Last Friday at a meeting of Mascot Matters, Savannah Browning turned to the table loaded with representatives, from local to state to Washington, D.C., and told them, emphatically, she didn’t want to simply be told “we’ll look into it.” She wanted answers, solutions and deadlines.
The issue at hand brought a full house to the sanctuary of Mascot United Methodist Church: a collapsed mine tunnel underneath Browning’s property with no simple answer as to whose job it was to rectify the problem.
The simple answer would be whoever owns the mineral rights under the surface. Problem is those rights are currently owned by the Belgium-based Nyrstar Corporation, which purchased those rights along with the Immel, Coy and Young zinc mines out of bankruptcy. At the time of the purchase, a clause was put in place absolving the company of “any past, present or future damages or claims,” according to Browning.
Her nightmare started back in February when she woke up one morning to find a giant hole opening beneath a Quonset hut-type out-building on her nine-acre property. She initially believed it was a sinkhole, which East Tennessee in general is prone to. So, she called Knox County to come have a look but was told it was on private property, not near the road, so not the county’s job to fix.
A geologist from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) came out the same day to have a look and determined it was not a sinkhole but a collapsed mine tunnel. TDEC has been back regularly to monitor the continuously expanding hole, which, at last measurement, is now 160 feet deep.
Browning and her husband, Caleb, hired an attorney, who came out to have a look and do some further digging. The Brownings did their due diligence when buying the property, though two title searches did not turn up Nyrstar as the owner of the mineral rights beneath their property. Their attorney found it.
While initial efforts to contact Nyrstar bore no fruit, representatives did eventually come out to inspect the mess. But the response was not much more than a shrug and a “too bad, so sad.”
“They came out to look at the hole and tell me all about the tunnels falling in and their lack of liability for such things,” Browning said.
But while that may be the truth, legally, how can that possibly be right? This was on the minds of Browning’s neighbors at the Mascot Matters meeting attended by state Sen. Becky Duncan Massey, state Rep. Dave Wright and Knox County Commissioner Richie Beeler. Representatives from the offices of U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett and Sen. Bill Hagerty were also there. And they heard from all corners of the room.
The consensus was the buck has to stop somewhere, and it cannot be on the backs of the surface property owners. For one, they do not own the rights to what lies beneath. For another, the vast majority do not have the financial wherewithal to rectify a problem of that magnitude. A mine tunnel is not a sinkhole: the latter can be covered with insurance. And last, but more important, is the safety of residents, especially their children. And as a side note, with all the development happening in Knox County, shouldn’t there be more of a warning for anyone looking to buy farmland? There are tunnels from Mascot and Strawberry Plains all the way to Jefferson City, according to locals.
TDEC is continuing to monitor the situation and exploring options. This is Deputy Communications Director Kim Schofinski’s response to Knox TN Today’s inquiry:
TDEC manages a non-regulatory group called the Land Reclamation Section. While the primary function of this section is to reclaim coal mines abandoned prior to 1977, the program does have the limited ability to address immediate human health and safety hazards created by non-coal mines with no legally responsible party. TDEC has offered to attempt to fill the hole on the Browning property in order to address the immediate safety concern. The landowners are currently considering their options. While TDEC does not have any regulatory jurisdiction in this matter, we are continuing to work with the Brownings to provide technical assistance as needed.
To provide further context regarding this property, the historic mine has been closed since approximately 1971. The mineral rights were purchased by Nyrstar in 2006 but Nyrstar has not operated any portion of the historic mine. TDEC is not aware of any other immediate safety hazards caused by sinkholes attributed to mine roof collapses in the Mascot community. If any property owner has concerns about sinkhole development, whether associated with underground mining or natural occurrences, we suggest property owners consult a geotechnical consultant and/or their insurance provider.
The Nyrstar Corporation has not returned calls for comment. Mascot Matters has another meeting planned for September 12.
Beth Kinnane is the community news editor for KnoxTNToday.com.