SPRINGTOWN — Karee Barrett was shocked to discover a new feature in her backyard when she went to check on her orchard with her dog Sue in the early dawn hours March 2.
About 100 feet from her home, a sinkhole — 9 to 10 feet deep and about 35 feet wide — opened up, revealing layers of soil and rock with water moving through the bottom into an apparent small underground channel. Large cracks and sunken ground continue east of the sinkhole.
“I came close to stepping into it,” Karee said of the sinkhole.
Preston and Karee Barrett purchased and remodeled their 1875 home in Springtown because it’s adjacent to Big Spring, a large spring that yields more than 3 million gallons of water daily, and is the spring from which the town derives its name.
The spring fills a large pool on the west side of their home. Trout and other fish swim in the clear, cool water. The water leaves the pool in two channels that are tributaries of Flint Creek.
The Barretts think road work being done on Aubrey Long Road near a new bridge likely caused the sinkhole. When Benton County Road Department crews used a compacting machine on the gravel road that runs to the west of their home and close to Big Spring on Feb. 15, it shook their home at 17575 Aubrey Long Road, Karee said. The usually clear water was pulsating with clouded water from the springs following the road work, she said.
A natural gas company also was repairing a line leak in Springtown, too, which the Barretts say likely ruptured because of the road work being done. That meant more trucks and digging in the area, they said.
John Van Brahana, a University of Arkansas professor and hydrologist, examined the sinkhole. He suggested heavy road work was likely the cause.
County Judge Bob Clinard isn’t so sure , but hinted the county could be responsible for filling in the sinkhole if the road work was the cause.
Other sinkholes have opened up on the Barretts’ property in the past. Those sinkholes are much smaller and have been filled in. A large open sinkhole lies just to the east of their home, but has been there for many years, the couple said.
Though their renovated two-story frame home shook when road compaction work was being completed, the Barretts felt pretty confident their home wasn’t in danger because it is situated on bedrock 20 feet thick, Preston said. Cave divers who entered the spring from the pool beside their home have confirmed that, Preston said.
The Barretts aren’t sure how soon the sinkhole will be fixed. Van Brahana told them it should be filled in with rock and gravel to allow the water from the underground streams that converge at the spring to continue to flow.
The Barretts were involved in a legal challenge with Springtown when plans were formulated for a new bridge to replace a broken-down, low-water bridge over Flint Creek on Aubrey Long Road.
The Barretts offered the town land for the bridge and a road farther from the spring in order to preserve the spring and the underground caves and channels that feed it, Preston Barrett said. The town decided to condemn the land and built a bridge next to the old one and connected it to Aubrey Long Road.