Mont Belvieu Storage Area, Texas

Mont Belvieu is perhaps the largest volatile hydrocarbon storage site in the country. There are around 100 caverns excavated inside the large salt dome that underlies the rise in the landscape that gives the town its name. Some date back to the 1950s, and have doubled in size, and are as much as half a mile tall, and hold more fluid than a supertanker. Some cavities that were 300 feet apart are now 15 feet apart, and some have been abandoned as result of side-wall collapse, where one cavity has blown into another. Several companies operate here though it is dominated by the Enterprise Gas Company, as it is their national hub, connected to the northeast USA through pipelines. There used to be a town here, but it was moved away to make room for the industrial activity. Mont Belvieu is one of dozens of salt domes along the gulf coast that have been developed as oil drilling sites, and as underground gas and petrochemical storage.