COMMUNITY NOTICE
(9/30/2023)
Public Message from SRA Board and City of Rancho Palos Verdes regarding Land Movement
Fellow Seaview Residents: Please see the notice far below from city manager Ara Mihranian. This is in response to the increased movement seen in the past 24 hours. The city has closed the intersection of Dauntless and Exultant due to the land movement. They and Cal Water will be on site to monitor the situation including on weekends. The city council and manager have been working very hard to coordinate activities and monitor utility and land movement in the slide zones. As an update to you on activities that have been occurring, we are providing the below. There is a lot of work being done by the city and the utilities so please thank them when you see them.
- City council and CHOA meetings have both had the landslide front and center. The City council is considering an emergency declaration and will be reviewing it at next Tuesday’s council meeting. You can attend via Zoom or in person. See the city website for details. The city council has charged the staff to develop 3 urgent steps to take in conjunction with the utilities, the landslide abatement districts and the local associations.
- The city has convened a stakeholders group that includes representatives from the boards of the homowners associations, the utilities, the landslide abatement districts, county, and city as a working group to define responsibilities, enhance communication pathways and develop mitigation efforts. This will include a representative from Rolling Hills Estates. To date, there is no known connection between the area where homes fell into the canyon and our area. Those began this past Wednesday and will continue weekly on Wednesday afternoons. Please reach out to Kit Song or any of the board members to relay messages/concerns. We will provide updates from those meetings each week
- There has been a meeting of the Klondike Canyon Landslide abatement District Board. Nic Grillo and Nikki Noushkam are seeking to join the board. There is now a more up to date list of homeowners who live in the district and the email distribution list has been updated with information that has been passed to the KCLAD board so that information can be passed to all homeowners. There will be a formal election to instate Seaview representatives onto that board.
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- The KCLAD report is that the primary pump is working at high capacity and water levels seem to be high, but stabilizing. They are working to get a second well operational and to complete drainage projects at the top of the conservancy area that were in the original recommendations made decades ago, but never completed.
- There have been numerous new fissures opening up in the canyon areas. Active discussion is being held to see if these can be filled and/or water diverted from entering the fissures
- There has been discussion about looking to see if additional de watering should/could be done in the Seaview area to mitigate movement.
- Cal Water has increased their responsiveness to leaks in the area and are deploying leak sensors into the canyons and neighborhood. These are dependent upon cell connections which are very poor in the Portuguese Bend and canyon areas. The city council is working with local cell providers to expedite expansion of services.
- The city has deployed its website for landslide activities: https://rpvca.gov/1707/Have-questions-about-land-movement There are numbers for the utilities along with an email address: landmovement@rpvca.gov and phone numbers for city employees. The ask of the city is to report promptly any utility issues to both the utility companies and the city so that they can also track and help expedite response. We strongly encourage you to visit this website often and to sign up for their list serve https://rpvca.gov/list.aspx to get updates.
- The city is expanding their GPS sensors to see if the landslide area is changing or just becoming more active.
- The city has asked for increased patrols by the Sheriff’s department due to the recent publicity around the red tagged homes. Please call the Sheriff’s department for any suspicious activity. If you see something, say something. Our Flock camera system is active and is used by the Sheriff’s department.
- We are working to get a report from both the Abalone Cove Landslide Abatement district and KCLAD on the current status of the pumps, volume of water being extracted from the ground, planned mitigation efforts for diversion of water and increased water extraction capabilities.
Please communicate with the board about any concerns/observations that you have.
Kit Song on Behalf of the SRA board.
Please send comments, suggestions, inquiries, questions and requests to: info@seaviewra.org
From: Ara Mihranian <AraM@rpvca.gov>
Date: Friday, September 29, 2023 at 2:04 PM
Subject: Seaview – Public Message
Folks,
I am requesting your assistance in disseminating this message to the residents with KCLAD, Seaview and PBC.
Residents’ observations and reports indicate that there has been increased subsidence in the Seaview neighborhood over the past 48 hours.
In response, the City team is on-site as of the writing of this message.
Inspectors will be assessing properties from the street, and will accommodate any requests to inspect the exterior and interior of individual residences.
The City’s Geotechnical team is on-site with Public Works Director Ramzi Awwad and will be studying the area west of Schooner including outside the landslide boundary limits since it appears movement is now occurring beyond the existing mapped area.
The City is asking that Cal Water personnel be on-site to immediately respond to water main breaks.
With recent land movement activity, the City strongly recommends that property owners turn off sprinkler/irrigation watering systems for the foreseeable future to minimize additional water being absorbed into the ground in the vicinity. Additionally, for those properties with swimming pools, if you have experienced some water loss, the City requests that you refrain from refilling the pools at this time and consider emptying your pool to prevent water entering the ground if cracking occurs. The City will reach out in a future correspondence about a possible pool draining schedule, so owners can start considering that next step.
The health and safety of the public and the protection of property, infrastructure, and the environment are our top priorities. We are committed to keeping the community informed. You can find answers to frequently asked questions and more information on the City’s webpage, and get updates by subscribing to the Land Movement listserv at rpvca.gov/notify.
Have questions? Contact us at landmovement@rpvca.gov.
Thank you,
Ara
