The earthquake experienced last month near Ferrelview was due to a collapse in the Stamper Underground off Interurban Road.
That’s the verdict from the United States Geological Survey, which investigated the March 15 shake. Initially reported as a 3.5 magnitude quake, the USGS updated its findings late last week, finding that the collapse occurred northeast of Ferrelview at a depth of about 1 km.
Previously owned by Hunt Midwest, the current owner of the Stamper Underground is Martin Marietta and the mine produces crushed limestone. Martin Marietta has not commented on the collapse.
Anonymous residents have contacted The Citizen with their concerns, stating many neighbors have cracks above windows and doors, and some are worried about their foundations. They are also worried about what is buried below.
According to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the old Ferrelview Quarry site housed underground storage tanks containing petroleum constituents. A petroleum or hazardous substance storage tank closure or regulated release was addressed prior to the adoption of the 2004 Missouri Risk-Based Corrective Action Guidance for Petroleum Storage Tanks. No further action was warranted at the time, the report states, but residents have questions.
These residents near the mine have raised other questions about its safety over the years, and particularly now because of the City of Kansas City’s plans to build a new Todd Creek Sewer Plant on old Hunt Midwest property.
At the Dec. 6, 2023 Kansas City Transportation, Infrastructure, and Operations Committee meeting, the group in opposition to the new sewage plant said no treatment center should be near the mine due to instability, citing a minor collapse in 2015 at the Park University underground. The Randolph Mine and Parkville Mine were the same as Martin Martin Marrietta’s Stamper mine – made up of rooms and pillars carved from the limestone.
According to the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), which is part of the United States Department of Labor, several other safety reports have been filed over the past few years at the mine.
A MSHA report on five other limestone mine collapses from 2015-2021 in the eastern U.S. stated that collapses caused by pillar failures are particularly dangerous. These massive pillar failure collapses registered between 2.9 and 3.1 on the Richter scale in the mine collapses featured in the report.
“These events resulted in powerful air blasts that damaged mine infrastructure and mobile equipment, seriously injured miners, and disrupted underground travel ways,” the report states. “Each of these pillar collapses propagated through the overlying strata, causing a subsidence basin on the surface. Pillar collapses are particularly hazardous for miners because they can occur with little warning and can affect miners that are far from the pillar collapse area.”