Post by L Roebuck on Sept 2, 2007 7:42:05 GMT -5
Trash cache
Originally published September 02, 2007
FrederickNewsPost.com
WHETSTONE, Ky. -- With a lot of digging, hauling and sweating, a sizable reminder of the time when many people in Kentucky dumped trash in sinkholes beside the road and at the back of the farm is being cleaned away near Shopville in Pulaski County.
The task is to haul generations of garbage out of a cave. When it's done, the trash will no longer threaten groundwater quality, and conditions will be better for bats.
"It's just an amazing project," said David Foster, executive director of the American Cave Conservation Association.
The cave is called Saltpeter Pit because it once was a source of the gunpowder ingredient, maybe during the War of 1812. It is in a rural, hilly part of eastern Pulaski County.
The entrance to the cave, in the edge of some woods, is perhaps 15 feet wide, with a sheer drop of 70 to 80 feet to the cave floor. It apparently was a dumpsite for many, many years before access to garbage pickup began spreading in rural areas of Kentucky in the 1990s.
The mound of trash in the cave was about 40 feet deep, holding several hundred tons of household garbage, appliances and other waste before the project to clean it up began, Foster said.
Local cavers reportedly had dubbed it Mount Trashmore.
Full Article
Originally published September 02, 2007
FrederickNewsPost.com
WHETSTONE, Ky. -- With a lot of digging, hauling and sweating, a sizable reminder of the time when many people in Kentucky dumped trash in sinkholes beside the road and at the back of the farm is being cleaned away near Shopville in Pulaski County.
The task is to haul generations of garbage out of a cave. When it's done, the trash will no longer threaten groundwater quality, and conditions will be better for bats.
"It's just an amazing project," said David Foster, executive director of the American Cave Conservation Association.
The cave is called Saltpeter Pit because it once was a source of the gunpowder ingredient, maybe during the War of 1812. It is in a rural, hilly part of eastern Pulaski County.
The entrance to the cave, in the edge of some woods, is perhaps 15 feet wide, with a sheer drop of 70 to 80 feet to the cave floor. It apparently was a dumpsite for many, many years before access to garbage pickup began spreading in rural areas of Kentucky in the 1990s.
The mound of trash in the cave was about 40 feet deep, holding several hundred tons of household garbage, appliances and other waste before the project to clean it up began, Foster said.
Local cavers reportedly had dubbed it Mount Trashmore.
Full Article