"Sinkhole politics: Who gets heard?" Just talked to a man whose home was taken by a sink hole.

[madfloridian]

He just moved his family out of the home yesterday. He lives near the Plant City area of Florida where there have been about 40 sinkholes since the big two week long cold spell. He is pretty shaken up, says he thinks he has insurance for it. But he knows they do everything they can not to call it a sinkhole.

He was trying to sound brave, but he did not really succeed. He has just lost his home to a sink hole.

There are politics surrounding this issue in Florida. The aquifer has dropped about 60 feet, and in addition to sinkholes forming there are many in rural areas without access to water now.

From the Brandon News and Tribune:

Agricultural demands are clashing with residential needs.

No doubt, January has been exceptionally hard on Florida's farmers, who, in the peak of the strawberry growing season, have been desperate to keep their livelihood from freezing to death. Eleven straight nights of icebox temperatures led to 11 nights of watering to cover the strawberry plants in a protective coat of ice.

But that same plant-saving process plunders the aquifer, leading to unpredictable sinkholes and residential wells that run dry. This year, the aquifer - a naturally occurring layer of water underground - dropped about 60 feet, putting water out of reach for many who live in eastern Hillsborough County without access to municipal hookups.

Those experienced in the wintertime ritual knew to shut down their well pumps, but newcomers had no idea their expensive motors would burn up if the temperatures - and therefore the aquifer - dropped. And no one can guess whose house or street might suddenly cave in, although those who live near a large strawberry field seem especially vulnerable.

Here is more about it:

Strawberry city

Living with misery and anxiety breeds resentment, even in the small town of Plant City, the strawberriest place on Earth. With its berry-bedecked downtown decor, its annual strawberry festival and the crowning of wholesome strawberry queens, the city owes much to its farmers. That's true now more than ever. Many of Plant City's blue-collar industries, long a backbone of this railroad town, have shut down within the past year or so. Unemployment is high.

But Plant City residents are starting to grumble that everyone from the mayor to the governor care far more about the farmers than the little guy.

It's not just the homeowners. They are still closing sections of highway and roads due to possible sinkholes.

Possible sinkhole shuts a second I-4 exit

PLANT CITY — Another possible sinkhole was discovered about 1 a.m. Tuesday near Interstate 4, this time at the eastbound exit ramp to southbound Alexander Street, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Alexander Street is now closed at that location.

A separate roadway depression closed the exit ramp to Branch Forbes Road from eastbound I-4 on Monday night.

Unlike last week, all the interstate lanes are open and traffic is flowing around those closed exits.

A depression in the interstate at the same spot a week ago closed all but one lane for four days while crews pumped 1,000 cubic yards of concrete beneath the surface to stabilize it. All lanes were reopened Friday afternoon.

Several more sinkholes popped up throughout the week around the area, attributed to a drop in aquifer levels after heavy pumping by local growers trying to protect crops from a freeze.

[NeeDeep]

1. Sounds like a giant Republican Mole making its way

thru the economy, healthcare, goverment and now the ground?

[flvegan]

2. The farmers STILL lost a lot of their crops.

I was listening this weekend, and some of them want to have the area declared a disaster so they can get compensation for their losses.

Sad on both sides of this coin.

[madfloridian]

3. Yes you are right, there is no easy answer.

[flvegan]

4. In hindsight, one wonders

(well, I do at least) if it would have been more responsible to say look, we've got a LONG cold snap coming and you're going to lose a good bit of your crop. Let's not pump the aquifer down so that folks don't lose their homes (nor have I4 shut down for a number of days, etc).

[JVS]

6. Did this effect the orange crop?

[madfloridian]

7. Yes, I think so.

They send the damaged fruit for juice I believe. I don't have statistics, but I have seen on the news about a lot of damage.

[JVS]

8. I noticed oranges at my store going from $2 for a bag to $3.

But I had read something a week ago saying that the cold hadn't caused much damage, so I had assumed that there was gouging involved.

[flyarm]

10. not so much,..hubby and i drove through them a couple days ago..the trees are full and didn't look

damaged..the problem is the Strawberries..Plant City is the center of the Strawberry crops..in early Feb they have a strawberry Festival..and it is when the crops start to come in big time..much of the crops have been hurt badly..if not by the freeze then by flooding by all the water poured on them to keep the frost from hurtng them..a vicious cycle.

I live up close enough to see it all and there are sink holes all the way from just norht of Tampa..and the I-4 freeway from Tampa to Orlando with alot of it near Plant City..just east of Tampa.In fact I4 had 3 lanes closed to Orlando and it was just opened back up to only have another sink hole today shutting down lanes again on I4...Which makes a trip to Orlando a horror!

[flvegan]

11. And right after the I4 closure, 92 had to be shut for the same reason.

What a disaster it's been here. I think I heard two more "road collapses" occurred today in the area.

[flyarm]

14. yes and another road ( sorry i don't remember the # of it) up near Polk County..

its a mess!

[madfloridian]

16. I know 27 had a section closed for a while.

Not sure what others.

[madfloridian]

5. Now they are closing a whole school...there needs to be a dialogue

about the various rights involved here.

I believe on the news they said about 500 students from Trapnell School in Plant City would have to be relocated. The school was closed completely.

http://www.abcactionnews.com/content/news/local/hillsborough/west/tampa/story/Sinkhole-causes-evacuation-at-Trapnell-Elementary/G30Sl9mUYEmLiyu5B4a0Nw.cspx

"PLANT CITY, FL -- Concerns over a sinkhole at Trapnell Elementary have caused the school to evacuate and temporarily close.

Engineers discovered the hole, which is located near the administrative building and media center, over the weekend.

Students and staff have been relocated to nearby schools as a precaution, according to a Hillsborough County Schools spokesman.

Principal Rhonda Pulling informed parents and her staff through a ParentLink message, along with bus riders who will have the same schedule and bus stops.

The Hillsborough County school board says starting Wednesday, January 20, all Trapnell students in grades 3, 4, and 5 will attend class at Strawberry Crest High School. All other Trapnell students, including Head Start, kindergarten, and grades 1 and 2 will attend class at nearby Bailey Elementary School."

[flyarm]

9. on our news a bit ago..A school near plant city is now sitting on a sink hole

The students were moved out and they are going to be sent to other schools until it is resolved and fixed!

[BeFree]

12. Karst geology

In a limestone base frequently is found a karst geology which means holes in the rock.
In normal times these holes in the rock are filled with water. In times when humans have pumped the ground water so low as to leave empty holes in the karst, the holes collapse and the ground above that collapse hole sinks.
Sometimes the ground just washes away into the emptiness below.

It seems the humans down there in Florida have exceeded the carrying capacity of the land?

[madfloridian]

13. Industries and developers have been given free rein...

and that is actually where a lot of problem lies. Developers keep building new housing complexes with little regulation.

[BeFree]

15. Too many people

For the earth to support.

[madfloridian]

17. More about the uneasiness between strawberry farmers and residents.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/jan/19/na-water-splits-farmers-neighbors/

"An uneasy truce could be struck in the impending groundwater rift between agitated Plant City area residents whose wells have run dry and the strawberry farmers who sucked the water out of the ground to keep their crops from freezing during this month's unusually long cold spell. Over the past week, about 400 small, private wells around the strawberry fields of Plant City have dried up.

Some residents have been forced to move from their homes; others have resorted to running hoses to neighbors' homes for drinking water. Families are showing up at fire stations for water rations. One woman has had to carry water for her horses.

Anger is growing among some of the residents, even though strawberry farmers must pay for new wells or well repairs under their water-use permit with the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Still, the inconvenience of living without running water is irking people, who have accused big growers of ignoring their neighbors to make a profit. Growers have said they also stand to lose money after the unusually long freeze and had no other choice but to run sprinklers all night to save their crops.

Water managers say the number of sinkholes and dry wells will prompt the district to take another look at how it allocates water in the 110 square miles of the strawberry-growing region."

[BeFree]

18. managers

if they had managed the water properly, they'd have never allowed that aquifer to be depleted. So these managers are like wall street bankers managing the economy?

They did such a bad job that people's houses are falling into holes, and they knew it would happen?

[madfloridian]

20. Yes, they have done poor water management.

Read my post in this thread below about what Crist did last year. Put the power over water in just a few hands.

[madfloridian]

19. Crist last year put water control in the hands of just 5 people.

Water District Chiefs Are Getting Unwanted Power

With a stroke of his pen last week, Gov. Charlie Crist put the future of Florida's water resources in the hands of five people. Now the five - four men and one woman - are trying to figure out how to wield their significant new power over development and water-use permits, yet still give the public a chance to be heard.

..."Until this week, if a bottling company wanted to slurp millions of gallons of water out of the aquifer or a developer wanted to pave over thousands of acres of swamps, the state permits had to be approved by one of five water management district boards appointed by the governor. The board's vote took place in a public meeting where residents could stand up and give their opinion.

But on the next-to-last day of the session, Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, added an amendment to SB 2080 that even the bill's sponsor says he didn't know about. The bill - originally just aimed at promoting water conservation - passed both houses of the Legislature unanimously.

Only afterward did the public discover that Alexander's amendment shifted the power over permitting away from the boards and open meetings. It said that "the governing board shall delegate to the executive director all of its authority to take final action on permit applications."

[BeFree]

21. 5 people?

That kind of narrows down the target. Not only for the public but the permitees. Does the ED have to listen to the public at all?

Just seems to me that the managers have already made the holes the houses are falling into and that the only way to keep the whole state from sinkholing is to manage the aquifers so that it remains full.

Will an ED have the power to manage sinkholes? From what I know of the geology, almost the whole state is over karst. Are they going to sacrifice everything to keep toilets flushing?

[madfloridian]

22. Yep, just 5 people.

And I doubt they listen to the general public.

[BeFree]

23. Yeah

I betcha 5 sinkholes in the right places would get their attention.

[jwirr]

30. Can they be sued for the damages? They have caused them.

[BeFree]

31. Good question

I dunno.

But the science predicting the sinkholes is sound.
It seems the science was ignored.

Can you sue a state board for ignoring the science?

[Dr.Phool]

25. Just a note.

J.D. Alexander is a cousin to the infamous Katherine Harris.

[madfloridian]

27. Indeed he is.

So is Baxter Troutman.

Alexander is going to profit big time from the looser regulations on developers.

[blackhorsecavnam]

24. Strawberry farmers

Last week, after the freeze, the farmers, instead of trying to
help people, or, attempting to take some responsibility for
these problems, issued a self serving statement about how much
money their industry brings in to the area, how many jobs,
etc., and the statement went on to complain abit about how
just too many people have moved to this area. Had the farmers
not wanted people in this area, they should have kept or
bought the land. I live just outside Plant City, and was
without water for 5 days. Many are still without water. 

The farmers, in an attempt to distance themselves from this
pointed out that they were not the only ones using water, and
that sinkholes do occur. The problem is this. Before the
freeze there was water in the aquafer and no sinkholes
evident, after the freeze, there was no water in the aquafer
and plenty of sinkholes. The only thing that was different is
the fact that the farmers pumped all this water out. They
would start at 5 in the afternoon and not quit pumping until
11 the next morning. While the farmers do have a right to try
to save their crops, they do not have the right to endanger,
inconvenience others, nor do they have the right to destroy
others property, whether it is public or private. 

[FLAprogressive]

26. obligatory K&R

[treestar]

28. He has insurance for it?

Why did he make that giveaway to the insurance companies?

Oh, never mind.

[madfloridian]

29. Better than not having it.

We pay for that coverage, hope we don't have to use it.