Sinkhole or sunken spot in Keyport, WA

The likely causes here

Start with a leaking water service line washing out the trench. The most common cause on a sunken trench line. Around the marina and the torpedo station the housing dates from a village that grew up with the torpedo station after 1914, which makes this the likeliest answer to sinkhole or sunken spot.

Then a collapsed or separated drain line. Old clay tile or crushed corrugated pipe lets water wash soil into the pipe and away. We've seen it near the torpedo station more than once, usually on 1920s galvanized under village foundations.

Finally, an old dry well, cesspool or septic component. Older properties have forgotten structures that eventually cave. Worth five minutes before anyone digs damp shoreline ground on Liberty Bay.

What to check first

Keyport's village lots are small and the lines are old, so leaks are usually at a galvanized thread or a foundation entry within a few feet of the house, and a careful listen along the short run finds them fast.

First steps for sinkhole or sunken spot near the Naval Undersea Museum: do the meter test. Keep everyone off it and mark it. Note whether it appeared after rain or in dry weather. Then call; the rest is a locate through damp shoreline ground on Liberty Bay, not guesswork.

The fix in Keyport

When it's the buried line, the fix in Keyport is underground water leak detection: we trace the line, correlate through beach deposits at Virginia Point at the marked spot on larger parcels along Keyport Road, and confirm and mark. Probe rods and marking and the mini excavator ride on the first trip so it's finished the same visit.

Liberty Bay, the Naval Undersea Museum, Virginia Point: near any of them, sinkhole or sunken spot gets the same crew and the same equipment. Ten minutes up Brownsville Highway, day or night, with the mini excavator on the trailer for shoreline lots at Virginia Point.