Texas Brine Co. is asking the Louisiana Office of Conservation to allow it to stop $875 evacuation assistance checks the company pays weekly to a few remaining residents and property owners in Bayou Corne.

The Houston-based company has been making the payments at a total cost of nearly $12 million since Aug. 17, 2012, two weeks after the sinkhole appeared near the Bayou Corne community in Assumption Parish and forced a mandatory evacuation order still largely in place.

Texas Brine attorney Troy Charpentier said the company recently made its case in a hearing before state Department of Natural Resources.

Patrick Courreges, DNR spokesman, tells The Advocate (http://bit.ly/1vzdYq3) the Office of Conservation is evaluating the request and has 30 days from the Jan. 28 hearing to make a decision.