Just two months ago I went on a private tour of the 2nd Wink Sink Hole. I received a call from my private tour guide informing me that some new developments have developed. If you remember correctly, we followed the fractures away from the sink which was about eight tenths of a mile. These were just buckles in the road at that time, but today these buckles have turned into cracks that continue to widen and spread.
These new cracks on County Road 201 has all of Austin in an uproar. Well, maybe not all of Austin, but a few concerned parties are wanting the city commissioner to make the call...to keep the road open or to close it. I would think the call would be easy to make, but again my ignorance is limitless and I was told that closing the road would be a HUGE inconvenience for Apache and other oil & gas companies that got to get to well sites and check pipe lines.
I also mentioned a sub power station that had been relocated when the second Wink Sink appeared. There are TONS of fractures just behind the the sub station. Why don't we see any cracks within the fence? I did see fresh sand and gravel smoothed out, seems that Texas-New Mexico Power has just been filling in the cracks instead of seriously considering relocating again.
Look in the picture. See that HUGE fracture? That's 20 yards behind the power station, which means this is what's under the power station.
Very rarely am I surprised at what I see on my way to work. Once there was a cow standing in the middle of the road. I called my mommy so she could call the local law enforcement so they could call the rancher and put Betsy up. I don't really know if the name of the big brown cow was Betsy, but I'd like to think it was.
I was driving along as usual except I was going a bit slower due to the ice and snow on the road and I suppose that's how I come to notice the guard rail. Usually a guard rail protects you from going into the water or to keep you from going off a high embankment. If you knew my area of West Texas you'd laugh a bit at the thought of both suggestions!
Not to let my curiosity get the better of me I pulled over to see exactly what is was that this particular guard rail was protecting. It was a big hole! Now, you can't immediately assume that it's another sink hole and I'll tell you why. A while back I posted about running the dogs at the caliche pit out by the airport. It's a possibility that this hole is an old caliche pit, but it seems way wrong for someone to purposely put it this close to the highway. Also, back in the good old days before tanks, the oil industry stored oil in earth tanks and also transported oil in canals and not pipe.
I've had a busy driving day. First I drove to work over in Pyote, twenty three miles. Before leaving the house though, I dressed in lots of layers. First an under shirt, a sweater shirt and finally an over shirt. I wore tights covered by a pair of slacks. I then had gloves, a scarf and a wool coat. I dressed warmly for the occasion of below freezing weather made to feel even more below freezing due to the wind that kept whipping through the West Texas landscape.
You may wonder why I clothed myself so warmly if all I was doing was driving. Upon arriving at work, it's a good half a mile walk past the education building to the vocational buildings where us teachers now have taken residence in order to facilitate learning. Did you happen to notice that I said "past the education building"? On December the 14th, the education building at West Texas State School in Pyote experienced a power failure. A few lights, some outlets and phones were working, but there was absolutely no heat or computers.
The boys stayed on the dorms where there was electricity and of course heat. Us teachers stayed, sitting in the dark and the cold for several hours waiting for information regarding our dire situation. Being the brazen outspoken one that I am...I decided I was taking an early lunch across the railroad tracks at the Pyote Cafe and Grocery. Others decided to join me. At lunch we met up with TYC employees who informed us that the transformer had blown and another would need to be ordered, it could take a week before getting the problem fixed.
Long story shortened, the powers that be in Austin, you know, all those lovely representatives chosen by us voters, decided not to fix the problem, but instead have us the teachers move into the warehouses behind the education building. Do I need to tell you that I was not pleased? None of the moving occurred until after we returned from the holiday, so the rest of the week was spent in the partially lighted, extremely frigid building.
That explains why now I walked past the education building this morning after arriving to work. After working a few hours, I then drove to Iraan, one hundred seventeen miles, to meet with the superintendent to discuss worst case scenario in regards to my soon to be unemployment. Worst case scenario is that the school will close in March and to work out my contract and still receive a paycheck, then I and the other teachers would need to drive to Iraan everyday to work.
I then drove home to Wink, one hundred forty two miles thinking about the possibility of driving two hundred eighty four miles every day to collect a pay check. I'm really hoping the school stays open until the end of May, that would be super sweet.
A few updates and a public service announcement before I go. Seems that a former student of mine has been nabbed by the Odessa Police for stealing tailgates from pick up trucks. Apparently, there's a high demand for tailgates and now the police have suggested that those of us with these valuable tailgates should park our rears up against something so that the perps can't make off with our tails.
The comish told me at the gym tonight that County Road 201, the one leading to the predicted third sink hole has developed a few more fractures. He's picking me up tomorrow at 4:30PM and taking me out to get some pictures of the ever spreading problem.
I thought it would be kinda neat to go back and pick my favorite posts from each month of the year. Okay, I didn't start the blog until April, so I've cheated a little and have selected a few stories from a fellow blogger. Here goes:
On a pleasant Fall evening, prior to sunset I headed out to view the second Wink Sink hole. I'd not seen this hole up close and felt a bit of anticipation as the fence emerged in front of me. My tour guide explained that they've had to rebuild the enclosure several times due to the hole expanding and swallowing up previous fences. As he opened the gate, and we made our way into the area a chill began to filter into the air. I don't know if it were truly the air around me or perhaps the sensation of a chill as I walked to the edge of the sink hole.
There's been hem hawing about whether or not drilling causes sinks to develop. As I looked into the sink, my tour guide pointed out 3 injection wells that had to be capped. He said that some people think that when the water was injected, it eroded the salt dome in our area and that's what caused the sinking to begin.
All around the sink there are plenty of large fractures ranging from one to three feet in width and extending down past my ability to see. It was rather frightening at times to have to cross over one of those things. The one in the photograph is roughly 30 yards west of the sink hole. As you walked around, the ground was soft beneath your feet, completely uncharacteristic of West Texas soil.
A geologist from UTPB of Odessa has been doing studies and testing regarding the formation of the sink. He hasn't been able to do a lot of research stating there's not much money available to do so. He is taking water samples of local wells to determine any changes in the underground aquifer, I've offered mine up for testing.
We left the sink hole and then traveled along the county road, stopping at a mini power station. The power station had been relocated when the sink developed, but now concerns are being raised about the possibility of it needing to be relocated once again due to the ever spreading of the fractures and sink. This fracture shows up right next to the mini power station.
I followed the road out to the last known fracture and that distance was roughly eight tenths of a mile away from the sink hole. A little further to the west of where this picture was taken is where the third sink is predicted to develop. It was getting dark and my tour guide didn't feel it would be safe to continue, because "You never know what you might be walking on top of."
I spent a relaxing evening at the ranch of two local brothers. The ranch sets outside of Wink and about a mile and a half from the highway. The Wolf brothers call the ranch Loco Lobos, Robbie is the black wolf while Charles is the white wolf. The Wolf brothers normally don't have a woman hanging around, but they made an exception seeing that I was interested in taking a few pictures and possibly lending a hand in the future when it comes to doing a little poop scooping, uh...I mean cow paddy scooping.
The brothers raise cattle, chickens and guinea fowl. I'd never seen guinea fowl up close and I just had to take a picture. They're awfully cute. They run real fast and seem to be a cross between a turkey and chicken, or at least that's what they looked like to me.
Robbie gave me a tour of the ranch on this cute little motorized two seater contraption. I really liked it, he even let me drive a little bit on the way back to pick up some wood for barbecuing later. He showed me where they were going to put a pond and fill it with Koi. There's already a mini sink in that spot, so there wouldn't be much digging needed. I noticed another sink spot, a little bit bigger and suggested that they make another little pond, but that one should be for skinny dipping. I think Robbie took my idea under full consideration.
I enjoyed the ranch immensely and while sitting around the cooker I looked out to the East. I saw the landscape dotted with red lights far off in the distance. Robbie told me those were the wind generators that sit on the caprock between Odessa and No Trees. I couldn't believe it, that's a distance of just over thirty miles. You sure can see forever on a clear day.
After the game last night, a friend asked if I'd like to go site seeing. "Around Wink?" Why not? I've lived here for nine years now and believe it or not, I've not seen everything there is to see. This friend took me on dark county roads that led out to the Wink Sink number two and on past it. What was truly freaky was that as we were riding, the road felt like a roller coaster. Uneven pavement, deep recesses, and cracks littered the road.
We stopped to examine the cracks. There's been talk that the road would soon have to be closed. I wondered why since the cracks weren't so bad. That's when the scary part happened. "We don't know how deep these fractures go. We don't know what's underneath us or what isn't." I bent down and slid my hand down into the crack present on the surface of the road. The surface is incredibly misleading, the broken pavement only showed a gap of a few inches, but as my hand slid through I felt nothing beneath the asphalt, only air. I pushed my arm down further up to my elbow and waved my hand around and still felt emptiness.
The picture above is of a surface crack. What I experienced last night was nothing like that at all, it was a penetrating fracture in the surface of the Earth. Driving home last night, knowing that in some places solidity was no longer there, was giving me the feeling that I was sitting on top of a ticking time bomb, but instead of it exploding and going out, I was just waiting for it to implode and cave in.
Who says over 40 is over the hill? I enjoy listening to great music from all decades and genres, walking hand in hand with the one I love and nurturing the two smartest funnest kids ever! Although I'm not a native of West Texas, I've been here long enough to know the drill. HOT, WINDY and DESOLATE! So, that's why you'll find me and the kids heading out to some of our favorite hangs out...these places would include mild temperatures, mild winds and lush landscapes! I stick around because one day I'm hoping the Permian Basin will be underwater once again, and then I'll have beach front property! :D
Just two months ago I went on a private tour of the 2nd Wink Sink Hole. I received a call from my private tour guide informing me that some new developments have developed. If you remember correctly, we followed the fractures away from the sink which was about eight tenths of a mile. These were just buckles in the road at that time, but today these buckles have turned into cracks that continue to widen and spread.
These new cracks on County Road 201 has all of Austin in an uproar. Well, maybe not all of Austin, but a few concerned parties are wanting the city commissioner to make the call...to keep the road open or to close it.
I also mentioned a sub power station that had been relocated when the second Wink Sink appeared. There are TONS of fractures just behind the the sub station. Why don't we see any cracks within the fence? I did see fresh sand and gravel smoothed out, seems that Texas-New Mexico Power has just been filling in the cracks instead of seriously considering relocating again.
Look in the picture. See that HUGE fracture? That's 20 yards behind the power station, which means this is what's under the power station.
