Wink Sink keeps on growing

WINK A new study is looking to get to the bottom of the Winkler County sinkholes - better known as the "Wink Sink."

Researchers are studying the two sinkholes, located about a mile apart on Highway 115.

"There's a lot of things we need to look at to study the entire problem," said Robert Trentham, director and senior lecturer of the University of Texas of the Permian Basin's Center for Energy and Economic Diversification.

Trentham said his study, which is starting out with $200,000 in funding, would use multiple sources to find out what caused the sinkholes to develop and how they've developed.

"We want to see what we might be able to do to slow down the development or maybe even eliminate them," he said.

Trentham plans to look back up to 30 years, studying aerial photographs, radar, data images and topography as well as information from oil and gas companies.

Wink Sink No. 1, first discovered in 1981, reaches 300 feet across. The bottom 75 to 80 feet of the 130-foot deep pit is full of fresh water, said John Bell, an independent oil producer from Kermit.

Trentham said the holes open up a gap to the Permian Era of 250 million years ago, exposing a part of the Capitan Reef aquifer.

Around the sinkhole, the ground falls into a bowl shape, causing owners of a nearby tank farm to discontinue using one of the tanks after it tilted too far in.

A road going through the Devon Energy-owned property sits split apart, a result of the sinkhole, Bell said.

"This thing was a little bitty crack that I used to jump across," he said of the rupture that now makes the road impassable.

And Bell fears the sinkhole could someday do the same thing to the state highway nearby.

"I don't think there's much you can to fix the (growth)," he said. "The only thing you can do is to know what's going to happen before it happens."

And if there are concerns about Wink Sink No. 1, a mile away, Wink Sink No. 2, which formed in 2002, dwarfs the initial sinkhole.

It stretches between 900 and 1,000 feet across. Bell said No. 2 is 100 feet from surface to water, and then "at least" 250 feet of water.

"It's deep, I can tell you that," he said. "We don't know how deep."