To the Editor:

Knox is on the map again — literally. Dr. Paul Richards, associate professor at the State University of New York College at Brockport, is directing a study of sinkholes and thinly soiled karst areas in Knox. His project will provide online information to water-resource managers and farmers for implementing statewide guidelines in Albany County.

During his recent visit to Knox, I asked Dr. Richards, “How did you manage to end up here?”

“Two reasons: First, the Lidar (laser remote sensing technology) mapping for Albany County has been done, and second, you have so many caves and sinkholes,” he said.

Coincidentally, my husband, John Elberfeld, was Richards’s high school physics teacher in Rochester many years ago and introduced him to several sinkhole experts in Knox.

Dennis Barber, Mary Browne, Daniel Driscoll, and Janice VanEtten took Richards and his son to a variety of sinkholes in the fields and forests of Knox. Richards was especially interested in a series of new sinkholes on the Barber Family Farm that have opened up since Tropical Storm Irene.

He and his students will continue their hydrogeological study of our karst terrain through February 2015.

A major source of groundwater contamination in New York State is liquid manure application to fields in early spring. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has implemented manure management guidelines that restrict early spring fertilizing in fields with targeted soils or near sinkholes. Implementing these guidelines is problematic where sinkholes and thinly soiled karst areas haven’t been mapped.

The SUNY Brockport study will map these areas, identify targeted soils, and add this information to a database (http://www.hydrology.bee.cornell.edu/Karst_Webpage/Webpages/Homepage.htm). The database is available to Certified Crop Advisers, Albany County Soil and Water Conservation District, and the public for use in complying with the guidelines.

The Helderberg Hilltowns Association supports this study of our beautiful but often challenging terrain in the Hilltowns. Please contact me at 872-2082 or [email protected] to learn more about this project

Jane B. McLean, vice president
Helderberg Hilltowns Association
Knox