Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 130, No. 3 - Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
Established in 1882
Wednesday, April 28, 2010 - $1.
00
beneath the surface
Vogtle excavation unearths
layers from long ago
By Anne Marie Kyzer
annemariek@thetruecitizen.com
M illions of years ago, this area was deep beneath the
surface of Atlantic Ocean.
As the waters receded, a story of change was written
in the terrestrial deposits left behind.
Vogtle Electric Generating Plant is making history as it
moves forward on the nation’s first nuclear reactors in de
cades. At the same time, history was uncovered through the
complicated excavation of the site that began last summer.
As workers dug 90 feet into the earth’s surface, they re
moved four million cubic yards of material and evidence of
eras long ago.
“It’s fascinating what you can see from a cut in the ground,”
Southern Nuclear Operating Company’s Tom McCallum said.
“It tells us what has happened to our earth, not just here.”
McCallum, a civil engineering supervisor who worked
closely with geologists during excavation, called the project
a 100-foot excavation of a 1,000-foot geological record that
developed over millions of years.
Now that the site has been excavated to the full depth and
the process of placing backfill has begun, here’s a look at
the process and what was found.
Massive removal
Some 10.4 million tons of material were hauled out of the
42-acre site being excavated for the additional two reactors.
The estimated on-site mileage of all the dump Pucks used
during earthwork would equal driving around the world eight
times, according to Southern Nuclear Operating Company.
Much of the material will be repacked to create a firm foun
dation.
Against the flow
To deal with the water table which is roughly 50 feet
below the grade elevation, pumps and wells regulate the
water level, according to Southern Nuclear spokesperson
Beth Thomas. Wells were placed along the perimeter and
also on the sides of slopes. Sump pumps played a role at the
bottom.
If the pumps were turned off, water would soon fill the
site to a depth of about 35 feet. It would take months for the
entire site to fill with water.
Human footprints
Although many artifacts were recovered when units one
and two were built, there were no such finds this time, ac
cording to Thomas. The top layers of this area were leveled
for a lay down area during the construction of the first two
reactors. A few stone points and lithic debitage (flakes from
the process of making stone points) were found this go-
round, but any true artifacts had been removed by the previ
ous shallow excavation.
Fossil finds
Plenty of oysters, gastro
pods (snails) and sand dollars
were uncovered during the
dig. Giant oyster shells,
which were most abundant
about 20-30 feet down, mea
sured up 18 inches long. This
Crassostrea gigantissima spe
cies is extinct. Shell Bluff was
named for large fossil bed of these giant oysters, which date
back more than 35 million years ago to the Eocene Epoch
when the coastal plain of Georgia was beneath the ocean,
according to environmental reports published by the Nuclear
Regulartor Commission.
A small fossilized tree trunk was also found. The wood
had turned to lignite and the surface showed a colony of
barnacles had once lived on it. The smallest fossils uncov
ered were sharks teeth.
All finds were categorized and archived by a company
licensed to store artifacts for future study by the state gov
ernment. The Georgia State Historical Preservation Officer
has examined all the finds and determined that none of them
were of historical or archeological importance.
During the excavation for units one and two, a previously
unknown species of whale was discovered and named the
Georgiacetus vogtlensis. Scientists estimated the fossil to be
40 million years old. The fossil and a full replica of the
whale are on display at the Georgia Southern University
Museum in Statesboro.
Rock hounds
A professional geologist, often called a rock hound, was
at the site to document the layers of rock as they are exposed
and to help identify fossil finds. More geologists were called
in depending on the level of activity.
Turning back time
As the tractors and their dirt pans crawled across the site,
they peeled away several distinct layers of earth that were
formed as the ocean retreated over the course of millions of
years. According to McCallum, among those layers were:
• The Upper Sands, which were removed first. This sandy
layer contains mostly Tobacco Road sands, named for the
Augusta road.
• Around 20-30 feet down, the Griffis Landing Layer
provides a glimpse of life here around 10-15 million years
ago. This was an estuary environment with creeks and
streams, along with large deposits of oysters. Just below this
layer lies what would have been a beach millions of years
before.
• Deeper still are the Utley limestone layers. These porous
layers allow the flow of water.
• A shell hash layer comes next and contains an abundance
of sand dollars and pieces of shell. Mussels were also a com
mon find.
• Even further down is the blue bluff marl, which got its
name from the bluish hue when it’s wet. Its color, fine grain
and absence of oysters indicates that it was far out in the
ocean, likely 40-50 millions years ago. According to
McCallum, the mail’s rock-like properties make a good foun
dation for the plant.
The blue bluff marl, which was once the ocean floor, could
be seen during excavation.
Pets shot,
killed by
burglars
By Elizabeth Billips
lizbillips@yahoo.com
Two family dogs were shot to death during a break-in at a
Hickson Road home.
“It felt like I was walking into a murder scene,” said Sgt.
Dedric Smith, an investigator for the Burke County Sheriff’s
Office, as he described the bullet holes leading to a bath
room where the two Labrador retrievers were cornered and
shot. “(The burglars) had already violated the victims by
going into their home ... but to kill their family pets.”
It happened Friday afternoon at a home in south Burke
County near Rosier Road. Sgt. Smith said the burglars loaded
a lawn mower onto a trailer and stole numerous items, in
cluding 12 guns. Based on the eight .22 and .44-caliber cas
ings found in the house, officers believe at least two offend
ers were in the home and that the victim’s own weapons
were used to kill his dogs.
- See Burglary, page 9
Murder trial ends
with hung jury
By Anne Marie Kyzer
annemariek@thetruecitizen.com
The trial of a Millen man accused in the killing of a Sardis
teenager ended without a murder conviction.
After a marathon deliberation, the jury was unable to reach
a consensus on a felony murder charge against 23-year-old
Christopher Derek Chance.
Chance stood trial last week on charges of malice murder,
felony murder, possession of a firearm during the commis
sion of a crime and criminal attempt to possess cocaine.
Chance and his cousin, Raymond Trey Sapp, were arrested
in November 2008 for the shooting death of 16-year-old
Simpson “Tyrone” Cates Jr., who was killed while delivering
about $150 worth of crack cocaine to the pair on a dirt road
outside Sardis.
Following a six-day trial and a day and a half of delibera
tions, the jury acquitted Chance of malice murder and re
turned guilty verdicts for the firearm and cocaine charges.
-SeeTrial, page 9
Freshman Matt Usry, known by his teammates as “Big
Country”, stepped up big time offensively during the
Spartans championship win over the Bulloch Acad
emy Gators. He had three key hits during the win.
A Second Helping
Spartan baseball team claims
back-to-back region titles
By Tres Bragg
tresbragg@bellsouth.net
The old saying "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” proved true
for the Edmund Burke Academy baseball team last Friday
afternoon.
Last year, the Spartans defeated Bulloch Academy after a
late inning comeback and gutsy call that gave them their
first region championship in 20 years. The suicide squeeze
play worked to perfection, pushing the Spartans ahead of
Bulloch and securing the re
gion title.
Last week the Spartans were
- See Spartans, page 11 7 IB Iei22 *04 420 7