MDC offers cost share program for sinkholes

Perry County residents will be able to restore sinkholes.
In a letter addressed to landowners in Perry County Missouri Department of Conservation District Supervisor Jason Crites said that MDC is participating in a cost-share program to enhance the function of sinkholes in Perry County, Missouri. MDC would like to offer an opportunity to restore these sinkholes to a natural state by removing the trash and revegetating the site. This action will reduce potentially harmful inputs of unwanted pollutants into the underground waters.
Perry County has thousands of sinkholes, which provide direct pathways of surface waters into the underground porous karst landscape. As water flows into these sinkholes, it can collect sediments, nutrients, trash, and other pollutants thus exposing the underground waters and animals to these potentially harmful inputs. The multitude of sinkholes has contributed to Perry County’s ranking of the most caves in the state and home to the only known locations of grotto sculpin in the world. Grotto sculpin are fish which inhabits five cave systems in Perry County and is listed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service as endangered.
This county’s geology is of national significance. Even though karst terrain underlies much of the Ozarks, Perry County sits above one of the most intensely concentrated karst regions in North America. Nearly 10 percent of Missouri’s 7,000-plus known caves are found in this county, and it is home to four of the five longest known caves in the state.
In Perry County, very little stormwater drains to surface streams. Instead, a rolling karst plain stretches for more than 100 square miles. It’s dotted with thousands of sinkholes that collect rainwater, filling the caves below and creating a subterranean drainage system that channels water east to the Mississippi River.

Perryville, the county seat, sits within this vast karst plain, and City Administrator Brent Buerck is only half kidding when he calls his town, population almost 9,000, “the Karst Capital of the World.” Over the years, city officials have learned to cope with their unusual geology. They take advantage of the caves as natural storm drains, and they have created parks in low-lying sink basins, rather than allowing structures to be built that would be vulnerable to flooding. But this porous limestone underlayment can cause headaches for city managers, especially when new sinkholes pop up in unsafe spots close to houses.
Rural landowners have also developed adaptations. Steep, deep sinkholes in a pasture are dangerous to livestock, so owners have historically filled sinkholes with whatever was available to make them safer. Some farmers have created more tillable land by installing vertical drains in sinkholes, similar to those used in Perryville lawns. These methods improve aboveground land use, but can funnel toxins and trash into the caves below.
In the 1800s, county boosters touted the sinkholes and caves as a great way to dispose of household sewage. That practice was discontinued long ago, and the current sewage treatment plant has served Perryville since 1977.
However, rural sinkholes continued to be used for trash dumps, and caver Richard Young says that some area caves he entered in the 1960s and 1970s smelled of sewage.
With support from the community of Perry County and the voluntary commitment of the private landowners, MDC can continue to advance the private economic interest while improving the water quality of the area.
If you are interested in the enhancement of sinkholes on your property or would like to discuss participation in this cost-share program, please contact Crites at 573-290-5730.