Lake vanishes almost overnight; sinkhole drains man-made body of water near St. Louis

Associated Press ^ | June 11, 2004 | Associated Press Staff

[MeekOneGOP]

Lake vanishes almost overnight

Sinkhole drains man-made body of water near St. Louis

09:05 PM CDT on Friday, June 11, 2004

Associated Press

WILDWOOD, Mo. – To people around Wildwood, it is nothing but freaky: an entire 23-acre lake vanished in a matter of days, as if someone pulled the plug on a bathtub.

Lake Chesterfield went down a sinkhole this week, leaving homeowners in this affluent St. Louis suburb wondering whether their property values disappeared along with their lakeside views.

"It's real creepy," said Donna Ripp, who lives near what had been Lake Chesterfield. "That lake was 23 acres – no small lake. And to wake up one morning, drive by and it's gone?"

What once was an oasis for waterfowl and sailboats was nothing but a muddy, crackled pit outlined by rotting fish.

The sight had 74-year-old George English scratching his head.

"It's disheartening, getting out on your deck and seeing this," he said as he stood next to wife, Betty, and the "lakeside" condominium they bought in 1996 for its view. "One day it's a beautiful lake and now, bingo, it's gone."

Sam Leone/St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Residents of Wildwood, Mo., are concerned about their property values now that the 23-acre Lake Chesterfield is nothing more than a muddy indentation.

Some residents said they noticed that the lake, after being swelled by torrential rains weeks earlier, began falling last weekend. The Englishes said they noticed the drop-off Monday.

By Wednesday, the man-made lake – normally seven to 10 feet deep in spots – had been reduced to a mucky, stinky mess.

David Taylor, a geologist who inspected the lake bed Wednesday, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the sinkhole was formed when water eroded the limestone deep underground and created pockets in the rock. The sinkhole was "like a ticking time bomb."

The lake and surrounding housing development date to the late 1980s. The development now includes more than 670 condominiums and houses, about one-tenth of them bordering the lake.

Because the lake is private property, the subdivision's residents will have to cover the cost of fixing it, probably through special property assessments. Mr. English expects it to cost $1,000 a household.

It is a price Mr. English said he is willing to pay. He just wants the unsightly pit gone, either by refilling it with water or dumping enormous amounts of dirt into it to create green space or usable land.

"I think it'll come back again," he said. "You have to hope they can fix it."

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Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/061204dnnatsinkhole.29cc.html

[Rebelbase]

"Yep. They might dump enough bentonite in it to plug it up, but the water will find it's way back out again. It's just a question of how long."

My thoughts too. It might be broke worse than they can afford to fix.

[mtbopfuyn]

You link to Lake Peigneur is quite a story.

[bvw]

Wonder what the diameter of that drill was, that started the process that drained that whole lake?

[cripplecreek]

I first read about in in Readers Digest and ive seen video of in on one of the disaster shows they run on the history channel.

I'd love to hear about it from a Louisiana Freeper first hand perspective.

[Rebelbase]

UNBELIEVABLE! From your link:

"According to the official report by federal mine safety investigators, "while the miners were escaping, the inundation rapidly became a torrent as water from Lake Peigneur drained into the mine at the 1,300-foot level. As the lake began emptying into the mine, a vast whirlpool approximately one-fourth of a mile in diameter developed in the lake. It caught in its grip a tugboat, a string of barges, and two Texaco oil rigs. Two boats on the lake managed to power their boat to shore. Within the next three hours, the entire lake disappeared into the mine. Normally, water from the lake flowed out through the Delcambre Canal to Vermilion Bay in the Gulf of Mexico. With the emptying of the lake, however, the water was flowing from the Delcambre Canal into the crater. This reverse flow continued for the next two days until the lake was once again filled with water, and the normal flow out into the canal recommenced. Approximately 30 shrimp boats in the canal, which was lined with seafood companies, were beached when the water level dropped as the canal was refilling Lake Peigneur. They were later refloated when the lake stabilized and the canal rose to its normal level." "

[Bogey78O]

Mrs. Carnahan...

[Bogey78O]

Before my time...

[MeekOneGOP]

Oh, yeah. That's right.

[kitkat]

***My sister lives in a neighboring subdivision. According to her, the talk is to see if the gov'ment might possibly chip in to help. Typical isn't it?***

I'm not knocking free enterprise, but I'm wondering what kind of environmental studies were done by the builders who developed the lake and the surrounding area. In my own area which was largely built on a reclaimed swamp, houses are sinking into the ground. And the taxpayers will have to pay for it, while the builders get off free.

[MeekOneGOP]

hehe !

[Petronski]

What once was an oasis for waterfowl and sailboats was nothing but a muddy, crackled pit outlined by rotting fish.

Now why does that phrase remind me of Hillary Clinton?

[Conservative4Ever]

Excellent question!!!

Red

[tacticalogic]

I'm not knocking free enterprise, but I'm wondering what kind of environmental studies were done by the builders who developed the lake and the surrounding area. In my own area which was largely built on a reclaimed swamp, houses are sinking into the ground. And the taxpayers will have to pay for it, while the builders get off free.

In this case, I don't think it would have helped. The erosion may be occuring tens or even hundreds of feet down in the bedrock. If we start requiring that kind of "environmental studies", we'll never build anything again. Making the taxpayers bail them out is another matter.

[valkyrieanne]

God is forgiving; nature isn't. Sounds like $1000 per family is money down the sinkhole.

[null and void]

Wonder what the diameter of that drill was, that started the process that drained that whole lake?

Murphy's law:

Any hole, no matter how small, will eventually drain any tank, no matter how large.

Unless it is intended to be a drain, in which case it will plug...

[bvw]

So the quick fix would have been for the drillers to declare the hole a drain as soon as the water started pouring into it. Or would some governmental body have to make an official declaration or issue a drain permit to make it kosher according to Murphy's Law?

[EggsAckley]

I keep wondering WHERE all the water WENT. A 10 acre lake is a LOT of water; did it come back to the surface nearby? Maybe some other subdivision now has a brand new lake.

[null and void]

Yes. Exactly. But bureaucracies move too slowly...

[SoftballMominVA]

Good question. This is what I know for a fact.

The University of Missouri at Rolla (a WONDERFUL engineering school) has every square foot of Missouri mapped and analyzed.

When my sister had an unexpected leak in her basement, she contacted UMR and found that her house sat on an old spring. This information is there and available (for a cost of course) to all residents. If it wasn't consulted, it's the builders and the homeowner's fault.

[InvisibleChurch]

smells like a lawsuit