{"id":5215,"date":"2013-08-18T12:47:49","date_gmt":"2013-08-18T16:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=5215"},"modified":"2013-08-18T12:52:19","modified_gmt":"2013-08-18T16:52:19","slug":"florida-sinkholes-spreading-real-estate-effects-in-same-aquifer-as-under-lowndes-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/florida-sinkholes-spreading-real-estate-effects-in-same-aquifer-as-under-lowndes-county.html","title":{"rendered":"Florida sinkholes spreading real estate effects in same Aquifer as under Lowndes County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\r\nFlorida real estate effects of sinkholes in the same Floridan Aquifer\r\nthat underlies Lowndes County\r\nwould be worth looking at\r\nbefore rushing to build Moody Housing around a sinkhole on Val Del Road.\r\nIt&#8217;s not just the sinkhole that may widen, it&#8217;s housing prices that may drop.\r\n<p>\r\nDiana Olick wrote for CNBC 15 August 2013,\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/business\/overdevelopment-widens-florida-sinkhole-problem-6C10928482\">\r\nOverdevelopment widens Florida sinkhole problem<\/a>,\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\n<table style=\"float:right;font-size:80%;width:280px\"><tr><td>\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/business\/overdevelopment-widens-florida-sinkhole-problem-6C10928482\">\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:none;width:280px\" src=\"http:\/\/msnbcmedia4.msn.com\/j\/streams\/2013\/August\/130815\/6C8640811-130815-sinkholes.blocks_desktop_medium.jpg\"><\/a>\r\n<br>\r\nDAVID MANNING \/ Reuters\r\n<br>\r\nA section of the Summer Bay Resort lies collapsed after a large sinkhole opened on the property&#8217;s grounds in Clermont, Fla. on Aug. 12. \r\n<\/td><\/tr><\/table>\r\nSinkholes may be as old as the earth itself, but the increase in\r\nsinkhole activity is new. The rush to reason why has put scientists,\r\nengineers and real estate developers at odds.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\nSome geological experts believe the sinkhole activity is increasing\r\nbecause developers are pumping more water out of the ground for new\r\nprojects or for agricultural use. While acid in the water itself is\r\nwhat causes the limestone under much of Florida to dissipate and\r\ncreate the holes, the water also acts as a support. Add water from\r\nheavy rains on the top soil, and you&#8217;ve got a bigger problem.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/snake-nation-road-at-.html\">\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\" src=\"http:\/\/d6673sr63mbv7.cloudfront.net\/archive\/x104123734\/g0a0000000000000000969af247916400968457dde7d4f29661c8414ddd.jpg\"><\/a>\r\nIt is even beginning to weigh on the recovering real estate market\r\nin Florida.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\nRecent sinkholes of note in Lowndes County include:<!--more-->\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/snake-nation-road-at-.html\">\r\nOne in Snake Nation Road<\/a> the county paid more than $600,000 to route\r\naround once it spread, after first wasting money trying to patch it.\r\nThat change order was rushed through with no competitive bids, too.\r\n<li>\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/sinkhole-in-garage.html\">\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b01761781b513970c-pi.jpg\"><\/a>\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/sinkhole-in-garage.html\">\r\nOne in Michael McCormick&#8217;s garage<\/a> on Norman Hall Road\r\nthat the county still has done nothing to fix, so far as I know.\r\n<li>\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.vsuspectator.com\/2012\/11\/29\/city-aims-for-safety-for-cyclists\/\">\r\n&#8220;Some students might remember the sinkhole that opened up behind the Oak Street parking deck a few years ago.&#8221;<\/a>\r\n<li>\r\nAnd let&#8217;s not forget\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.valdosta.edu\/about\/news\/releases\/1999\/02\/hyatt-020599.php\">\r\nLake Park&#8217;s lakes are probably sinkholes<\/a>, so you will have\r\nsome idea of how big a sinkhole can get.\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>\r\nWhat about sinkhole insurance?\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\n&#8220;The number of insurance claims for sinkhole damage has increased\r\nsignificantly over the last several years. According to Office of\r\nInsurance Regulation, total reported claims in Florida increased\r\nfrom 2,360 in 2006 to 3,135 in 2010, according to Citizens Property\r\nInsurance Corp. website. &#8220;The Florida Insurance Commissioner has\r\nidentified sinkhole claims as a major cost-driver and expressed\r\nconcern that these claims could threaten the solvency of Florida&#8217;s\r\nproperty insurance market.&#8221;\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\nSinkhole insurance can run anywhere from around $200 to $2,000\r\ndepending on where a home is located. The Tampa Bay area is\r\nconsidered &#8220;Sinkhole Alley,&#8221; but some have referred to Florida as\r\nthe &#8220;Swiss Cheese State.&#8221;\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\nDoes Lowndes County want to be known as Sinkhole County?\r\n<p>\r\nHere&#8217;s a developer whistling from his sinkholed development:\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\n&#8220;Mother Earth controls this,&#8221; said Paul Caldwell, president and\r\ngeneral manager of the Summer Bay resort where Sunday&#8217;s collapse\r\noccurred. He said its developer does not build in &#8220;dense&#8221; areas. &#8220;We\r\ntest as we develop.&#8221;\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\nStill, one third of the sinkhole activity recorded since 1960\r\noccurred in the last 13 years; half of that happened in the last\r\nthree years.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\nWhich would you rather believe?\r\nA developer making a quick buck, or the numbers that say sinkholes\r\nare rapidly increasing in Florida?\r\nFlorida, which is on top of the same Floridan Aquifer we are?\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/south-ga-officials-expecting-sinkholes-after-rain-while-nytimes-plays-down-the-risk.html\">\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;width:300px;border:none\" src=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b017d4172dba6970c-pi.gif\"><\/a>\r\n&#8220;In the last probably five or six years, yeah, there&#8217;s been a boom\r\nin more sinkholes being tested, confirmed,&#8221; said Frank Vitale of\r\nL.R.E. Ground Services, a sinkhole remediation company in business\r\nfor the past 25 years. He said his company has done over 4,500 jobs,\r\nlarge and small.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n&#8220;There&#8217;s definitely more work in the last five years,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It\r\ncould be a lot of different things. It could be the aquifer. It\r\ncould be settlement issues, clay issues, buried debris. There&#8217;s a\r\nmillion factors that can play into it, and that&#8217;s why it&#8217;s really\r\nimportant for an engineer to come in and assess the problem.&#8221;\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/phase-ii-of-moody-family-housing-already-has-a-sinkhole-tom-kurrie-lcc-2013-08-13.html\">\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7341\/9527187802_23f4c9bf3d_n.jpg\"><\/a>\r\nMaybe somebody not\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/usaf-environmental-assessment-for-moody-housing-on-val-del-road-rez-2013-09-lcc-2013-08-13.html\">\r\nthe Air Force<\/a> and not\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/rez-2013-09-moody-housing-val-del-rd-lcc-2013-08-12.html\">\r\nthe County Engineer<\/a>\r\nand not\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/phase-ii-of-moody-family-housing-already-has-a-sinkhole-tom-kurrie-lcc-2013-08-13.html\">\r\nany of the developers<\/a>\r\nshould\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/geotechnical-conditions-and-maybe-sinkholes-michael-noll-lcc-2013-08-13.html\">\r\ncheck out the site<\/a> for\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/sinkholes-at-proposed-moody-family-housing-jason-davenport-lcc-2013-08-13.html\">\r\nMoody Family Housing on Val Del Road<\/a>\r\nbefore anybody builds anything there.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida real estate effects of sinkholes in the same Floridan Aquifer that underlies Lowndes County would be worth looking at before rushing to build Moody Housing around a sinkhole on Val Del Road. It&#8217;s not just the sinkhole that may widen, it&#8217;s housing prices that may drop. Diana Olick wrote for CNBC 15 August 2013, [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,203,8,88,571,73,6114,134],"tags":[210,6780,6814,6836,8704,8751,8701,1190,2155,8702,12,7,8734,703,8784,6835,6834,6652,6810,8731,208,3602,2290,6,8743],"class_list":["post-5215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-florida","category-georgia","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-moody-afb","category-safety","category-sinkhole-2","category-vsu","tag-aquifer","tag-balfour-beatty","tag-bill-holland","tag-can-denizman","tag-economy","tag-florida","tag-georgia","tag-housing","tag-insurance","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-michael-noll","tag-moody-afb","tag-moody-housing","tag-overdevelopment","tag-prices","tag-rez-2013-09","tag-safety","tag-sinkhole","tag-tom-kurrie","tag-val-del-road","tag-valdosta","tag-vsu"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1m7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5215"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5220,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5215\/revisions\/5220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}