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RINGWOOD - Phase II of abandoned mineshaft tests begins
RINGWOOD - More testing is aimed at determining if abandoned mineshafts are a threat to residents’ homes in the Upper Ringwood Superfund site area. This past week, Phase II of the geophysical testing was underway to gauge whether there is unstable ground that could endanger locals.
But any prediction of this second phase’s outcome is up in the air, according to Councilman John Speer.
“(Any speculation) is pointless … I wouldn’t even try to guess,” he said.
Gary Gartenberg, of Morristown’s Gartenberg Associates, is carrying out the investigation on five residential properties and certain stretches of borough roadways along Cannon Mine and Peters Mine roads. Gartenberg and state geological surveyor Richard Volkert conducted Phase I of the study and plan to carry out the next phase the same way.
Their microgravity survey involves the use of a machine that tests the earth’s gravity exertion on the grounds for anomalies or abnormalities. How much gravity is exerted on a surface is proportionate to how much density the surface has. If the machine detects any anomalies, that ground is drilled to determine whether that surface should be of any major concern.
Just like in the Phase I geophysical study, the microgravity survey would be used during Phase II before any drilling would take place.
Speer said that it could take “a couple of weeks until any data is found” during the microgravity survey.
Neither Gartenberg nor Volkert could be reached for comment at press time.
Phase I was executed on Van Dunk Lane, the Horseshoe Bend area and Sheehan Drive. According to the March 2008 report Gartenberg Associates drew up, these areas are safe to live on with the exception of two Van Dunk Lane properties. Residents of those two properties had to move out once test borings revealed a previously unmapped mineshaft there. The report also suggested additional testing for these two uninhabitable homes.
The state Department of Environmental Protection mandated that the borough and Ford Motor Co., which dumped toxic paint sludge that created the Superfund site, arrange the geophysical testing in May 2007.
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