Land Movement Update
Federal and State Legislators Tour Landslide Area
On October 22, Councilmember Dave Bradley, Councilmember Paul Seo, and City Manager Ara Mihranian led a tour of the landslide area for federal, state, and local legislators. The group included Rep. Ted Lieu, Rep. Adam Schiff, State Sen. Ben Allen, Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, representatives from the offices of Sen. Laphonza Butler and L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn, and Rolling Hills Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Pieper, Councilmember Patrick Wilson, and City Manager Karina Bañales.
The lawmakers and staff got an up-close look at damage to neighborhoods in the landslide area and learned about the City’s efforts to slow the landslide with dewatering wells removing millions of gallons of deep groundwater per week to reduce water pressure that is fueling the slide.
The tour came after the City last week submitted an appropriations request to Rep. Lieu seeking $20 million for continued landslide stabilization and winterization efforts. This includes fissure filling to prevent rain runoff from recharging the groundwater table, constructing surface drains to properly convey rain runoff to the ocean or storm drains, and installing additional dewatering wells.
The City thanks our legislators for their continued attention to the landslide crisis and for their collaboration in identifying assistance for impacted residents and the City’s remediation efforts.
Federal Legislators Sign Joint Letter Urging FEMA to Provide Support to Residents Impacted by Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Movement
On October 21, Rep. Lieu led a joint letter with Sen. Alex Padilla, Sen. Butler, and Rep. Schiff urging the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to identify any assistance and funding that can be made available to residents impacted by land movement in Rancho Palos Verdes and on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. In the letter, the Members called on Administrator Deanne Criswell to consider ways in which FEMA can help impacted communities in conjunction with other local, state and federal efforts to mitigate the dangerous ground movements and provide relief for impacted homeowners.
A copy of the letter (PDF) is available on Rep. Lieu’s website.
RPV Urges SCE and SoCalGas to Restore Service in Neighborhoods with No New Land Movement
According to the most recent set of GPS monitoring data from the landslide area taken earlier this month, no new land movement was recorded in the Seaview and Portuguese Bend Beach Club neighborhoods. The continued slowing trend is believed to be the result of a combination of highly productive dewatering wells by both the City and the Klondike Landslide Abatement District (KCLAD) and the dry summer months.
Because of the lack of new movement, last week, Mayor Cruikshank signed letters to Southern California Edison (SCE) and SoCalGas urging the utilities to commit to providing timelines for restoring service in, at a minimum, the Seaview and PBBC neighborhoods.
In response, SoCalGas Senior Vice President and Chief Infrastructure Officer Rodger Schwecke wrote that “given the dynamic nature of the land movement and the significant safety risks posed by broken gas lines, the safety of the community dictates that a determination to restore gas service be based on a careful evaluation of the totality of the data obtained over a sustained period of time.”
SCE responded requesting more time to analyze the data in comparison with its data, but notified the City that 16 properties in the Portuguese Bend Community Association on Fruit Tree Road, Plumtree Road, and the western portion of Narcissa Drive will be re-energized this week.
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