Illinois representatives want answers on Alton mine collapse and who will pay the bill

ALTON — Almost a month after a sinkhole swallowed a soccer field here, Illinois’ Congressional delegation is asking federal administrators to help prevent such mine collapses, prepare for when they arrive, and pay for the cleanup after.

U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, Sen. Richard Durbin and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, all Democrats, sent a letter this week pressing the chief of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration to answer how the collapse happened last month at Gordon F. Moore Park in Alton, where else here it could happen and whether it could be prevented.

“Local families deserve to know how this happened and how their safety will be ensured going forward,” Budzinski said in a statement sent Friday to the Post-Dispatch.

The mine collapsed June 26, leaving what is now a nearly 200-foot-wide, 50-foot-deep sinkhole in the middle of soccer fields here. The collapse raised immediate concerns about the park and the neighboring golf course here, which officials closed for the foreseeable future, they said, halting numerous summer sports and camps.

Several local sports organizations, such as the Alton River Dragon baseball team and the Alton Renegades youth football team, have had to find new fields in different towns to play on.

Mike Clarke, CEO of New Frontier Materials, the company mining limestone under the fields, has said he didn’t know what caused the collapse, but is drill-testing at the park and will send results to the federal mine administration.

Local experts have theorized that karst caves — essentially limestone caverns through which underground streams run — likely led to the subsidence.

Jerry Marino, owner of St. Louis-based Marino Engineering Associates, said when acidic groundwater eats away at and fractures bedrock, like limestone, it can create underground caves.

“Limestones are known to have ancient caves that can cause sinkholes,” said Jerry Marino, owner of St. Louis-based Marion Engineering Associates. “They may find that it’s not gonna be in one spot.”

It’s not uncommon to have mines underneath parks, roadways or buildings, said Justin Kleinschmidt, a vice president at Sheppard, Morgan and Schwaab, Alton’s civil engineering firm.

And Budzinski’s office said this week a preliminary analysis from the federal mine administration found that a buildup of mud and sediment in an ancient cave above New Frontier’s mine collapsed, causing the partial collapse of the limestone mine.

But the letter sent Thursday by Budzinski, Durbin and Duckworth focuses less on what happened, and more on how to pay for the cleanup, and prevent it from happening again.

In the letter, the three officials ask MSHA how geotechnical technology can be used to predict an area’s sinkhole risk, how the activity on top of a mine impacts the mine’s stability, what the economic impact on Alton will be, and who is financially responsible for the restoration of the soccer fields.

Budzinski said Friday she and a team are working to introduce legislation and secure funding to help prevent future collapses.

City officials have also asked if the collapse could lead to a decline in sports tourism for the city of 25,000.

The Alton comptroller said this week that, so far, there has been no lost income.