Officials: Drilled hole in pipe may have caused sinkhole
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Officials investigating a sinkhole in Macomb County are examining whether a hole drilled into a sewer line caused the pipe to collapse.
County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller said Wednesday the hole was made during an inspection after a sewer collapse in 1978.
The current sinkhole was discovered Dec. 24 in the Detroit suburb of Fraser by homeowners who awoke to find their house sinking.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}That home and two others in the area have since been condemned. Authorities have made nearly two dozen households vacate their structures.
County engineering consultant Jason Edberg says a series of two-inch holes were bored into an old line and that groundwater might have seeped into one of the holes, causing soil to erode and the pipe to collapse.