Blast from the Past: That Sinking Feeling

Longtime fans of this blog who recall my epic 67-part series on sinkholes and their relation to conservative failure may wonder why I haven't yet weighed in on the 600-foot gargantua that has been opening up in Daisetta, Texas. The reason is that my interest was in sinkholes that opened up as a result of public infrastructure, specifically the nation's underground wastewater pipes which, I never tired of pointed out, are rated a D-minus by the American Society of Civil Engineers, not ones that are the result of private infrastructure, as appears to be the case with this one caused by Sunoco crude oil pipelines.

But I can't resist this one comment. The AP article cites a geologist in claiming, "Sinkholes are rare."

I used to have a GoogleNews alert for sinkholes, and after getting ten emails a day, and figuring I'd already quite made my point, I quit. But—did I mentioned this?—because of the conservative principle of tax-starvation that has earned our underground wastewater infrastructure a grade of D-minus by the American Society of Civil Engineers—let us make no mistake: sinkholes are in no way rare.

F'rinstance consider this story, which appeared an hour ago:

PEARL CITY, Hawaii -- An 8-inch main broke on Hoomoana Street and it created a hole big enough to swallow a car. No one drove into it.

Residents said they heard running water at about 4 a.m. and called police. Officers kept watch until a Board of Water Supply crew arrived.

The sinkhole buckled the asphalt and literally lifted part of the street.
The main break left 18 homes without water for a short time.