Water, water everywhere...

STELLARTON - The sewer bypass necessitated by the sinkhole on North Foord Street should be in operation today.
Town engineer Tony Addis said the 400-foot bypass should be commissioned this afternoon. The sewer line broke earlier during the collapse of the sinkhole.
Having the new sewer bypass should allow work to progress on the sinkhole, Addis said from his office in the town hall.
"That should enable the sinkhole to be filled (with stone) provided we've had the opportunity to explore underneath, to see if the tunnels run underneath and were the cause of the sinkhole."
Addis said water in the tunnels presents another problem all together.
"A separate problem is, of course, the flooding. We have water pumps down on both sides of the highway. We have a big pump on the south side of the highway. The water in the tunnels on the north side is not going down, we're going to have to get another pump in."
Addis said the tunnels can't be explored to solve this riddle until they are empty of water.
"We don't anticipate having the tunnel dry until Friday. We can't go in the tunnel until it's finally dry. Hopefully we'll be able to tell if they were the cause of the sinkhole. More importantly, we have to find out why the water isn't flowing. We can only presume that the tunnel has a blockage or has collapsed."
Retired geologist Kevin Gillis was heavily involved with the coal fields in this area and said he suspects a tunnel did collapse and caused the sinkhole.
"The water backed up, something blocked it off but not completely…that's about all you can say until somebody has a look at it. Anytime you have manmade tunnels under the ground, if they're not continuously checked, they're going to slowly corrode and collapse."
Gillis said it's unlikely that Foord Seam coal mining activity would be responsible for the sinkhole since shafts in that area would be at a depth of 350 metres.
"Working of the seams would not influence the subsidence that occurred here. Subsidence that occurred here is likely due to something that was connected to infrastructure of the old Allan Shaft and washplant that was on that site."
The sinkhole opened on Nov. 2, was filled in, then expanded later that week. Old storm sewer tunnels in the area are being suspected as culprits in the collapse.