Engineers complete reinspections of damaged Rock Springs homes
By JEFF GEARINO - Southwest Wyoming bureau trib.com | Posted: Sunday, September 26, 2010 1:15 am
GREEN RIVER -- The final engineers' reports from the reinspections of more than a dozen Rock Springs homes damaged from a controversial 2007 mine subsidence project were delivered to the state last week, homeowners say.
The reinspections by the Centennial, Colo.-based J.A. Cesare and Associates are expected to serve as the basis for new settlement offers from Wyoming Attorney General Bruce Salzburg, where warranted.
More than a dozen residents in the downtown "Tree Street" neighborhood have been battling the state's Abandoned Mine Lands Division over the new inspections after rejecting the state's first settlement offers in 2008. Homeowners on a half-dozen streets in the downtown neighborhood contend their houses were severely damaged during a three-week subsidence project by the AML Division in July 2007 that employed a pilot mine reclamation technique known as dynamic compaction.
Using dynamic compaction, contractors dropped 25-ton and 35-ton weights repeatedly over old underground mine voids on a vacant lot adjacent to the neighborhood. The project ran for nearly three weeks until homeowners' complaints about the damage halted the project.
Homeowners said the vibrations cracked driveways and foundations, ceilings and walls, caused gaps in windows and doors, and opened sinkholes in some yards, among other damage.
Tree Street spokeswoman Becky Kelley said Friday the homeowners hope the latest engineering reports from Cesare will reveal the true extent of the damage and result in better settlement offers from the state.
"I'm so hoping that these new reports say what we've said all along ... that these homes are severely damaged (from the project) and they should be replaced," she said.
"We're all living in homes that are basically a hazard now ... and the state should be up front and take care of us the way they promised they would," Kelley said.
AML spokesman Keith Guille was not available for comment Friday.
Engineering teams with J.A. Cesare and Associates reinspected about a dozen of the damaged homes and a nearby apartment complex from top to bottom in May. DEQ officials say the reinspections should result in new offers that more fairly compensate homeowners for damage from the dynamic compaction portion of the project.
State officials say a lack of baseline information about homes and buildings surrounding the project site -- including the low-income Springview Manors Apartment complex -- made it difficult for the first engineering inspections in 2008. The engineers were unable to fully discern what was damage from the dynamic compaction project and what was damage that was to be expected from normal subsidence.
Most homeowners rejected the state's first settlement offers as way too low to adequately pay for much-needed repairs.
So a deal was brokered this spring -- with help from Sweetwater County's legislative delegation -- to reinspect the homes using $120,000 allocated by state lawmakers during the 2010 session.
No sell
Kelley said most homeowners are at the point now where they just want to move out of the neighborhood because of the fears of ongoing subsidence caused by the project and the occasional new damage they're still discovering as a result.
She said the homeowners worry the estimated cost of repairing their homes -- and the new settlement offers -- could end up being higher than the appraised value of the residences.
"Basically I just want to be bought out so I can go ... because I don't want to be on this land any more, and I think we all feel that way," Kelley said in a phone interview.
"I think we're all just hoping this (next settlement offer) will be enough so that we can maybe relocate someplace else," she said.
"We all know that nobody will want to buy up there .... none of us will ever be able to sell our homes now," Kelley said.
But AML officials say there are no provisions in state rules that allow the agency to purchase land or homes, and that buying damaged homes outright is not a viable option.
The federal AML program taxes coal production to raise money to clean up abandoned coal mine sites and for other projects. In Wyoming, the funds have gone to clean up old mines as well as to projects related to coal gasification, carbon sequestration and the University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources.
Congress passed the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act in 1997. Wyoming has received about $600 million in AML funds since then.
The federal government still collects a 35-cent tax on each ton of coal produced in the state for the AML fund.
Contact southwest Wyoming bureau reporter Jeff Gearino at (307) 875-5359 or gearino@tribcsp.com
Comments:
at0mic said on: September 26, 2010, 10:47 am
Oh Ralph...That was excellent!!! I am still laughing. Your exactly right though. Great post.
Ralph said on: September 26, 2010, 7:26 am
Is this the FINAL final inspection or the intermediate final inspection based on a future final inspection?
The people must work with the natrona country school district. Fund another study to determine if a study is needed.
Whatever happened to common sense?
America - what a country!!!
Todd said on: September 26, 2010, 6:54 am
How much money has the state spent already inspecting and reinspecting instead of just bying the houses and being done wiht it or at the very least spending whatever it takes to fix them. Let's hope no more years go by doing more inspections and BSing without doing anything.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
new damage
This homeowner was standing outside next to her home when she herd a loud pop, and witnessed it crack.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
OWNERS OF DAMAGED ROCK SPRINGS HOMES PIN HOPES ON REINSPECTIONS
GREEN RIVER -- Bill Spillman remembers the day in August 2007 when his house's foundation broke apart a few weeks after a controversial mine subsidence project near his home ended.
Spillman bought his modest home on Converse Court in 2004 near the "Tree Street" neighborhood, and the 30-year old house had never experienced subsidence problems before.
He believes the "dynamic compaction" portion of the mine subsidence project -- which included dropping multi-ton weights to collapse old mine voids in the area -- literally "blew apart" his foundation.
Spillman's home still hasn't been fixed. And now his family room floor is cracking as well.
"It looks like something tried to come up from underneath ... and just shattered the whole floor," he said in an e-mail last week.
"The concrete slab underneath is spider-webbed with a bunch of full, thick cracks that runs from wall to wall," Spillman said.
"Some of the cracks are 11 feet by 8 feet and go underneath the carpet I haven't lifted up yet," he said. "I think this pretty much totals this house."
Frustrated and angry, homeowners including Spillman in the downtown Rock Springs neighborhood say they are still waiting for the latest engineering reports from state-contracted engineers so their houses can finally be fixed.
Engineering teams with J.A. Cesare and Associates of Centennial, Colo., reinspected more than a dozen of the damaged homes in May. The inspection reports are expected to serve as the basis for new settlement offers from the state to repair damage from the ill-fated mine subsidence project in 2007.
Spillman and more than a dozen other area homeowners have been fighting the state over the new inspections after rejecting the state's first settlement offers in 2008 to repair damaged homes.
Homeowners contend the state's first offers were way too low to adequately pay for much-needed repairs.
Tree Street unofficial group spokeswoman Becky Kelley said homes in the area are continuing to experience damage, which homeowners attribute to accelerated subsidence from the dynamic compaction.
She said homeowners are still pinning their hopes on an equitable settlement as a result of the reinspections, which residents believe will finally reveal the true extent of the damage caused by the project.
"Here we sit going into our fourth winter with our wrecked homes," Kelley said.
"We are all continuing to have more problems ... I can hear the ground grumbling beneath me (most days) and houses are continuing to move and crack," Kelley said.
"They keep telling us to hang on ... but we want to see what those reports have to say," she said.
AML spokesman Keith Guille said Friday the report "is close" to being completed and delivered to the agency.
"Obviously I'm sure everybody is very anxious, as are we," he said.
Contact southwest Wyoming bureau reporter Jeff Gearino at (307) 875-5359 or gearino@tribcsp.com
About the project
More than a dozen residents of the "Tree Street" neighborhood in downtown Rock Springs have been battling state government over a controversial mine subsidence project conducted during the summer of 2007.
City officials had been working for years to free up previously undeveloped lands for much-needed housing projects. But most of the vacant lands in the city are located over old, underground mine voids.
State Department of Environmental Quality rules forbid the agency's Abandoned Mine Land Division from conducting any subsidence mitigation work on undeveloped lands. So the city sought and received special permission from Gov. Dave Freudenthal and the AML Division to conduct a special reclamation project within a 61-acre tract identified by city officials as most suitable.
A key component of the project was the use of a pilot reclamation technique known as dynamic compaction.
For three weeks beginning in late July 2007, cranes pounded the ground with 25-ton and 35-ton weights to collapse the underground mine voids on the vacant tract of land, which borders the Tree Street neighborhood. Contractors dropped the huge weights more than 2,000 times before the project was halted in mid-August after complaints from residents.
Homeowners contended the shock waves from the ground pounding shook houses, severely damaged many homes in the area and needlessly accelerated ongoing subsidence in the neighborhood.
AML officials said at the time they would pay for any damage to homes resulting from the dynamic compaction portion of the project.
The state sent in engineers to assess the 19 damaged claims filed by homeowners under a settlement process established by the AML Division. The state then sent settlement offers to each homeowners based on the engineer's report.
So far, only three homeowners have accepted the offers. The other homeowners believe the offer was way too low and would not adequately compensate residents for needed repairs to homes.
In May, state-contracted engineers performed a second round of inspections on the damaged homes at the behest of Wyoming legislators. State lawmakers allocated $120,000 during the 2010 session to pay for the new damage assessments of the homes.
AML officials have said the offers should fairly compensate homeowners for damage form the dynamic compaction. AML officials said they will make new offers based on the latest engineer's report where warranted.
Spillman bought his modest home on Converse Court in 2004 near the "Tree Street" neighborhood, and the 30-year old house had never experienced subsidence problems before.
He believes the "dynamic compaction" portion of the mine subsidence project -- which included dropping multi-ton weights to collapse old mine voids in the area -- literally "blew apart" his foundation.
Spillman's home still hasn't been fixed. And now his family room floor is cracking as well.
"It looks like something tried to come up from underneath ... and just shattered the whole floor," he said in an e-mail last week.
"The concrete slab underneath is spider-webbed with a bunch of full, thick cracks that runs from wall to wall," Spillman said.
"Some of the cracks are 11 feet by 8 feet and go underneath the carpet I haven't lifted up yet," he said. "I think this pretty much totals this house."
Frustrated and angry, homeowners including Spillman in the downtown Rock Springs neighborhood say they are still waiting for the latest engineering reports from state-contracted engineers so their houses can finally be fixed.
Engineering teams with J.A. Cesare and Associates of Centennial, Colo., reinspected more than a dozen of the damaged homes in May. The inspection reports are expected to serve as the basis for new settlement offers from the state to repair damage from the ill-fated mine subsidence project in 2007.
Spillman and more than a dozen other area homeowners have been fighting the state over the new inspections after rejecting the state's first settlement offers in 2008 to repair damaged homes.
Homeowners contend the state's first offers were way too low to adequately pay for much-needed repairs.
Tree Street unofficial group spokeswoman Becky Kelley said homes in the area are continuing to experience damage, which homeowners attribute to accelerated subsidence from the dynamic compaction.
She said homeowners are still pinning their hopes on an equitable settlement as a result of the reinspections, which residents believe will finally reveal the true extent of the damage caused by the project.
"Here we sit going into our fourth winter with our wrecked homes," Kelley said.
"We are all continuing to have more problems ... I can hear the ground grumbling beneath me (most days) and houses are continuing to move and crack," Kelley said.
"They keep telling us to hang on ... but we want to see what those reports have to say," she said.
AML spokesman Keith Guille said Friday the report "is close" to being completed and delivered to the agency.
"Obviously I'm sure everybody is very anxious, as are we," he said.
Contact southwest Wyoming bureau reporter Jeff Gearino at (307) 875-5359 or gearino@tribcsp.com
About the project
More than a dozen residents of the "Tree Street" neighborhood in downtown Rock Springs have been battling state government over a controversial mine subsidence project conducted during the summer of 2007.
City officials had been working for years to free up previously undeveloped lands for much-needed housing projects. But most of the vacant lands in the city are located over old, underground mine voids.
State Department of Environmental Quality rules forbid the agency's Abandoned Mine Land Division from conducting any subsidence mitigation work on undeveloped lands. So the city sought and received special permission from Gov. Dave Freudenthal and the AML Division to conduct a special reclamation project within a 61-acre tract identified by city officials as most suitable.
A key component of the project was the use of a pilot reclamation technique known as dynamic compaction.
For three weeks beginning in late July 2007, cranes pounded the ground with 25-ton and 35-ton weights to collapse the underground mine voids on the vacant tract of land, which borders the Tree Street neighborhood. Contractors dropped the huge weights more than 2,000 times before the project was halted in mid-August after complaints from residents.
Homeowners contended the shock waves from the ground pounding shook houses, severely damaged many homes in the area and needlessly accelerated ongoing subsidence in the neighborhood.
AML officials said at the time they would pay for any damage to homes resulting from the dynamic compaction portion of the project.
The state sent in engineers to assess the 19 damaged claims filed by homeowners under a settlement process established by the AML Division. The state then sent settlement offers to each homeowners based on the engineer's report.
So far, only three homeowners have accepted the offers. The other homeowners believe the offer was way too low and would not adequately compensate residents for needed repairs to homes.
In May, state-contracted engineers performed a second round of inspections on the damaged homes at the behest of Wyoming legislators. State lawmakers allocated $120,000 during the 2010 session to pay for the new damage assessments of the homes.
AML officials have said the offers should fairly compensate homeowners for damage form the dynamic compaction. AML officials said they will make new offers based on the latest engineer's report where warranted.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
