The city of San Antonio says cleanup of the Quintana Road sinkhole should be finished the first week in February. The city will spend more than $1 billion to fix sewers over the next 10 years.
The sinkhole formed near an overflowing sewer line last month. Bexar CountyReserve Deputy Dora Linda Solis Nishihara died after being trapped inside her car which had fallen into the sinkhole. Clouse says the pipeline was only a year old; and he'd never seen anything like this happen before.
“It wasn’t the fact that it had rained that caused this problem,” Clouse says. “I think something developed within the pipeline that started the cascading series of events that led to the collapse in the road.”
Clouse says the city was notified about a foul odor before the sinkhole incident.
“If somebody suspects something, if they smell a sewer smell, they need to give us a call and let us check it out. Under the circumstances at Quintana Road, I think we followed protocol exactly. I think that’s what we need to do,” Clouse says.
The city didn’t find a problem, he says, and foul odors can be caused by something other than sewage. Clouse also urged citizens to contact the city if they see a dip in the road. That may indicate a sinkhole is forming.