LONGVIEW — Kelso officials say it could take weeks for the sinkhole east of the Three Rivers mall to be repaired because the damage is caused by a leaking storm drain which is hard to reach and owned by the state.
In the meantime, the city placed a temporary cover over the sinkhole in one lane in the 100 block of Minor Road near the Starbucks and Jack in the Box off Allen Street.
Kelso Public Works first reported the dip on July 23, but Community Development Director Michael Kardas said the issue goes back much further.
Kardas said when the county installed a pipe along the road to reach Headquarters Landfill in Castle Rock about 10 years ago, crews damaged a nearby storm drain owned by the Washington State Department of Transportation.
The county’s pipe — known as a leachate pipe to move liquid waste and runoff from the landfill — must be moved to repair the county’s pipe, and the county is brainstorming how to do so.
“The damage goes right through the storm drain,” Kardas said. “We have to figure out how to fix it.”
Kardas added that the state didn’t properly mark the storm drain, which is why it was hit.
Washington State Department of Transportation spokesperson Kelly Hanahan lays the blame on Kelso, not the county, saying a city contractor hit the now failing pipe.
Sinkholes can occur naturally from erosion, but can also be caused by manmade issues like faulty storm drains that make the ground above them fall, according to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.
