Mining firm sued for millions over sinkhole
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WESTMINSTER: A mining company and the state is being sued for $13.5 million each by the widow of a man who was killed when his minivan plunged into a
sinkhole.
Robert W. Knight, 24, died in March 1994 on Maryland Route 31 when a sinkhole opened between Westminster and New Windsor in the early morning
darkness. The Taneytown man died at a hospital about five hours after the accident. The minivan had to be lifted out with a crane, and the
45-foot-wide hole was filled with rocks, paved over and the road was reopened by evening.
Sinkholes can occur when rainwater dissolves limestone or marble bedrock, creating underground caves that grow until the material above collapses.
In her suit against the state and Redland Genstar, Knight claims emotional pain and suffering, loss of companionship, financial support and other
losses on her part and on behalf of her two children. She filed her suit in Carroll County Circuit Court.
The suit takes aim at a Medford quarry not far from the sinkhole site. The quarry belongs to Genstar, which is based in Hunt Valley.
``Genstar drew off billions of gallons of water from underground streams and severely lowered the water table, leading to the development of sinkholes
throughout the immediate area surrounding the quarry and the sinkhole on Route 31 in which Robert Wayne Knight lost his life,'' the suit says.
The suit also says that Genstar failed to look into possible hazards, failed to provide the state with reports on the impact of the mining, failed to
prevent sinkholes on Route 31 and failed to warn the public of possible danger. John H. Gease, a spokesman for Genstar, said the area where the
sinkhole occurred is not within the company's jurisdiction. Gease referred to a recent state law that draws ``spheres of influence'' around quarries,
areas in which sinkholes and other geologic activity can be attributed to the mining activity. The law, possibly the only one of its kind in the
nation, holds the mining companies liable for property damage caused by such activity within the ``spheres.''
The Maryland Department of the Environment would not comment on the suit. A spokeswoman for the State Highway Administration, which maintains Maryland
Route 31, said that officials there had not seen the lawsuit and so declined comment.
"A giant sink hole opened up on Thursday, September 19 [1975] at a drilling site near Tampa, Florida and swallowed up a well-drilling rig, a water
truck, and a trailer loaded with pipe all valued at $100,000. The well being drilled was down 200 ft when the ground began to give way to what turned out
to be a limestone cavern. Within 10 minutes all the equipment was buried way out of sight in a crater measuring 300 ft deep, and 300 ft wide.
Fortunately, the drilling crew had time to scramble to safety and no one was hurt."
-from National Water Well Association newsletter
"In the spring of the year 1780, the earth at the bottom of this sink suddenly gave way and fell into the cavity below, forming a
circular aperture about the ordinary circumference of a common artificial well . . . There being no artificial or natural means to prevent the earth
immediately about the well from falling in, the aperture is greatly enlarged, forming a sloping bank, by which a man on foot can easily descend
within eight or ten feet of the water .... The whole depth of the cavity is thirty or thirty-five feet" (Kercheval, 1850, p. 273).
Georgia Supreme Court Finds Coverage For Sinkhole Collapse. York Insurance Co. v. Williams Seafood of Albany, Inc. Williams Seafood of Albany, Inc.
("Williams") sought insurance coverage under a policy sold by York Insurance Co. ("York") when its restaurant was completely destroyed by a sinkhole,
which collapsed during a flood. York denied coverage, telling the District Court that coverage was precluded by a flood exclusion. The trial court
found that flood contributed to the sinkhole collapse and ruled in favor of York. On appeal, Williams asserted that the "efficient proximate cause" of
its loss was the sinkhole and not the flood. Williams also argued that the collapse is a directly covered cause that overrides the flood exclusion,
that "flood" is ambiguous in the context of a sinkhole collapse, and that groundwater, not floodwater, caused the collapse. The Georgia Supreme Court
ruled on March 19 that a flood exclusion in a policy that includes additional coverage for a collapse does not apply to damage arising from a
sinkhole collapse allegedly precipitated by a flood.
In 1981, a sinkhole in Winter Park, Fla., opened 300 feet by 320 feet around and 90 feet deep and, in the process, swallowed an entire house, numerous
trees, half of a six-lane highway, half of a public swimming pool, and parts of three businesses, including parking lots with two Porsches and a pick-up
camper- all in 24 hours. (Florida Geological Survey)
The 7-story modern office building known as Corporate Plaza was built in downtown Allentown in 1986. Many local residents regarded it as a landmark
achievement in Allentown's downtown revitalization efforts. But that all changed during the early morning hours of February 23, 1994.
The winter of 1993-1994 had been one of the region's worst in memorable history. It's an area that sees a few isolated winter storms each year. But
that particular year saw ice storm after ice storm, followed by several heavy snowstorms. The runoff from all these storms finally took its toll in
the form of a sinkhole in front of Corporate Plaza. The widening hole was discovered around 4:00 am by utility crews investigating a water main break.
Fortunately, no one was in the office building at that early hour. By 6:30 am the situation had worsened. The gaping hole had spread underneath
one of the main support columns of the building. The column gave way, causing a V-shaped sag in the front facade. Because of the danger the
building posed, a raze-or-repair order was issued to the building's owner.
* Karst geography is by definition unstable. Sinkholes can form in unexpected areas, in particular where ground excavation occurs and
where there is a change in the groundwater flow rate, both of which occur frequently with feedlot construction. Examples of the risks involved with
lagoon construction in karst regions are documented by Dr. Nicholas Crawford of Western Kentucky University's Department of Geography and Geology in an
August 5, 1998 report. He has documented a 1984 sinkhole collapse under a hog waste lagoon in southwest Barren County, which poured 2.4 million
gallons of hog waste into the karst aquifer in less than five hours. Another sinkhole collapse under a hog waste lagoon in Logan County on April 29,
1991, drained more than one million gallons of hog waste into the karst aquifer, according to Crawford. This lagoon had a synthetic liner, but the
collapse occurred above the synthetic liner. Crawford also documented lagoon leakage from two lagoons in Logan County which contaminated a
spring. <http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/factor/>
If this year is anything like 2000, Central Florida residents are in for some real catastrophes.
Last summer, a sinkhole opened under Lake McCoy in Apopka and sucked dry what had been 140 acres of water teeming with fish, anglers and boaters.
Within a week, thousands of fish lay rotting on the dry bottom. Almost no place seemed safe.
It took 50 truckloads of dirt to fill a giant sinkhole that opened along the East-West Expressway. A new hazard appeared at Leesburg's Monarch Golf
Course, when a 25-foot-wide sinkhole opened on the 12th fairway. Even theme parks weren't spared. A 30-foot-wide sinkhole swallowed up part of the
parking lot at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Homeowners were perhaps most at risk. Three Belle Isle homes just a few
blocks from Townsend's address were casualties of last summer's sinkhole season. A Volusia County man saw the back yard of his new homesite
disappear. And in Sweetwater Oaks near Longwood, a family watched a sinkhole gobble their brick home and most of their possessions, including the
children's toys and family heirlooms.
It is possible to build dams in karst terrains. This is shown by the successful projects constructed by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in
the karst regions of the southeast U.S. On the other hand, a problem at Wolf Creek Dam, which impounds Lake Cumberland in Kentucky, has needed
multiple repairs due to the fact that the karst geology of the area was somewhat overlooked during construction. Hales Bar Dam, a TVA project, had
to be decommissioned due to leakage and potential instability caused by karst. After the construction of Bull Shoals Lake on the Missouri/Arkansas
border, a spring downstream from the dam went from discharging 2 cubic feet per second to an average of 50 cubic feet per second. The spring, named Dew
Spring, is obviously a leak from the lake and became Arkansas' second largest spring. Although the Corps of Engineers tried to stop its flow by
grouting caves, these attempts have been unsuccessful. The flow rate from this spring has not increased since the filling of the lake so it is thought
to pose little threat to the stability of the dam or lake. On the other hand, the cave passages near the proposed Meramec Dam site are much larger
in cross section and might have led to higher grouting costs if problems arose.
In 1977, large solution features were discovered during the construction of the Mark Twain Lake's Clarence Cannon Dam on the Salt River near Hannibal,
MO. The feature was directly under the dam's left abutment so it needed to be addressed. All sediments were removed and then the cavities were filled
with clay and concrete. A large concrete blanket was placed over the filled cavities. If such a modification had been made at the ill-fated Teton Dam,
it would have been much less likely to fail. These problems were not inexpensive to fix, as they helped run the cost of the dam up from $40
million to $364 million.