By Wally Kennedy

wkennedy@joplinglobe.com

CARTERVILLE, Mo. — It was a big, deep hole in the ground. They knew when they started it would take a lot to fill it up.

But, it’s going to take a lot more than they thought.

“That thing really sucked up a lot of material,’’ said Mark Doolan, project manager in charge of the cleanup of the Jasper County Superfund Site.

The former mining pit is part of a 75-acre tract west of Carterville that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is reclaiming with heavy equipment at a cost of $1.9 million.

A survey by Black & Veatch, an engineering and consulting firm based in Kansas City, calculated there was enough fill material on the tract to fill the hole. The calculation suggested 350,000 cubic yards of fill material would do the job.

So far, 400,000 cubic yards have been dumped into the hole. Doolan estimates another 100,000 cubic yards will be needed to finish the project.

Doolan and Jim Zerkel, project manager for Synder Construction Co., Joplin, the contractor, believe underground voids connected to the hole have swallowed some of the fill.

Said Zerkel: “It’s flowing back inside the caverns and the rooms. We have checked some depths. There was a 2-to-1 slope in the water, but it’s starting to level itself out now. It’s obviously going to hold more than what they figured.’’

Zerkel said the fact that more material has been needed to fill the hole is not necessarily a bad thing.

“There’s a shortage of holes to dispose of this stuff,” he said. “The more it takes to fill these holes, the better.’’

Doolan said a change order is being drafted by the EPA to create a new contract to get more fill from a nearby area to complete the job.

“We’ll go onto another piece of property to finish the pit,’’ he said. “The property is south of Lewis Street (old Route 66) and north of Highway 171. It was part of the next phase of the cleanup anyway.’’

A crossing with flagmen will be constructed over Lewis Street. Haul roads will be built on each side of the crossing.