WorldWide Drilling Resource

25 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® FEBRUARY 2015 Environmental Monitoring by Thomas Kwader, Ph.D., P.G. Sinkholes - A Threat to our Groundwater Resources Out of sight - out of mind, maybe or maybe not. I live in Florida were we have a lot of sinkholes, which have been in the news a lot recently. (In 2014, sink- holes killed a man sleeping in his bed- room near Tampa, Florida; and “ate” eight vintage corvettes near Bowling Green, Kentucky.) There are many areas across the United States that have sinkholes, some more active than others. Sinkholes are a type of landform feature called karst. It generally forms where limestone is found near land surface, and under cer- tain conditions, can collapse into deep holes. Many sinkholes act as “drains” for surface water runoff, “swallowing” pos- sibly contaminated water containing stormwater runoff, petroleum com- pounds, chlorinated solvents, metals, nitrates, and even bacteria and viruses. In some cases, mainly in the past, many types of waste and garbage were placed in sinkholes to try to fill the “obnoxious” hole in the ground. Sinkholes are “nat- ural” features and some folks have tried to prevent sinkholes from being plugged because “man” was interfering with nature. Mother Nature has its own natural way of cleaning surface water before it becomes groundwater. It should be noted that undisturbed soils and sediments have a series of filters, which include: • Sands which remove turbidity. • Clays which adsorb metals. • Biological activity which decom- poses organic contaminants and renders them less polluting. • Changes in oxidation which kill bac- teria and viruses. An open sinkhole allows direct drain- age into our aquifers, which bypasses all of these filters and natural safeguards nature had in place. It should also be noted, once contamination is in a car- bonate aquifer, very little if any “treat- ment” occurs, and the contaminants will often travel long distances without any further treatment. A sinkhole accepting waste is similar to pouring waste directly down a drinking water well - which is highly illegal. Sinkholes accepting surface water runoff should be properly plugged and abandoned. Hmm...sounds like a topic for next month’s article. Tom Tom Kwader may be contacted via e-mail at michele@ worldwidedrillingresource.com Win a prize! Send your completed puzzle to: WWDR PO Box 660 Bonifay, FL 32425 or fax to: 850-547-0329 Congratulati ons to : Pat r ick E. Jones Metai r ie , LA Meta i r ie , LA Winner for January! Time for a Little Fun! January Puzzle Solution: Cross off the 17 “bit” words, reading left to right, down, and diagonal in the puzzle below. (Some overlap.) The re- maining letters will spell a phrase: __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ WWWWDDRR ’s April 2015 issue is coming soon. Deadlines: Space Reservation - February 25 th Display & Classified Ad Copy - March 1 st April