Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Sinkholes from Warehouses?
Palmer Township residents near the proposed new Warehouse development in Lower Nazareth have expressed their concerns to their Township officials in regard to sinkholes (read the article here). In response the Township is having an expert give a preliminary report. If their are findings indicating it can be an issue the expert may participate in future Lower Nazareth hearings on the matter.
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5 comments:
Sinkholes? Are you kidding me? If Palmer is hedging their bets (pun intended..see below) that the proposed warehouse will cause sinkholes, they need to think again. Last time I checked, Nazareth built the middle school in an area highly prone to sinkholes. Currently, Nazareth is building a new middle school adjacent to a limestone quarry causing most of the sinkhole problems.
Palmer Township residents can cry all they want, but THEY turned a deaf ear to the residents of Tatamy and Nazareth when Chrin proposed building a Racino adjacent to the middle school (on sinkhole infested land).
The bigger concern is not the existing sinkholes, it is creating an environment that will create new ones.
LNT has been on a constuction binge, and a lot of the open land that helped in storm water management is quickly going away. A truck terminal takes up a lot of open space and will increase the amount of water going into areas that previously did not get them.
The net result is that there is a huge potential for new sinkholes to open up.
LNT has a proven track record for ingoring this, and we all saw the results when Ivan stuck the area a few years back.
You would have thought they would have learned the lessons of that storm, but once again, the LNT BOS is proving that the desires of the citizens in the area are second to theirs.
anon 8:12
The net result is that there is a huge potential for new sinkholes to open up.
I have to disagree. I have completed numerous sinkhole and karst assessments for residential and commercial properties throughout the Lehigh Valley. You cannot find one commercial (non quarry) project in the Lehigh Valley that caused sinkholes to develop on adjacent properties.
Anon 8:52
If you are trying to tell me that the removal of lands where storm water was originally absorbed, and now concentrating all of that run off into a smaller area does not or cannot speed the process of sinkhole development, then I find your argument hard to believe.
We are removing land (absorbtion areas) at a record rate in LNT. The less absorbtion area means that run off is now concentrated in fewer areas.
More water in a single area, add in some acids into that rain (which is normal), and you have the perfect storm for acceleration of sinkhole development.
Read some of the DEP documents (I have been through many of them) and storm water management is key to preventing sinkholes.
LNT has a poor record (in my opinion) of handling storm water management and has abdicated responsibility of it to the residents.
I will admit, I don't want yet another truck terminal in LNT. I don't want a horse track or casino either.
One thing I am sure of, if we stick a truck terminal there, it will greatly increase the possibility of us getting a casino/track on our border.
Anon 10:16
I'm a licensed professional geologist and I can assure you I know much more about sinkhole formation than you. With that being said, you are absolutely incorrect with your assumptions. I'll leave this as my last post as I do not care to argue with you.
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