‘Soup bowl’ of mine subsidence cracks homes and floods streets in Belleville neighborhood
Matt and Carolina Paul thought a well-built 1950s brick ranch home in Belleville would be a good place to start a family, so they bought one on Chaucer Drive and settled into the neighborhood.
Then their newlywed bliss became a nightmare.
In the past year, the home's foundation, walls, ceilings, floors and caulking around doors and windows have cracked and shifted due to mine subsidence. Periodic flooding has turned pavement into muddy ruble on Queensway Drive, the street that connects to their driveway.
Illinois American Water had to dig up their front yard to fix a water-main break. Ameren Illinois installed a "flexible" gas line to prevent potential problems with gas pipes.
The Pauls don't want to file an insurance claim to fix the damage yet because the ground is still moving. They've also shelved plans to landscape their yard and otherwise improve the property.
"We were planning on having a baby and starting a family, but we really can't do that right now because we don't know what's going to happen," said Carolina Paul, 30. "It's messing with our lives in a big way."
Underground coal mines operated in the Belleville area for more than a century, beginning in the mid-1800s.
Coal pillars that were used to support roofs of now-abandoned mine shafts can deteriorate over time. Subsidence happens when a roof collapses and causes the ground above it to shift. That has happened in several Belleville neighborhoods over the years.
"It's a fact of life if you live somewhere that's been undermined," said Jason Poole, the city's director of public works. "As these mines age, they collapse."
The New Royal Mine operated in a large section of Belleville, including what is now Chaucer and the rest of the Mariknoll neighborhood, from 1900 to 1943, according to ILMines Wiki, an online coal-mining database compiled by the Illinois State Geological Survey and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Ruler Foods closed abruptly
Belleville residents learned of mine subsidence in the Mariknoll neighborhood in September 2023, when the Ruler Foods store at North Belt West and 17th Street closed abruptly.
Representatives of the grocery chain, which is owned by Kroger Co., didn't respond to BND requests for comment at the time.
"Ruler Foods continues to work closely with experts and city officials while the store at 1703 N. Belt W, Belleville, IL, remains closed until further notice," stated a Sept. 28, 2023, post on the store's Facebook page.
The company hasn't posted any updates since then. Spokesman Bethany Huber couldn't be reached for comment.
State of Illinois officials are aware of the Mariknoll subsidence, according to neighbors. It's unknown what they've done in the way of investigation, how many properties are affected, the level of damage or long-term prognosis for the neighborhood.
Jayette Bolinski, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, declined to make an expert available for a BND interview.
Some neighbors have been contacted by representatives of the Illinois Mine Subsidence Insurance Fund, a privately-managed, state-sanctioned fund that conducts investigations and reimburses insurance companies for payouts to homeowners.
The fund's spokeswoman, Jessicca Varacalli, declined to reveal how many insurance claims have been filed in the Mariknoll neighborhood, maintaining that it wouldn't provide a meaningful picture.
More than 300,000 housing units have been built on undermined land in Illinois, the fund's website states.
"It's pretty extensive, but it's difficult to quantify (damage in a particular area) because not everyone files a claim and not everyone who files a claim has mine subsidence," Varacalli said.
Poole said state officials told him that the ground around Ruler Foods was shifting at a rate of one centimeter per day when the subsidence was first reported, compared to one centimeter per month recently.
Like local residents, the city is in a wait-and-see mode.
"Obviously, we don't want to do any permanent repairs (to streets and gutters)," Poole said. "If we pour concrete and the ground is still moving, it's just going to break again."
Water main being replaced
The area around Ruler Foods has been a construction zone for a year, with orange cones and yellow tape keeping people out of places where pavement has buckled or streets have flooded.
Pipes and other materials are stacked in the parking lot and a grassy block between Tudor Drive and 17th Street, which defines the neighborhood's eastern boundary. Yards are dotted with blue and yellow flags, letting workers know where utility lines are buried.
Illinois American Water is installing a new water main, said spokesman Terry Mackin. He expects it to be completed by the end of the year.
"The old pipe is ductile iron, and we are replacing it with plastic pipe," Mackin said. "The plastic pipe will be more durable to ground movements caused by mine subsidence."
The area around Ruler Foods didn't flood before the subsidence, according to neighbors.
Poole said city workers have pumped water off Chaucer and Queensway eight to 10 times in the past year after heavy rains, but they never had to do it on Tudor Drive until the most recent storm.
Tudor became a "lake," said Mike Stidham, 66, who lives in one of several brick duplexes on it.
Stidham moved into the duplex four years ago. He hasn't noticed any signs of damage to the building itself due to subsidence, but cracks and potholes have formed on the street.
"(The flooding is) a concern, but it's not a crisis," Stidham said. "Now, if I get up some morning and my living room is a basement, that's a different story."
A woman had to move out of one side of a duplex at Tudor and Queensway, across from Ruler Foods, due to subsidence, said Ralph and Sharon Warnecke, who live next door.
The landlord repaired the damage, which included severe cracking and plaster falling from the kitchen ceiling, and remodeled the duplex. A new tenant is expected to move in this month.
"We just have a few cracks," said Sharon Warnecke, 78. "We didn't have much damage on our side. ... (As for flooding on streets), we just keep thinking, 'Well, someday they're going to fix it.'"
Homeowner just remodeled
Vickie Jordan, 67, bought her 1950s brick ranch on Chaucer Drive in 2015. She thought of it as her "retirement home."
Vickie Jordan and her daughter, Kelly Jordan, who lives with her, spent years fixing it up, refinishing floors and painting walls their favorite colors. Shortly before the subsidence, they moved out temporarily so the kitchen and a bathroom could be remodeled.
Today, the home is filled with cracks, big and small, in the foundation, walls, ceilings, floors and caulking around doors and windows. During heavy rain, water pours into the basement, leading to mold problems.
Water also leaks into the bedroom and out of the shower, whose door won't stay closed without a stick propped against it.
Vickie Jordan said state officials told her that one corner of the home has sunk more than 4 inches. Like her neighbors, the Pauls, she doesn't want to file an insurance claim until the ground stops moving.
"The way they explained it to me is (the subsidence area is) like a big soup bowl," Vickie Jordan said. "We're on one side of the soup bowl, and Ruler Foods is on the other side."
Vickie Jordan teared up talking about the subsidence and other hardships that her family has faced in the past two years. She lost her 44-year-old daughter to cancer and took a hard fall, landing on her mouth, which required more than $17,000 in dental work.
But Vickie Jordan is taking one day at a time and trying to be as positive as possible. So are the Pauls.
Matt Paul, 31, praised city workers for their quick action pumping water out of streets after heavy rains, despite the fact that sometimes he and his wife have to drive through the yard to reach their driveway for a day or two, and they're constantly cleaning rocks and muck out of their tires.
"It's not been great for newlyweds," Matt Paul said. "We joke that if we get through this, we're good for the next 50 years."
