Goodwin Pit Sinkhole & Cave 2014
2014 Goodwin Pit Sinkhole & Cave Restoration – Year Three
Missouri’s largest sinkhole clean up project – Laclede County
As we forge ahead with the Goodwin Pit Sinkhole restoration, it is worthwhile to keep in mind, we continue to set records with every workday. There have many sinkhole clean ups in the state in recent years, Turton Sink, Conical Sink, Slaughter Sink, Gooch Sink and more. MCKC, Vice President, Jon Beard, reminds us, “None of these compares with the trash and debris we’ve been cleaning out of Goodwin Sink. I cannot think of a sinkhole cleanup of this magnitude in the entire history of Missouri. Goodwin is thus far the Goliath of sinkhole cleanups.”
To date, we have removed more than 1,000 tons (two million pounds) of trash-laden and clean silt and gravel, more than 1,100 tires, not to mention steel and other metal item.
A major challenge has been finding a place to dispose of clean fill. A neighbor who is interested in creating more pasture has invited us to place clean fill from Goodwin Pit on his property. Having a location for the clean fill a few miles from the sinkhole is saving us thousands of dollars in backhoe, dump truck and disposal site tipping fees. In March, approximately 762.5 tons of clean fill was removed from the sinkhole and taken to the new disposal site.
Although DNR GeoProbe core samples indicate there is still scattered trash 12 and 15 below the floor of the sinkhole, the extent of the trash buried within the cave is unknown.
See the Goodwin Gallery 2014.
