08/23/24 COMMUNITY NOTICE From SRA Board

COMMUNITY NOTICE

(08/23/2024)

COMMUNITY NOTICE From SRA Board:

8/19/24 CalWater, 8/20/24 City Council and 8/21/24 Stakeholders Meeting Notes

Community Alert:
So. Cal Water reported that some of their workers last week were recipients of significant verbal assault while they were trying to turn off the water main due to leak in Western Seaview. We ask all of our neighbors to be respectful of the teams working in the neighborhood on our behalf. They are simply doing their jobs, and we ask that you treat them all with respect and courtesy. If there are concerns or complaints, we encourage you to bring them to the City sponsored Wednesday meetings or share them with the SRA Board who attends these meetings on a regular basis.

LA County Public Works:
LACPW is repairing the sewer line on Exultant Drive in the general area shown in the below map. As part of the work, a sewer bypass is being installed. The sewer bypass will be checked daily and has an alarm to ensure proper function.

Map Diagram - LA County Public Works

Cal Water Meeting:

Construction crews are still working in the SeaView neighborhood. Current work will be done in about 1-2 weeks.
PVDS line is now above ground. The line is ready to be tied in, once the Yacht Harbor section is complete.
There were renderings to show how above ground piping could be visually protected. Visual shielding options are being placed based upon individual property owners’ decision of whether they would like to have visual protection or not. They will look at options of fencing versus shrubbery. The intent of Cal Water will be providing initial installation with subsequent maintenance being upon the homeowner. Options will come forward from Cal Water soon with a time frame for decision and installation with subsequent maintenance to be provided by the homeowner.

City Council Meeting:

Residents are advised to download the agenda and presentations from the City website as there are many details to the geologist’s report that are described below.
Information obtained from the drilling done as part of the hydrauger project was presented.
- CEO of Geologics and Mike Phipps the city geologist were present
  - Mike Phipps geologists report. The rate of land movement has leveled off. It is still moving, but now is at a stable velocity that is not increasing as it was through 2022 and 2023. It is still moving at a rate of 3.5 to 4 feet per month. This was expected as we are now 3-4 months out from the rainy season. There are still areas that are accelerating at a rate of 13% and some that are decelerating at a rate of 13% for an average of -1%. Portuguese Bend land movement has leveled off. The ski jump area remains very active and is still accelerating. Klondike Canyon land movement has accelerated about 4% compared to last month. New markers were placed high up on the hillsides. Other markers outside of the current slide are stable except for the areas above Burma Road that are now starting to move consistently, likely in response to movement further down the hill. There are some small areas of expansion around Wayfarer’s chapel. In SeaView, he does not believe that there is any new movement outside of the ancient landslide boundaries. There has been a dramatic rise of land off the coast. There is a possible extension of movement uphill from the current land movement as it fills in behind the current movement. He does not feel there is anything to suggest that there will be further extension West and East. There is land movement happening up in Rolling Hills. Mike and his team did visit some areas but have only had limited access to the area so is unable to say if this is a separate area of land movement or part of the existing land movement.
  - A map of acceleration rates shows that the toes of the slides are the most rapidly moving areas. At the tops of the slides, there is decelerating movement. The slides are converging and behaving like a single large slide.
  - The geologist continues to believe that there will not be a sudden larger displacement based upon the historical patterns of movement. The geologist continues to believe that rainfall over the past two years is the major reason that the movement has occurred.
  - The boring program is confirming that the depth of land movement is deeper and larger than had been thought.
- As part of the emergency declaration, there was an urgency ordinance adopted which has been extended. The City was recommended to extend the moratorium on building for another year. The City will hold a public hearing on this at the next City Council Meeting.
- Emergency hydrauger project. E1 is intended to remove artesian water/pressure from below the slip plane. E2 is to divert water from getting into the slip plane. The test boreholes show a shallow slide plane at about 160 feet below the surface and deeper plane at about 350 feet which is moving 2-3x faster than the superficial slip plane and with higher artesian pressures than the superficial plane. The city geologist feels that this deeper plane may extend 500-600 feet out from the shore. This information implies that the movement is in the deeper ancient Altamira slip plane which has not been thought to have moved in the past. In essence this means that the separate shallower landslide is moving as a single larger landslide with smaller superficial land movement planes. The deeper slip plane is felt to be the priority project and that it requires a combined effort of all the “separate slides” that have been historically addressed separately. Team is feeling that this means taking risks:
  - Installation of deep vertical wells that will shear, but to try to relieve the artesian pressures. The City target is to have wells last a month before failure. They propose to do a test well to see if this will work and if they can maintain water removal, to expand this effort beyond the first test well. They further propose to expand the borehole program, and the location of those sites is pending. The target to drill the first well is to do so within a month.
  - There will still be a need to address the shallow slip planes once the deeper slide plane is drained. There will be a return to looking at the original hydrauger project after the deeper wells are established.
  - In combination with this, there also needs to be ongoing efforts to control the shallower Portuguese Bend, Klondike Canyon, and Abalone Cove slides.
  - Continue to work on impeding ingress of water by filling fissures and looking at ways to drain water from uphill. Towards this end, there has been conversation with LA county public works. City staff feels that all of the 6 canyons are of importance. Bottom line though is that there is no substantive result of these efforts to date.
  - A question was made to Geologics of the relative importance of removal of water versus prevention of ingress. They feel that removal of water is more immediate in its impact as a change in water pressure will be felt from top to bottom of the slide plane, with prevention of ingress of water being more important as a longer-term measure.
The City Council passed Staff recommendations to move forward with vertical drilling to attack the deep movement layer and to put on the agenda for next month the public discussion on the extension of the building moratorium.

Stakeholders Meeting:

Sewers and LA County Sanitation district. There are daily inspections of the lines. Link to disaster plan is: LACSD emergency response plan is available at www.lacsd.org/rpv
Sewer lines in SeaView. Work has started on the repairs along Dauntless. Duration per LA Public Works is expected to take 2 weeks.
Portuguese Bend Community sewer lines. No new updates. Weekly inspections. No new breaks.
SCE. Was not present at the meeting. The City stopped surprise work by SCE at Ladera Linda Community Center as a part of a plan for segregating lines in SeaView demanding to review a plan prior to installation. They share the SeaView Residents’ frustration. An ask was made to the City to have SCE work with community representatives for distribution of emergency repair information and design plans for the neighborhood.
So Cal Gas. Updating their website each week on Tuesday. Valve update project for Seaview. The first stage of 8 valves for Seaview has been completed. Another 2 valves are being explored. We are looking for updates on when landscaping and filling in of the excavations will be complete.
Cal Water. SeaView, construction proceeding. Pressure testing of Exultant to happen this week. Anticipating tie in sometime next week if tests are okay.
City Projects
- Recap of the City Council Meeting that is noted above.
- GPS, see City Council report.
- PVDS roadway repairs.
- SeaView repairs. Ask was made to meet with City Staff about the intersections and Grabens and planning for the upcoming rainy season and the semi-permanent closure of the Dauntless/Exultant intersection. Tami podesta, Sha, Deirdre, Others?
- City is starting drainage surveys for the entire landslide area.
Portuguese Bend Community Association.
KCLAD Nic Grillo reported. The new well on the Beach almost ready to be operational. Second well planning well underway and anticipating starting within next 1-2 weeks. Re-grading of the fissure areas is undergoing an expedited permitting process.
ACLAD Has had shearing of well 2. Well 3 are back working. Several wells have had a decrease in output. Being investigated. Evaluating for high value fissures to be filled. Coordinating with geologists.

Download the above information as a PDF