Ok guys I've got a bit of a dilemma. So a couple days ago a very large construction company actually punctured a large passageway while working on a new building in the area. Now first of all its not completely the construction company's fault, the original survey of the cave didn't include many passages. So they didn't know the cave was right under them. However these passages were lost several years ago, and stayed pretty well lost up until December of last year. We have pushed back to two separate leads, one a nice dry borehole that's about 9' high and 15' wide, the other is about shoulder width and about 5' high with about a foot of water coming out of it. Are these going to be cut off now from the rest of the cave? From what I understand, the construction company will just fill their "hole" up with dirt like it was never there. Is there a way to get them to install a culvert or something similar that won't cut off the air exchange and will be people size?
One more thing, the construction company and the people from the university's karst research center are doing everything in their power to keep it a secret. My first reaction is that they don't want to have a bunch of spelunkers trying to invade the cave. But could their be a more sinister reasoning for all the secrecy?
Any info and/or advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks
RS