By: Allan Horton

Allan Horton — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 14:08:42 +0000

Re the issue of sinkholes, I believe the issue is loss of groundwater. Reduced flow of most of Florida’s major springs – Silver, Rainbow, etc – is a surface expression of these losses. As people sink more and more straws in the form of wells into the shallow zones of the Floridan Aquifer, the hydraulic pressure of aquifer water is drained from the natural cavities of the underlying limestone aquifer formations. When developers come along and add tons of weight in the form of streets, curb and gutter and homes on top of the ground, the concentrated pressure from above simply collapses the limestone cap over the aquifer chamber.

This probably is too simplistic an explanation and certainly cannot explain all sinkhole formations, but I bet it’s a factor in a number of cases.

What is needed, I believe, is a really comprehensive geotechnical survey – equivalent to a metes and bounds surface land survey – of all building sites in the regions where the Floridan Aquifer outcrops or lies close to the surface – and certainly in all aquifer recharge areas where a minimum of overburden materials may serve to buffer the development impact.

The result might well prohibit surface development in certain fragile areas where it is certain development investments would be lost, or enormously compromised by corrective remedies. But it would seem to me that would be preferable to losing those investments and conducive, perhaps, to protecting aquifer zones which certainly are lost or diminished by remedial activities.

Just a thought.

Allan Horton
Sarasota

Comments on: Florida Development May Worsen Sinkhole Problem

By: Allan Horton