Fritz,
Joe Datri posted a good photo of the sinkhole on the U.T. Grotto Facebook page. A lot of dirt and rubble in the bottom to be removed. Cavers
are working on getting permission to enter. I hope the city or whoever is in charge decides to leave it open, but I have no idea what will happen.
Regarding the culverts at Bastrop State Park, the staff is short-handed and dealing with layoffs and budget cutbacks as are most of the state
parks. Not to mention the drought and one of the worst fires in Texas history. Even if they had an army of volunteers to clean out all the
culverts after the fire, enough pine needles and other debris have fallen that the culverts would have clogged up again very quickly during the
deluge.
On 1/30/2012 12:13 PM, Fritz Holt wrote:
May this sinkhole be currently viewed? Will this water quality pond be repaired
or allowed to remain as a recharge circuit to the aquifer?
Whether it would have averted the problem or not, it seems the park authorities should have forseen this possibility and kept the culverts
clear of debris.
Fritz, with hindsight
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*From:*Logan McNatt [mailto:[email protected]]
*Sent:* Saturday, January 28, 2012 4:49 PM
*To:* Texas Cavers
*Subject:* [Texascavers] new sinkhole drains pond in south Austin
Thanks to Peter Sprouse and Zara Environmental for forwarding this information; original source unknown. The early morning storm of Jan 25th
dumped 5 to 7 inches of rain over much of Travis and Bastrop counties in 6 to 10 hours. I didn't see anything in the news about this sinkhole.
The huge water quality pond located at Mopac and William Cannon "Shops at Arbor Trails" (inc. Costco, Target, Chuy's etc) went from full to
empty during this morning's storm. Over the past year, it was speculated that the pond was leaking. Few storms had tested the pond over the
last few months, but this one clearly revealed the issue. The liner gave way (split) to reveal a large sinkhole which slurped down all the
water. Musta been one helluva whirlpool.
(not cave related) Bastrop State Park got hit real hard by the storm because the fire removed all the ground cover. The old Civilian
Conservation Corps culverts had gotten clogged during the long drought, so the water overflowed and took out large chunks of the park roads.
See the following link for photos.
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Friends-of-the-Lost-Pines-State-Parks-Bastrop-and-Buescher-State-Parks/313894840447
<https://www.facebook.com/#%21/pages/Friends-of-the-Lost-Pines-State-Parks-Bastrop-and-Buescher-State-Parks/313894840447>
Logan
