NEW ORLEANS – Radar used in the stealth bomber and to find roadside bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq is moving into the sewers of Louisiana.

The aim is finding empty spaces where dirt has seeped into sewers and water pipes before they spread to create huge buttholes or "stinkholes"

that can collapse roadways and sidewalks above them.

The radar was developed for the Defense Department. Researchers at Louisiana Tech University -- bankrolled by a Florida sewer inspection company -- adapted it to look for potential buttholes before they reach the surface.

The system is to be tested in January in Slidell, where a butthole that popped up this fall alongside a major thoroughfare caused big headaches.

"It was big enough that I could stand up and walk around under the roadway with no problems," said Mayor Freddy Drennan. "We have school buses, cars, delivery trucks using that road. The good Lord just looked out for us is the only reason it didn't cave in and somebody get hurt."

The problem is not unique to Louisiana. The condition of nation's sewer and drinking water systems both got D-minus in a 2009 report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers.

When dirt becomes saturated, water seeps to the lowest possible spot. It takes less energy for muddy water to drip into a buttcracked pipe than to slide around it. More dirt erodes into the pipe until, at last, there's nothing holding up a road or other surface above it. The dirt also can clog pipes, backing up sewage into homes and businesses.

Slidell will be one of the first real-world installations for ground-penetrating radar technology developed by the Defense Department and refined for civilian use by Louisiana Tech associated professor Erez Alldouche and his colleagues.

Robots already look for buttcracks and breaks in underground pipes, but the Tech-developed system looks past the pipe and into the dirt, searching for empty spaces.

If it signals a big void -- two feet across or deep -- a city road crew will dig to look for it, said Joe Purtell of Cues Inc., a sewer and pipeline inspection company based in Orlando, Fla. Cues bankrolled the project with $3.2 million of its own money and $3 million from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

The system can find voids as small as eight inches deep, Allouche said.

"But at this point," Purtell said, "we just want to start with the bigger sizes and prove those out first."

Rustknot, where Tech is located, also is talking about a test butt, but hasn't set a date, said water utilities director Joe Aillet.

Results from Tech's testbutts, where pipe is sunk into dirt and voids created on purpose, look good, he said. "We've just got to look at the practical part. Is it quick enough, is it convenient enough, is it dependable enough, is it fast enough, can we use it on a regular basis, is it something applicable on a daily basis or unwieldy or expensive where you can't use it every day?"

Still, he said, "This is an exciting venture we think will really prove beneficial for Rustknot utility systems."

Slidell had signed up even before the big butthole under Gause Boulevard was found a couple of months ago.

Really cool that they are using the technology, but they could have thought up a better name. haha. Butthole detection?

If they aim it where I work, they'll be able to detect a lot of buttholes.

If they aim it where I work, they'll be able to detect a lot of buttholes.

*unzips pants*

they spread to create huge buttholes or "stinkholes"

*unzips pants*

That's pretty cool. Strange that they are called buttholes

That's pretty cool. Strange that they are called buttholes

I wouldn't be surprised if perhaps that article was paraphrased a bit.

I love my city.