Commonly Asked Questions and Answers
Q.
Does taking ground water cause sinkholes?
A: A sinkhole
is caused by the dissolving of subsurface sandstone or limestone rock
when water enters this previously arrid formation and causes collapse.
Common causes of land subsidence (loss of underground support) from human
activity are pumping water, oil, and gas from underground reservoirs;
collapse of underground mines; drainage of organic soils; and initial
wetting of dry soils (hydrocompaction). Unlike “fossil fuel extraction”,
where large voids are left, water has a cycle of renewal which in most
cases replenishes, at a very high rate, the water that is taken from the
ground.
Research shows areas of the US Southwest to be most suseptible to water
extraction induced land subsidence. Middle Georgia, although not immune,
is protected because our geology has Granite as the base bed rock.
