion Bay.

The name Peigneur is Cajun French for "comber", relating to someone who works with wool in the process of weaving fabric, a highly regarded skill among early Cajuns. It was an eleven foot deep freshwater lake popular with sportsmen until an unusual man-made disaster on November 21, 1980, changed the structure of the lake and surrounding land.

At that time, Diamond Crystal Salt Company operated the Jefferson Island salt mine under the lake, while a Texaco oil rig was drilling down from the surface of the lake searching for petroleum. Somehow, the drilling bit entered the mine, starting a remarkable chain of events, turning an eleven foot deep lake into the deepest lake in Louisiana, and changing it from fresh to salt water.

It is difficult to determine exactly what happened that day, as all of the evidence was destroyed or washed away in the ensuing maelstrom. The now generally accepted explanation is that a miscalculation by Texaco regarding their location resulted in the drill puncturing the roof of the third level of the mine. This created an opening in the bottom of the lake, similar to removing the drain plug from a bathtub. The lake then drained into the hole, expanding the size of that hole as the soil and salt were washed into the mine by the rushing water, filling the enormous caverns left by the removal of salt over the years. The resultant whirlpool sucked in the drilling platform, eleven barges, many trees and some of the surrounding terrain. Local media reports at the time stated that at least one fisherman had to abandon his small boat in the mud and walk back to shore, as his boat was now sitting on the lake bed, with him still sitting in it. So much water drained into those caverns that the flow of the Delcambre canal that usually empties the lake into Vermilion Bay was reversed, making the canal a temporary inlet. This backflow created, for a few days, the tallest waterfall ever in the state of Louisiana, at 150 feet (50 m), as the lake refilled with salt water from the Delcambre Canal and Vermilion Bay.

Remarkably, there were no injuries and no human lives lost in this dramatic event - all 55 employees down in the salt mine at the time of the accident were able to escape, some through heroic efforts by co-workers, and the staff of the drilling rig escaped the platform before it was sucked down into the new depths of the lake - though three dogs were reported killed. Days after the disaster, nine of the eleven sunken barges popped out of the whirlpool and refloated on the lake's surface.

It is important to note that the lake is not salt water as a result of water entering the salt mine. The salt water came in from the Delcambre Canal and Vermilion Bay, which are naturally salt or brackish water. The event permanently affected the ecosystem of the lake by greatly increasing the depth of the lake from eleven feet to 1,300 feet at its greatest depth, and changing the lake from freshwater to saltwater. The biology of the lake was taken into account as salt water plants and wildlife were introduced over time, replacing what was there before.

The drilling company, Texaco and Wilson Brothers paid $32 million (USD) to Diamond Crystal and $12.8 million to nearby Live Oak Gardens in out-of-court settlements to compensate for the damage caused.

• Oil rig disasters - Lake Peigneur
• And away goes the lake down the drain!
• Lake Peigneur: The Swirling Vortex of Doom!
• Google Maps
• Lake Peigneur History Channel on YouTube

• Gold, Michael. "Who Pulled the Plug on Lake Peigneur?", Science 81, November 1981, 56.