NATCHEZ &8212; City engineer David Gardner says there is a 60-foot wall of information dividing him and critics of a controversial condo project.

Recently local geologist John Bornman sent Mayor Phillip West and the Natchez Board of Alderman a letter detailing the geology of the bluffs and his concerns about building on the old Natchez Pecan Shelling Co. site.

&8220;I think it is dangerous,&8221; Bornman said of plans to build a 64-unit condo complex on the site. &8220;(The city and developers) are making a big, huge mistake.&8221;

Gardner disagrees.

&8220;The final geotechnical report is under way,&8221; Gardner said. &8220;All indications are that the building will not impact the bluffs at all.&8221;

Gardner said the bluff stabilization completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2001 protects the pecan factory site from many of the concerns Bornman cites.

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History gave approval last week to demolish the pecan factory building pending three requirements, including a site report by a geologist or engineer that attests to the safety and stability of the site.

Given the history of the bluffs in Natchez, Bornman thinks building a 64-unit condominium complex is a risky venture that will inevitably end in disaster.

&8220;The pecan factory sits right in the middle of two cave-ins,&8221; Bornman said. &8220;The geological requirement is insurmountable.&8221;

Preventing cave-ins is the reason the bluff stabilization was created, Gardner said.

In the past century, there have been a number of slides along the bluffs of the Mississippi River. Most notable are four large cave-ins &8212; the 1939 Jones Sawmill slide, the 1951 Clifton Avenue collapse, a slide near Weymouth Hall in 1978 and the 1980 Silver Street collapse.

Bornman said each of these slides is typical to the soils that make up bluff.

Standing 200 feet above the river, the bluffs are primarily composed of three soil types &8212; 60 feet of loess soil, 140 feet of sand and gravel all sitting on a formation of Hattiesburg clay.

This combination of soils creates an unstable situation, Bornman said.

When a crack forms near the bluff, water flows through the permeable layers, destabilizing the bluff through erosion.

Some cracks can form hundreds of feet back from the face of the bluff, Bornman said.

&8220;What you do at the face of the bluff does not affect what happens 200 feet back,&8221; Bornman said. &8220;Mother Nature is relentless. It&8217;s not going to stop.

&8220;It occurs all along the bluff. It&8217;s just going to happen.&8221;

In fact, Bornman has noticed what he thinks are cracks that are forming on the pecan factory site.

In particular, he thinks a crack that has formed near an old cistern on the site may be a result of soil erosion and could be the precursor to a cave-in.

Gardner said he is unaware of any cracks on the site.

&8220;If there was a crack that far back, we would know it from the monitoring system in the wall,&8221; Gardner said.

Gardner said that while he does not refute any of Bornman&8217;s soil information, it is only &8220;applicable to the non-stabilized portions of the bluff.&8221;

&8220;We know intimately all the details about the bluff,&8221; Gardner said. &8220;(Bornman&8217;s) information is not based on real numbers and data that we obtained during the bluff stabilization project.

&8220;The bluff stabilization does two things,&8221; Gardner added. &8220;It stabilizes the bluff and prevents erosion and it wicks out moisture that forms behind the wall, preventing saturation points.&8221;

And because of the soils&8217; inherent ability to crack several hundred feet from the face of the bluff, the Corps of Engineers installed &8220;a global stability anchoring system that keeps a block to a block-and-a-half from having catastrophic failures,&8221; Gardner said.