Sinkholes in area’s past have made big impressions

Dec. 31, 1996

The three pumps of a Shell gas station in Lake Forest Park sank 6 feet when Lyon Creek ate away a tunnel under the station and caused a 40-foot-long sinkhole. Police closed Northeast Ballinger Way for several blocks north of the station in fear that it might sink, too.

January 1997

In Shoreline, as a result of two snowstorms and heavy rains, a 100-foot-wide section of Northwest 175th Street at Sixth Avenue Northwest plunged into a steep ravine, taking with it a parked car, a utility pole and about 30,000 cubic yards of dirt. Vice President Al Gore inspected the sinkhole as part of a tour of weather damage in the West.

June 1999

An Everett neighborhood was on evacuation notice because of the appearance of five giant sinkholes, including one that swallowed a vintage Mustang. “The neighbor — it ate his Mustang,” Gary Danielson said. “Farther down, it almost gobbled an 80-foot maple.” The sinkholes in Snohomish County created huge holes in the back yards of two homes in the Eastmont neighborhood. The holes measured up to 25 feet wide and 60 feet deep.

December 1999

A sinkhole developed near Cougar Mountain Regional Wildlife Park that was roughly 60 feet long, 35 feet wide and 40 feet deep. A smaller hole at the bottom of the pit extended up to 300 feet deeper, into a steeply angled coal-mine shaft below. Tunnels as deep as 1,000 feet below ground worm through the hillsides from Newcastle to Black Diamond, remnants of the region’s coal-mining history.

August 2000

A yawning sinkhole was discovered 50 feet from one of the region’s largest water mains, prompting officials to shut down the pipeline as a precaution. Water delivery to Bothell, Woodinville and Northshore, which relied on the pipeline, was immediately rerouted through other pipes serving the area. The hole was just southeast of Wayne Golf Course in Bothell.

Compiled by Seattle Times staff researcher Miyoko Wolf