A sinkhole that opened up in a Ruskin, Florida family's backyard appears to have been caused by a collapsed, out of service septic tank, according to Hillsborough County Code Enforcement and Tampa Bay-area news station WTSP. While no one was hurt in this incident, Ruskin is 25 miles away from Seffner, where a man was killed after a sinkhole opened up underneath his home.
The Ruskin family had to evacuate their home after a sinkhole measuring seven feet by two feet opened up just ten feet away from their house in the backyard the night of April 4. Hillsborough County Code Enforcement was called in the access the hole, sticking a children's plastic toy picnic table into the hole to see if the sinkhole would grow. However, the next morning Hillsborough County Code Enforcement Manager Bill Langford returned to site and found no expansion of the sinkhole or the house shifting position, declaring the house safe after a double-check by the country's sinkhole expert.
Based on the evidence gathered at the scene Langford concluded that the sinkhole was caused by a collapsed septic tank behind the families house. He came to this conclusion based on the sinkhole's location, the stability of the ground surrounding the sinkhole, and the neighborhoods recent history with switching over from septic tanks to a sewer system.
Sinkholes are normally formed when groundwater erodes away at the rocks in the ground, leaving small caverns and hollowed out areas underground. When the roofs of these subterranean structures collapse, they can cause property damage and even fatalities. Florida is a common site of sinkholes, due to the easily dissolved rocks found in the state, according to the U.S Geological Survey. This family should count themselves lucky that this sinkhole appears to have a man-made cause, and they will be able to return to an undamaged home soon.