{"id":50,"date":"2013-03-06T07:44:43","date_gmt":"2013-03-06T12:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/sinkholes-in-florida-and-in-lowndes-county-georgia.html"},"modified":"2013-11-17T07:11:02","modified_gmt":"2013-11-17T12:11:02","slug":"sinkholes-in-florida-and-in-lowndes-county-georgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/sinkholes-in-florida-and-in-lowndes-county-georgia.html","title":{"rendered":"Sinkholes in Florida, and in Lowndes County, Georgia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nThe sinkhole that formed under a man’s bed and pulled him in has\r\nmade a lot of news in Florida, plus another one a few miles away.\r\nBut the news seems to neglect why those sinkholes are forming.\r\nCould it be the same reason sinkholes are forming in Lowndes County, Georgia?\r\nAnd will the Lowndes County Commission do anything about that\r\nbefore we see news about somebody here falling into a sinkhole?\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nWill Hobson, Laura C. Morel and Jodie Tillman wrote for the Tampa Bay Times 1 March 2013,\r\n\r\nSeffner sinkhole 911 call: ‘Bedroom floor just collapsed’<\/a>,\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\nJeremy Bush just went to bed when he heard what sounded like a car\r\nhitting the house. Then screams from his brother Jeffrey’s bedroom.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“Help me! Help me!”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nSomeone flipped the lights. Jeremy, 36, threw the door open,\r\nrevealing a sight that defied belief: The earth had opened beneath\r\nhis brother’s bedroom and was swallowing everything in it. The tip\r\nof Jeffrey’s mattress was the only thing left, and it was sinking\r\ninto a churning sinkhole.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nThe Tampa Bay Times has a long series on what happened afterwards,\r\nrescue workers who didn’t find him, the demolition of the house,\r\nobjects found, etc.\r\nThey never quite get around to saying why the sinkhole was there.\r\nThey first say\r\n\r\n(Shelley Rossetter 2 March 2013)<\/a>,\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n

\r\nThere does not seem to be any immediate danger to other structures\r\nin the neighborhood.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“We feel the conditions are isolated and there is no indication from\r\nthe probes that it is anywhere else,” McGillivray said.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nExperts are still working to determine the exact cause of the\r\nproblem.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“My opinion is that this sinkhole has been forming for a while,”\r\nMcGillivray said. “It may have been caused by erosion of soil down\r\ninto the limestone.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nOne day later,\r\n\r\n(Shelley Rossetter 3 March 2013)<\/a>,\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nEarly Saturday, officials deemed two homes beside the sinkhole as\r\nunsafe also, although they had not been condemned.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nTesting at both homes determined they were potentially unstable,\r\nHillsborough County Fire Rescue spokesman Ronnie Rivera said, and\r\nthe residents of those houses were given 20 to 30 minutes to gather\r\ntheir belongings before being evacuated.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nAnother day later,\r\n(Laura C. Morel, Caitlin Johnston and Patty Ryan 4 March 2013)<\/a>,\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\nNew sinkhole forms 2 miles away\r\n<\/h2>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nAs crews began filling the Seffner sinkhole that claimed the life of\r\nJeffrey Bush, a second sinkhole was discovered 2 miles northeast of\r\nthere Monday. The new sinkhole, about 12 feet around and 5 feet deep\r\nin the center, is beneath a fence that divides the grassy side yards\r\nof two houses along Cedar Tree Lane near the community of Mango\r\nHills. Hillsborough County spokesman Willie Puz said the two\r\nsinkholes are unrelated. “We even had the geologist that was working\r\nwith us on the first sinkhole look at the area and he was able to\r\ndetermine they’re not geologically connected,” Puz said. “Sinkholes\r\nare seasonal and this is just possibly a seasonal coincidence.” One\r\nof the houses is vacant and for sale. Residents of the other home\r\nwere not asked to leave.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n“Not geologically connected” and\r\n“seasonal,” huh?\r\nSomebody else tried to explain how sinkholes form,\r\nand claims it was natural causes.\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nMelissa Leon wrote for The Daily Beast 2 March 2013,\r\n\r\nThe Science of Sinkholes: What You Should Know,<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\nA Tampa man died Thursday when a sinkhole suddenly swallowed his\r\nentire bedroom and pulled it deep into the earth. But what exactly\r\nis a sinkhole and how do they happen?\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nNaturally occurring sinkholes, like the one that killed Jeremy Bush,\r\nare depressions in the earth caused by water erosion of the bedrock\r\nbelow a land surface. Acidic rainwater seeps through the ground,\r\nreaches soluble bedrock (usually salt, sandstone, or a carbonate\r\nrock such as limestone), dissolves small amounts, and carries the\r\nparticles away. Over time (even thousands of years), this process\r\ncan enlarge natural pores and cracks in the bedrock, to the point\r\nwhere large cavities or caves are formed. And with a gaping hole\r\nunderground, there’s nothing to support the weight of layers of\r\nsediment above\u2014that’s when the ground collapses.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nBut here are a couple of hints:\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\nAs The Atlantic\r\n\r\npoints out<\/a>,\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nlong periods of drought followed by rain\r\ncan also set off collapses. Droughts cause groundwater tables to\r\ndrop, and caves that were once filled with water and were therefore\r\nsupported by it become weaker. Once rain finally comes, the extra\r\nweight of the soaked-through top layer of earth can cause the cave\r\nto collapse. And beware of tapping into groundwater for agriculture\r\ntoo, as that can have the same effect as a drought.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nNon-naturally occurring sinkholes can form because of water main\r\nbreaks, sewer collapses, or even abandoned mines. If there’s a\r\nsubstantial change in the weight of a land surface, such as when\r\nindustrial or runoff-storage ponds are created, underground\r\ncollapses may also be triggered.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nHere’s some news a few years earlier for the same county\r\n(from a collection of such stories<\/a>).\r\nABC Action News, Tampa, reported 22 January 2010,\r\n\r\nPlant City has already declared 11 homes uninhabitable and are watching 35 more, including Sandy’s.<\/a>\r\nWhy those sinkholes under those houses?\r\nCraig Pittman wrote for the Tampa Bay Times 26 January 2010,\r\n\r\nDuring record cold, farmers used 1 billion gallons of water daily, causing 85 sinkholes<\/a>,\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\nFarmers in Hillsborough and Polk counties pumped nearly 1 billion\r\ngallons of water a day out of the aquifer during the 11-day cold\r\nsnap this month, causing 85 reported sinkholes in the region and\r\nabout 700 complaints of dried-up or damaged residential wells,\r\naccording to figures released Tuesday by the Southwest Florida Water\r\nManagement District.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nSee that word the recent stories avoid?\r\n“Causing”.\r\nAs in pumping water out of an aquifer can cause sinkholes.\r\nAnd look what happened just before those recent sinkholes formed.\r\nKathryn Bursch wrote for WSTP News 18 February 2013,\r\n\r\nStrawberries survive overnight freeze in Plant City<\/a>,\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nPlant City, Florida \u2014 After a cold night, workers on Monday\r\nmove up and down green rows reaching for globes of red. Strawberry\r\nfarmers say their fields around Plant City made it through the dip\r\nin temperatures just fine.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nAs they have in the past, growers sprayed water throughout the\r\nnight, so an icy coating could protect the delicate blooms and\r\nsomewhat hardier berries.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n

\r\nWhat a coincidence!\r\nOnce again massive amounts of water pumped out of the aquifer,\r\nand once again sinkholes formed, this time one drawing a man\r\nto his death.\r\nYeah, sinkholes are seasonal, all right:\r\nthey seem to form in the season when lots of water is pumped\r\nout of the aquifer.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nWhat aquifer are they pumping that spray water out of?\r\nThe\r\n\r\nFloridan Aquifer<\/a>,\r\nthe same system of porous limestone that we drink out of here in\r\nLowndes County, Georgia.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe City of Valdosta’s PR,\r\n\r\nWithlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant Fully Operational<\/a>, said:\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\nThere is no known connection between the Withlacoochee River south\r\nof the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Floridan\r\nAquifer, where the City of Valdosta withdraws its drinking water for\r\nits citizens. Furthermore, the city’s seven wells, which withdraw\r\nthe water from the aquifer 300 feet below the surface, are located\r\nnear the Valdosta Water Treatment Plant Water Treatment Plant,\r\nadjacent to and within Freedom Park.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nYes, and a Hillsborough County, Florida spokesman said about\r\nmultiple recent sinkholes,\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“they’re not geologically connected.”\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nExcept by the Floridan Aquifer.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nRemember that\r\n\r\nsinkhole under Snake Nation Road in Lowndes County<\/a>\r\nthat the county had to fix twice in 2011?\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nHow about the\r\n\r\nsinkhole under a garage in Lowndes County<\/a>,\r\nand\r\n\r\nunder the yard<\/a>,\r\nand\r\n\r\nunder the shed<\/a>\r\nthat didn’t make the news?\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nThis may also be related to water being pumped out of the aquifer.\r\nIn this case, the closest pumper is not the City of Valdosta.\r\nStay tuned.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nAlso stay tuned to see if the Lowndes County Commission\r\nwill do anything for Michael McCormick.\r\nDo we really want to see news about someone in Lowndes County\r\nfalling into a sinkhole one night?\r\n<\/p>\r\n

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