Silence follows Georgetown sinkhole

GEORGETOWN -- The state’s insurance fund is reviewing claims from 11 property owners who say they sustained damage when a series of sinkholes started forming downtown here in November.

The state Department of Transportation, which was overseeing a $14 million drainage project that many in town believe is responsible for the sinkholes, has clammed up on the issue.

That’s because everybody has lawyered up, said Georgetown Mayor Jack Scoville, an attorney himself.

Scoville is confident everyone will be compensated, but he said the sinkhole problem is complicated and he thinks final settlements and who pays them could take a long time.

It could be taxpayers on the hook, or it could end up being the engineers or contractors of the project that was designed to solve the city’s years-old problem of deep water covering major streets in heavy rains. Those streets include U.S. 17 and U.S. 521.

The holes started forming early in November after pumping began to lower the water table under a planned retention pond for the drainage project. All the damage occurred within about three blocks of the pumping site.

The first indication was a sinkhole in the parking lot of an office building in the 200 block of North Fraser Street which rendered the lot unusable. The building is about a block and a half from where the pumping was taking place.

Then, as other property owners in the area were beginning to see new cracks in their buildings, the front of the office building collapsed into a hole at the edge of the street.

In the next few days, cracks appeared in the new county courthouse, the Bank of America, the Parrish Motors building, Landy’s Cleaners, and the old Winyah High School building.

At a public meeting in Georgetown on Nov. 21, the DOT said it was trying to determine the cause of the sinkholes and would report to the public in 10-14 days, even if there was no definitive answer yet.

That meeting never happened. Instead, the DOT filed a claim with its insurance guarantor, the state-operated Insurance Reserve Fund.

“The issue has been put into the hands of the State Insurance Fund and we’re not supposed to say anything about it,” said DOT spokesman Pete Poore.

He could not say when the decision was made, or by whom, or why the agency could not discuss the issue. He did say the insurance fund has hired independent engineers to study the damage and seek the cause of it, and that some work on the drainage project continues.

The pumping that many residents believe caused the sinkholes has stopped, but some pipes are being laid and other surface work for the project is still taking place, Poore said.

Lindsey Kremlick, spokeswoman for the insurance fund, said DOT filed a claim with her agency and the 11 individual claims are being investigated. In addition, the agency is waiting for the engineering report. She could not say what the total amount of claimed damages is and did not know when the report might be ready.

Scoville said that since the November public meeting, the issue has become more and more complicated. The insurance companies and attorneys for the DOT, engineers, contractor, and the city are all involved as are representatives for some of the property owners.

In at least one case, a property owner’s insurance company has filed a claim with the state.

“I think everybody’s kind of circling the wagons now,” Scoville said.

“If there’s liability I think everybody will be compensated,” he said.

If the sinkholes were simply natural, the project did not cause them and the state may not be liable, he said.

“Intuitively you would say that dewatering was the cause, but the more I’ve learned about this, I’ve discovered that it’s not that simple,” Scoville said.

For one thing, what is believed to be a natural sinkhole occurred in the same area in 1956. It was in a driveway and did not cause any harm to buildings.

Another issue is that the buildings affected are all on landfill that was put into an old creekbed sometime in the 1800s.

No new reports of damage have been filed since the pumping for the pond stopped, except a small hole on Highmarket Street that formed a couple of weeks ago. It could have been caused by a leaking pipe, he said.

The mayor said he would like to see the insurance companies pay everyone’s damages so they can decide what to do about their property. The insurance companies and state could then work it out among themselves about who is responsible, he said.

The office building that collapsed has not yet been completely demolished. The tenants, including a UPS store and Nationwide Insurance agency, have had to find other offices. Landy’s Cleaners said it is closing because of the unsafe conditions at its building. Bank of America is still operating out of a mobile office parked on the site.

Scoville said the city does not believe it has any liability for the damages, but two owners have also filed claims with the city. The city is trying to help the owners of the damaged property and respond to their questions, he said.

“I can assure you that the city is doing everything it can,” Scoville said.