The Interstate 80 Sinkhole Closure Is Not Unique

The occurrence of sinkholes in New Jersey is not a rare event.

Sinkholes can be caused by subsurface geology (e.g. karst/limestone or other unstable geology), abandoned mines, and illegal disposal of waste and construction and demolition debris. There are many ways of identifying, analyzing, avoiding, regulating, and managing these risks.

The risks of sinkholes can be significant. Examples:

1. In terms of risks to occupied buildings, I was thinking about the collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida, on June 24, 2021, one of the deadliest structural disasters in American history. Ninety-eight people were killed and many others injured.

Subsurface conditions (geology, chemistry, corrosion, erosion, et al) were like major causes. FYI, the National Institute Of Standards and Technology recently issued this:

• NIST Report to Congress Provides Update on Champlain Towers South Investigation

2. In terms of State regulatory requirements, I found that Minnesota has specific state stormwater management regulatory requirements – see:

• Structural BMP use in karst settings

NJ DEP has a vague design standard, see:

7:8-5.2 Stormwater management measures for major development

https://dep.nj.gov/wp-content/uploads/rules/rules/njac7_8.pdf

(i) Design standards for stormwater management measures are as follows:

1. Stormwater management measures shall be designed to take into account the existing site conditions, including, but not limited to, environmentally critical areas; wetlands; flood-prone areas; slopes; depth to seasonal high water table; soil type, permeability, and texture; drainage area and drainage patterns; and the presence of solution-prone carbonate rocks (limestone);”

I saw that federal and State highway engineering manuals also focus on karst. Wonder if NJ DOT has any? See this Virginia DOT Report.

3. In terms of risks to infrastructure, water and sewer lines are vulnerable, but so are hazards like gas pipelines. See this Tennessee gas pipeline construction related sinkhole along River Road in Montague:

https://www.wolfenotes.com/2013/07/tennessee-gas-pipeline-drilling-causes-sinkhole-road-collapse/

I previously posted USGS, NJ DEP, and State Plan technical Reports:

From the US Geological Survey:

Structural and lithologic control of karst features in northwestern New Jersey

From the NJ State Geologist:

KARST IN THE DELAWARE WATER GAP NATIONAL RECREATION AREA

From DEP and State planners

Limestone Forests

And we used DEP data to warn about abandoned mines:

Science, data, reports, regulations, etc are available on all these topics. The media needs to start asking informed questions.

Cornell defeated Clarkson 3 -1 to win the ECAC Championship in Lake Placid tonight. The win gives Cornell a place in the NCAA Tournament. For the hockey story, see:

• Cornell downs Clarkson to win ECAC Hockey tournament, nab conference autobid to NCAA tournament

But these Cornell games amount to much more than hockey to me.

I’ve managed to invest it with far more meaning.

It goes back to my childhood. Hockey was something that I could compete, struggle to succeed in, and be recognized for. As a young boy, I was a very good athlete but a terrible skater. Many of my friends were far better skaters. Through sheer work, I became a credible player and close to my High School hockey coach, Ernie Stretton, who supported and believed in me. That meant a lot to a troubled kid. Ernie was probably the driving force in my All County selection my Junior year.

I went to Clarkson College, not only because my HS guidance counselor recommended I attend a good engineering school because I excelled in math and science, but because Clarkson had an awesome hockey team.

As a freshman there (1975), I roomed with varsity hockey players (future NHL All-star Dave Taylor hung there as well). They hooked me up with a crowd of Alums that got ice time and played pick up hockey games. I could not compete with these D I players, but I could skate with them and not make a fool of myself.

Even before Clarkson, I was following the ECAC tournament and Cornell hockey since 1970, when I saw my first Cornell game at historic Lynah rink (an insane asylum and one of the best places to watch a hockey game!). At that time, I was the water boy for the High School hockey team, who had a weekend series with Ithaca High School. Over that weekend series, we went to the Cornell game against arch rival BU. Ken Dryden in net. National championship undefeated year. Unforgettable.

Since the late 1970’s, I went to all the ECAC tournaments, from Boston Garden to Albany and back to Lake Placid.

I went to Cornell graduate school. I still recall when current 30 year coach and then defenseman Mike Schaefer broke his stick over his head when introduced for the game against Harvard. Lynah went nuts!

My X wife did an undergraduate degree and played women’s varsity hockey there. Both her parents were Cornell graduates.

We even took our 2 month old son to the Boston Garden for the ECAC tournament in 1989. Cornell got trounced by St. Lawrence, 6-1.

I coached youth hockey and my son played as well.

So this is emotionally packed and a lot more than the distraction I desperately  need from the Trump fascist consolidation.

Cornell Ties It With Shorthand Goal With Less Than 2 Minutes Left

Cornell pulled out an amazing 3-2 win in overtime against #12 nationally ranked Quinnipiac in the ECAC semifinal in Lake Placid, NY.

The winning OT goal was scored by Tim Rego.

Cornell managed to tie the game with less than 2 minutes left on an unusual man down two man break, with a shot from a sharp angle.

I thought Cornell was the better team, but Quinnipiac benefited from a soft goal and literally the only mistake Cornell made in the defensive end.

Cornell plays the winner of the other semifinal Clarkson v. Dartmouth.

In that game, I’m rooting for the Clarkson Golden Knights, as I began my academic experienced there in 1975 as a freshman where I roomed and hung with varsity hockey players Bob Shaw and Marco Cardoni.

Federal & State Officials Have Known Of Sinkhole Risks For Decades

State DEP Ignored Geological Reports & Buried Its Head In The Sand

(caption: sinkhole collapse on River Road, Montague, NJ during gas pipeline construction (7/9/13 – photo by Bill Wolfe)

Let’s not wait for an apartment building to collapse into a sinkhole before conducting an analysis of sinkhole risks.

[Update Below]

Two weeks ago, we wrote to warn that “shoes will continue to drop” in the latest sinkhole disaster.

Sure enough, as predicted, another huge sinkhole opened up, closing Interstate 80 in both directions.

NJ Spotlight’s coverage again focused on the nuisance impacts to drivers and economic impacts on local businesses, instead of investigating:

1) what is going on geologically to cause these sinkholes;

2) document the extent of the problem and the risks to not only roads, but inhabited buildings and critical infrastructure; and

3) holding accountable whoever is responsible for the geophysical and engineering analysis that should have known about and avoided these risks, see:

• New I-80 sinkhole aggravates traffic jams, fuels frustrations

But NJ Spotlight’s coverage was not only misfocused.

It created a dangerous false impression that the sinkhole problem is a “new threat”.

Worse, it created this false impression via an interview with a local resident, who speculated about the cause and claimed it was a “this new threat” (listen at time 2:30).

Amazingly, NJ Spotlight then casually reported that another huge sinkhole recently formed in this resident’s apartment complex!

Federal and State scientists and planners, including USGS, NJ DEP, and the State Planning Commission – have known about sinkhole risks from abandoned mines, limestone (karst) geology, and illegal disposal of construction and demolition waste for decades.

I wrote about that science in response to the Tennessee Gas Pipeline sinkhole collapse on River Road, Montague, NJ on 7/9/13. I questioned how such a disaster was allowed to happen and criticized lax DEP regulatory oversight of pipeline and other construction.

So I’ll repeat that science:

From the US Geological Survey:

Structural and lithologic control of karst features in northwestern New Jersey 

From the NJ State Geologist:

KARST IN THE DELAWARE WATER GAP NATIONAL RECREATION AREA

From DEP and State planners

Limestone Forests

And we used DEP data to warn about abandoned mines:

At that time, I reached out to DEP and State legislators to urge that they act to investigate the extent of the risks and adopt protective regulations to prevent future disasters.

State officials did nothing.

There needs to be an immediate science based investigation of the extent and location of sinkhole risks.

Let’s not wait for an apartment building to collapse into a sinkhole before conducting that analysis.

And NJ Spotlight and government officials must stop focusing on bagel shops and traffic jams.

[Update:

1. In terms of risks to occupied buildings, I was thinking about the collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida, on June 24, 2021, one of the deadliest structural disasters in American history. Ninety-eight people were killed and many others injured.

Subsurface conditions (geology, chemistry, corrosion, erosion, et al) were like major causes. FYI, the National Institute Of Standards and Technology recently issued this:

• NIST Report to Congress Provides Update on Champlain Towers South Investigation

2. In terms of State regulatory requirements, I found that Minnesota has specific state stormwater management regulatory requirements – see:

• Structural BMP use in karst settings

NJ DEP has a vague design standard, see:

7:8-5.2 Stormwater management measures for major development

https://dep.nj.gov/wp-content/uploads/rules/rules/njac7_8.pdf

(i) Design standards for stormwater management measures are as follows:

1. Stormwater management measures shall be designed to take into account the existing site conditions, including, but not limited to, environmentally critical areas; wetlands; flood-prone areas; slopes; depth to seasonal high water table; soil type, permeability, and texture; drainage area and drainage patterns; and the presence of solution-prone carbonate rocks (limestone);”

I saw that federal and State highway engineering manuals also focus on karst. Wonder if NJ DOT has any?

3. In terms of risks to infrastructure, water and sewer lines are vulnerable, but so are hazards like gas pipelines. See this Tennessee gas pipeline construction related sinkhole along River Road in Montague:

   https://www.wolfenotes.com/2013/07/tennessee-gas-pipeline-drilling-causes-sinkhole-road-collapse/

end update]

Over A Decade Of Delay, While Environmental Groups Cheerlead

I got a belly laugh today in reading NJ Spotlight’s coverage of the “new Report” (their words!) by the Pinelands Preservation Alliance (PPA). The PPA Report provides mild criticism of failures by the Pinelands Commission and Gov. Murphy to walk the talk on the climate emergency, see:

• Pinelands facing more fires and floods as climate changes, report says

*check out the URL which provides the original headline. It reveals how NJ Spotlight editors really toned down criticism by leaving out “not enough state funding”.

There’s a lot more lacking from the Murphy Administration on climate in the Pinelands than State funding, like leadership, planning, science, monitoring, and regulation, problems that are compounded by DEP mismanagement of public lands and forests.

[Update: As I wrote over 2 years ago:

1) The Pinelands CMP lacks any standards or requirements or scientific monitoring to address the climate emergency. […]

3) The Pinelands Commission (and the Murphy DEP) rejected a petition for rulemaking to amend the CMP to restrict new development in mapped extreme wildfire risks locations and require additional fireproofing for existing development.

The Commission pledged to amend the CMP to address climate almost 9 years ago, but has yet to act on that pledge. They are currently considering a very modest climate policy proposal under the leadership of Commissioner Lohbauer, but it is weak and seems to be going nowhere. ~~~~ end update]

There is nothing “new” in the PPA Report. I wrote that story 2 YEARS ago, but I did so in a very different way that provided context and did not mislead readers.

Regarding inadequate Commission staffing levels, we blasted the Gov. and Commission 2 YEARS ago, but we tied that criticism to a destructive DEP logging project, which was justified by a sham pretext of wildfire prevention, that PPA supported, and thus the issue was buried (again), see:

• Pinelands Commission Admits That Staff Shortfalls “Inhibit” Implementation Of Gov. Murphy’s Climate Goals And Programs

We’ve been pounding the climate issues and lack of action for over a decade, see:

• Climate Change Already Impacting Pinelands Forests (2013)
• Will Climate Change Destroy The Pinelands?
• Pinelands Commission Lawyer Claims Agency Lacks Power To Consider Climate Change In Review of $500 Million Fossil Infrastructure Project
• Review of Pinelands Gas Pipeline And New Power Plant Fails to Consider Climate Change Impacts
• A Climate Agenda For The Pinelands

Given the pathetically lame nature of PPA and NJ Spotlight’s approach, instead of delving into the details (again), we’ll repost a “Yes Men” stunt we pulled 10 years ago and still fondly recall.

The Pinelands Commission Launches New Climate Initiative