News from Skylands CLEAN, Inc.

On the edge

Monday, November 24, 2008

IT'S BEEN three gut-wrenching years since giant sinkholes began rending the earth in a formerly bucolic Upper Ringwood neighborhood, and still no permanent solutions have been found for the 23 hapless residents facing economic and psychological devastation from damage to their family homesteads.

But at long last, borough officials have developed a plan that could finally offer some overdue relief. Whether it works remains to be seen.

In July 2005, Roger DeGroat finished mowing his lawn on Sheehan Drive, only to see the ground in his back yard suddenly give way, producing an SUV-sized crater just beyond his deck. The area, site of iron ore mining activities dating from the early 1800s, is laced with a network of mines and airshafts that were filled when the mines were abandoned.

The neighborhood is also the site of a Ford Motor Co. industrial waste dump. Since 2004, Ford has removed 35,000 tons of lead-based paint sludge from the area, a federally supervised Superfund cleanup site.

Over the years, part of a nearby road was lost to sinkholes, and soon after DeGroat's discovery, other clusters of sinkholes developed near two additional homes on nearby Van Dunk Lane. They were evacuated when borough officials, acting on geological experts' recommendations, ruled the sinkholes life-threatening. Residents maintain the sinkholes were prompted by changes in underground water conditions stemming from the Ford cleanup. The automaker, citing Environmental Protection Agency vibration studies, disagrees.

Despite an early flurry of attention from federal, state and local officials, little has been done to resolve the issue. DeGroat and his family still live amid uncertainty in a home with a huge sinkhole fenced off in the middle of his back yard, and evacuated residents are living as best they can with extended family members in nearby towns. Insurance claims haven't been paid because the structures haven't been damaged — yet — and taxes and mortgages must be paid on property that can't be occupied.

Now borough officials have developed a plan to mitigate the situation for the residents. They propose using $600,000 in grant money to pay off the mortgages and demolish the two vacant Van Dunk Lane homes, as well as subdividing, buying and repairing the part of DeGroat's yard containing the biggest sinkhole. The plan is to divide whatever money remains among the two Van Dunk Lane homeowners to apply toward new homes.

The plan has merit, but it's doubtful it will be sufficient. Half of the $600,000 would go toward paying off two mortgages of more than $150,000 each, and estimates to fix DeGroat's sinkhole exceed $200,000, leaving little left to buy a portion of his property and divide among the other two homeowners.

But it's a hopeful start. And after three years, what DeGroat and the other residents need most is for someone to start doing something.