Rain uncovers mystery hole in backyard

From KRQE-TV.com - by Chris McKee - LBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Friday's heavy downpour created a mystery in an Albuquerque backyard. After a lot of rain fell in a short time, the earth opened up revealing a deep underground pit at the home of Alex Sanouvon.
     "I've been here 25 years and I have never seen anything like that," said Sanouvon. "Then suddenly, I just hear this collapse and all of the water rushed down and I came to look at it, and there was that hole.” Sanouvon said.
     The hole is a little less than 10 feet deep and about 3 ½ feet wide. Cinder blocks show the hole was built by someone and a large pipe sits at the bottom. Sanouvon said when he moved in to the house decades ago, the hole wasn't mentioned.. "No, we never knew anything about it," he said.
     His neighbors were just as surprised. "When he pointed this out to me, I was really concerned about this sinkhole here because of all his grandkids that he has come over,” said Efrain Madrid, who lives close by.
     Madrid called the City Planning Department and a water utility authority for answers but had no luck getting answers. On Monday afternoon, a city plumbing inspector went to the house and solved the mystery. Turns out the hole is actually an abandoned septic tank, not some menacing natural collapse of the yard. Now that Sanucon knows that, he said he’ll fill it up.More
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