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Show Spruce moisture figures vary By LEE WARMCK Record Editor A comparison of soil wetness samples taken by Cedar City Corp. and a Spruce Street resident show startling differences, dif-ferences, further heightening the mystery behind the subsidence problem that has caused four homes on that street to sink. A Cedar City crew dug four holes near suspected leaks in a city water main nearly two weeks ago, and both the city, and Max Hodson, a Bureau of Land Management soils scientist and Spruce Street resident, took several soil samples for moisture analysis. The similarity ends there. Spruce Street residents feel the leaking pipe is a primary cause for the localized subsidence. Hodson said his samples signifcantly show there to be more moisture, around the pipe than elsewhere, backing, he feels, the residents' contention. But the city data, just received from the Utah Department of Highways, shows much less of a difference. While the city shows a moisture percentage excess of just 2 percent between holes dug in the settlement area over those away from the zone, Hodson says his data indicates differences dif-ferences of up to 9 percent. While Hodson's readings at that depth were said to be similar to the city's at holes away from the settlement, set-tlement, they are radically different in the sudsidence area. Hodson's moisture readings averaged 6.6 percent higher at the two holes dug adjacent to the main pipe. Hodson said his only explanation for the differences were "sampling procedure. I can only vouch for my data," he said. At samples taken immediately above the water main, the city data showed there to be 3 to 5 percent more moisture in the soils in the subsidence area. When asked what level of difference he would consider to be significant, Hodson said, "at that depth, I would say above 2 to 3 percent." He said he would class the moisture differences obtained by the city at the 3-foot 3-foot depth as "marginally significant." The city is awaiting further reports from Daines and Moore, its consulting engineers, before commenting on the moisture differences. A representative from the engineering firm was expected to come to Cedar City Wednesday and conduct drilling tests in Sunrise Subdivision, a proposed development immediately to the east of Spruce Street, and an area suspected of having similar subsidence problems. City Manager Melling said the firm's findings from the drilling .would be see SPRUCE on page A3 JU.C C continued from page A 1 "useful" in filing an eventual report on the Spruce Street problem. Melling said due to a misunderstanding misun-derstanding on his part, he had been expecting the Spruce report to have arrived in the past two weeks. Instead, he said the firm needed to conduct additional testing before issuing that document, and said he didn't know how much time that would take. "That report will not not say 'here is the problem,' " Melling added. "It will tell us what we need to do to identify the problem, or what needs to be done to correct it.". |