Would the person who commented about color balance tools please repost their comment? I saw it briefly on my phone but before I could study it further it disappeared.
Wasn't me, but I use Davinci Resolve for editing. I think most of the high end editors call it color grading. If it's the same throughout the video, it's generally very easy to adjust hue and saturation. With the most popular tools, there are a ton of TH-cam videos for how to do just about anything. I don't even bother going into the documentation anymore.
This area should have been condemned 100 years ago and relegated to that of a nature preserve. The same should be done today, except we have an army of politicians here in California and across the country with priorities that support their reelection over that of fiscal responsibility and public safety. There is no engineering answer to the ongoing slide condition that exists here as well as other areas along the Pacific Ocean coast.
I think some hard truths need to be spoken about this situation now. Many of these people in the impacted area are being given false hope, combined with their denial of the situation makes staying there long term very problematic. The activation of this deeper, ancient slide is a game changer.
@@CaseyJones-EngineerYeah those decisions would have been better if they'd turned the area into a big park in the early 60s. I can't imagine that with all the well logs in the area, the 60' thickness and the dip of the unit wasn't known after the Portuguese Tuff started to slide in the late 50s. But unfortunately, bad decisions like this are how laws finally get written.
Bizarre - people living in a place that 'only' moves 1 foot a year?? And were building homes for decades in a place that moved 40-50 feet per year? And they expect taxpayers to bail these very very wealthy folks out? The place needs to be condemned and turned into open space and just let nature do what it's been doing for at least 500,000 years.
It's always the rich folk taking money from the normal people then the normal people blame the government and vote in people who claim they will help them while only helping the rich folks abuse the rest even more (example from my country but seems to be simmilar everywhere) very surprising how many people vote against their own self-interest my fate in humanity has been long gone
The land owners who sued in order to build share a large measure of responsibility in this matter. When land is bought on speculation, there is an inherent need to thoroughly investigate viability beforehand. If not, this would be likened to buying a pig in a poke. If you don't open the poke(bag), you deserve what you get. Do your due diligence. As always, I enjoyed your presentation. P.s. For those who may have a problem picturing the challenge by clay, when dry, it is unfired ceramic, when wet, it is mud, closely resembling grease. Which would they prefer to stand on?
Unfortunately since time passes the land owners and developers have sold off the land to the current property owners, and with that the built in problems. If a lot of time has passed then the original seller and developer may have left this realm so there's nothing but ghosts to try to milk the money from.
@@ehsnils any of it would have been disclosed when the homes were bought, especially considering there's an entity that can asses fees on the owners to help make sure the slide doesn't slide anymore.
@@ehsnils Yes, the risks taken before 1980 have long since been laundered by subsequent sales. If the "original sinner" is most responsible then you're absolutely right about ghost milk. Mostly I blame humans for thinking they'll defy Mother Nature when it comes to water, gravity, tectonics, weather. Nature wins every time.
They are responding alone, that is not the issue at hand the city wants that road stabilized. What do they do for New Orleans where people do die.. spend 💰
The Onion Creek area in Austin Texas had the same situation, relative to experts stating that no housing should be built. But a developer sued the city to be allowed to build and prevailed. 30yrs later (long after the developer had taken the money and run), the area had flooded so many times that the city bought the owners out based on the repeated costs and risks of emergency services to rescue the residents during flood events. All tax dollars spent from that lawsuit. The city knew the issue, but a judge apparently knew better.
10:51 In Summary, the land owners sued and retained the right to develop their land. The land owners ultimately built homes and now the land owners want public financial assistance to assure their homes retain value. The full cost of remediation should fall upon the land owners. Judging by the historical data going back 50+ years EVERYONE involved with the development, sale and purchase KNEW the ground was landslide in progress. They gambled and lost!
If people even back then sued to build against better advice, I have a hard time seeing merit in any calls for public resources. Even stabilizing the whole thing (that's a lot of dirt to drain or retain) will do little good as the sea keeps eating at the toe of the slide. A billion dollars buys a lot of homes even in California, and the public should not be responsible for spending more than that in terms of dollars/house for lots built in a known risk area - if you want to spend public money, then use it to build other homes somewhere else for less money.
Yeah, even if the addition of new homes isn't causally linked to the new sliding activity the state/municipality has to have some answer for not being liable for the risky decisions of private citizens either by constraining those decisions as they had before or being able to separate themselves from liability for negative consequences. Even if the bulk of California poses some slide risk it's clear that this area in particular was considered even more risky given how far back those studies and remediations go. Honestly this might be an interesting case for Casey and Legal Eagle or some other law educated youtuber to discuss whether the judge was wrong legally and what sort of laws could be drafted that could permit the judge to rule differently ( presuming the judge didn't just screw up ).
@@drunvert As you heard in the video - the slide began many thousands of years ago and has been there and ongoing ever since. And prior generations were well aware that it is, in fact, a slide.
@@jmazoso The people there built their houses for private benefit, so the associated cost should be private, too. If it were public housing or nonprofit (including property value)... then we could talk about using public funding for any restoration. But even in that case, that money seems better spent elsewhere. There's a lot of dirt on the move and spending a billion or three ain't gonna stop it.
So, this geology has been understood for a very long time. With only a little research anyone would have known that buying a house on this sand was an unwise thing to do.
this place has been stable for a long time, there's been two major subsidence events in the past, decades apart. it seems the dryness(lack of moisture for plant roots) and the increased tectonic movements recently is triggering something. i wonder if the previous two events were caused by similar conditions.
Most of us who got our degrees in the LA area did a field trip there & for the rest of us it did get into our textbooks as a classic no-no for building.
I always appreciate discussing Southern California Geology and watching presentations such as yours. I'm not a professional Geologist, nor am I qualified to make critiques or criticisms regarding your presentation. With that said, I can say, I'm a sixth Generation Californian. The Bell family arrived in the 1840s, so the Bell family has been around for a while. The rule of thumb was, don't live near the beach nor the mountains. This advice had been handed down though multiple generations of family. I picked a valley in which to buy my house and raise a family. Sadly, our concern is liquefaction. California is a very attractive state in which to live.... this State has everything you would want... and a bunch of stuff, you don't. Mark Bell
Thank you for your comments. I think the willingness for people to put up with some many issues to live there is a testament to the wonderful climate in much of California.
It's been a long time since California had a big quake. That big lag between quakes allows complacency to sneak back in. They build where they shouldn't and things they shouldn't (Millennium Tower).
Define long time and what you mean by big quake. California had a 6.0 eargtquake a few years ago. And Los Angeles had a minor tremor in January 1994. Some people call it the Northridge Earthquake. Only 6.7
Earthquakes do not seem to adjust our landslide at all . Long Beach has liquefaction that is not here. The constant settling seems to make us immune, no dust even rises after quakes. Our homes with alternate foundation ride over the force does transfer into our structure..
As someone who lives just outside of the current slide boundary, I’d just like to offer my sincerest thanks and appreciation for this video. I’ve been trying to piece together this story for months and you’ve manage to summarize all of our technical, political and even ethical problems (and even some solutions) in a 25 minute easy watch. Bravo! You recommended an outside reviewer for this landslide and mitigation efforts…well I think you might have just thrown your hat into the ring. Thank you again for your hard work!
I've read a lot about this and really appreciate all the information you have reviewed and shared. It's a fascinating, if sad, situation. When I was in college, my mother and stepfather moved to Southern California. I recall driving through this beautiful peninsula as they evaluated areas in which they might live. My stepfather was an engineer who had lived part of his life in San Francisco, and although he'd dreamed of living on the ocean, he was very concerned, in general, about the stability of such land.
The original Portuguese Bend slide was actually determined to have been caused by septic systems in the 150 homes that were located in the slide area. The septic drainage saturated the bentonite layer 167 feet below the surface if I recall the depth correctly. The road extension at the top of the hill brought heavy equipment and trucks of fill which were applied to the head of the slide. They were running rollers to compress soil and then the slide began just down slope from the road construction. But it was the trapped water that caused 140 houses to be lost... Emergency responders were roped up to vehicles parked just off the slide area, they traversed moving ground in the dark to rescue people from homes before they slid off into the ocean.
In the 90's I worked for a marine research company doing shallow surface coring (0-3m) and suspended sediment collection for the ACoE (between Redondo and San Pedro, with a focus on PV/PB/AC) who seems to be one of the agencies involved in trying to determine a find a short-term solution to the problem. Even then, the movement was amplified in wet years and was also tied to residential watering of yards. Given the photo you showed from the 30's, it is obvious older slides (no called out in the photo) are further upslope. Also, there are the slides (not shown in your map) that occur all the way down to Whites Point. When we look at the 22-23 rain year, it was in the top 10% and spread across many many months. Even the 23-24 year saw unseasonal rainfall spread across the period from Nov-June. I also will add, for my 60+ years, no governor has addressed the problem, so blaming GN seem a bit petty, especially given, at times, these rates of movement have been seen in the last 60 years... No one wants to buy out the ALL the owners and turn it into a park (IMO the real solution, like what we see in SLO/Morro Bay).
Turning the area into a nature preserve by giving the 30 homeowners fair market value for their homes via eminent domain seems the most cost effective logical option.
@mibz1117 A nature preserve has some value. In theory, the town should sue the builder who gave fraudulent data regarding the feasibility of the development.
If they just let it play out and red tag the homes, the homeowners won’t get anything. They have turned off the electricity and gas. Soon they will also turn off water and sewer then it will be red tagged.
Happens all over the US. Developers stomp their feet to get their way, threaten to sue the city or county, then 30 years later the homeowner's house is destroyed by nature. Developers should be required to post bonds for future mistakes in these areas to help pay for the mess.
We simply cant afford to pay to fix landslides with public funds. Special insurance was available to these homeowners it was their responsibility to learn about it and choice as to whether or not to purchase it.
I am so grateful you are investigating and reporting on this. Although I’m in Montana now I spent my 20s and 30s in Torrance and am very interested in this issue. News media just can’t do this situation justice. So thank you‼️
Thanks for the update. Your final thoughts are exactly what this issue needs. Independent experts who do not and have not had a stake in the problem. Well done as usual.
17:36 -- Why is the city spending millions to rescue private property that should never have developed? If you build a house on a beach and a hurricane hits it, you bear the loss. If you build a house on a flood plain and a flood occurs, you bear the loss.
No, if you build a house on Malibu Beach and a ocean storm wipes it out, then a brush firee sweeps across your property and after the rainy season, your lot is covered in mud, taxpayers pay for your loss because your insurance is assigned risk.
How much does New Orleans spend on those dykes to keep the ocean from flowing in and killing people When a hurricane comes they spend a little bit of money there right and people are dying So why did they ever build there in the first place slap my head
@@bigx9963😊 well you would be wrong They are trying to keep the road open to get taxes They get a lot of taxes from the people driving by when they come in and spend spend spend they have to keep terranea open and Trump's golf course open That's why they want to spend it's not the little people so stop saying we're idiots that is not nice it's not respectful I hope you find a way to find some respect and kindness in your heart today
I lived on Sweetbay Rd. Portuguese Bend from 1967-1973 and the end of Peppertree Rd had already slid before we moved there! Absolutely beautiful place to live but we knew the danger back then!
@@OffendingTheOffendableso I will die before then and I can move my home back up . House moving is a thing .. look it up we do that here we are.. can do people.. what is in your mirror 🪞?
What’s so baffling about selling your house? U can list for whatever u want, doesn’t mean they will get that number. What’s the other option, not selling? They want out and somebody might take a chance.
It seems a good quake from the Inglewood fault would nullify any attempts to shore up the damage already done and possibly exacerbate the situation. That fault is relatively active. I live pretty much on top of it and have experienced its hissy fits.
Excellent report. This is an impossible problem which will be complicated by many lawsuits. Even a billion dollars will not provide a permanent solution. They are years from a significant improvement and by then the damage will be extensive. This is like adding water to a bucket with a hole in the bottom..
Santa Barbara and the adjacent community just south, Montecito, are built almost entirely on debris flow deposits. Tectonic uplift in the area is extreme, second only to the Himalaya as I understand.
From my perspective as a foreigner this is a classic American situation. City tries to control development on a known landslide area. Landowners sue “You can’t tell me what I can or cannot do on my land”. Judge overrules city. Suckers buy the lots Houses sliding down the hill with residents sitting on the roof hollering’freedom’ I see this a lot in u.s. Weird zoning situations.
And the as an American I look at the enlightened UK. People post a naughty line on social media they get prison. MEANWHILE a group of Muslims chant DEATH TO THE INFIDELS and police say that is free speech. And then of course there is France which hosted the Olympics. Lets make the swimmers swim in a river full of SEWAGE. Only in Europe.
Add this as another chapter to John McPhee's book, The Control of Nature. The continued hubris of humans never ceases to amaze me. Good luck, Palos Verdes.
I live in Norfolk Va. we have the same problems from here to Ocracoke NC. people were permited to build to the dune line and in our city they were at first fine with it because these structures were assessed at high rates and increased tax base. Then over the 45 years I've lived here we've have tropical storms and Nor Easters that have eaten away the beaches and dunes. We have one large area, Willoughy (by the Hampton Roads Tunnel I 64) that was created by a hurricane in the 1700s and is basically a barrier island and over the years some homes have had the dunes actually migrate into their homes and they've illegally moved the sand which then weakens the "protection" from the next storm and they are now demanding that the city spend millions for beach replenishment, but other taxpayers revolt over this issue becsuse these same residents fence off "THEIR " beach and chase the public away when they attempt to use it, even as they demand TAX dollars to fix the problem. the OBX has a different issue, the Graveyard of the Atlantic now claims more beach homes than ships, and owners, who were able to charge $3000 a week renting these beach homes abandon them as overwash destroys their septic fields, damages driveways, water lines etc. and makes them un rentable, the NPS which owns the beach gets ignored when these landlords who seem to live "up north" become ghosts when the NPS attempts to force them to demolish these dangerous structures, which eventually fall into the ocean in pieces, which is where it because a real problem, As tides carry this dangerous debris up to 10 miles up and down the beach, and requires the NPS to stop anyone from going on the beach, much less the water until they hire contractors to find and remove debris loaded with rusty nails, deck screws, broken glass, furntiture and house wares and other sharp edged detris that can hurt or kill others who paid $3000 a week to enjoy the beach, which now their renter's cannot. Meanwhile taxpayers get stuck with the bill of removing these dangerous houses and the investors hire lawyers and fight being charged in court or hide behind LLCs that they file as bankrupt and thus have no $$$ to pay. These are why we inland tax payers have no sympathy for beach dwellers and get a satisfaction when their homes fall into the sea. All I write here can be researched by going on newspaper, TV, or other local websites to fact check.
I have friends who live down the street to the left of the house you show on Dauntless Dr. They’re fine and not impacted (yet). That area has always had sliding since my family moved to RPV in 1963. NOT in a slide risk area thankfully. Thank you for this information! By the way, it’s Rancho Palos Verdes, not Ranchos…
This has been sliding actively since the 1950s I remember going with my boss rich Martin PE to a council meeting in the 1980s about this , I recall most of the argument was about noisy feral peacocks and the slide was put off until the next meeting, I remember rich doing the forehead slap in frustration, he was a good Geotechnical engineer and a great boss RIP rich
Oh my god. I was at that meeting as an 11 year old kid with my parents who were there to complain about the peacocks and didn't know about the unstable ground because the realtor didn't say anything about it.... Holy crap. Small world.
It is important to mention that the last two years had very high rain totals. This water gets into the subsurface and if there are weak layers of clayey material it causes slope failures. Thanks for the update and for acknowledging that government has and is involved in dealing with this problem.
Construction and road building accelerated movement of the current 160 ft deep slide. What activated the older, deeper slide remains to be demonstrated but if only a couple of really rainy seasons does this, this land will be in the ocean sooner than later.
Drove the area multiple times in the early 1990's, I thought it unstable then. Appreciate you focusing on not only the situation now but what should be next steps! Thank You!
If I heard correctly, if the cost of possible remediation is upwards of a billion taxpayers dollars and there is no guarantee that the remediation will work for the next 50 years or so would it not be cheaper and safer to simply use that money to force buyouts of the homes and property in the area? Or, if not possible to force people out then buy out those willing to leave and then tell those who refused that they are on their own.
No bailout for the rich or anyone. There are risks everywhere. That's why insurance is necessary. It's mandatory and expensive in many locations. There's universal coastline erosion. Are taxpayers expected to foot the bill for the rich who can afford and choose ocean front homes? Not this taxpayer. Not the politicians I'll vote for.
I love your videos. They are very professional and educational. I am certainly not a geologist but when I first saw one of your videos I subbed. Thank you for sharing your insight and wisdom. Your numbers are growing. Please keep up the great work.
Thanks for the detailed research on this topic and the high quality presentation. The new activation of the deeper slip surface is a major change to the situation and your explanation is excellent. The surface water mitigation has to be done quickly as we have only a month or three before the rainy season starts in Southern California.
Thanks. I have many friends who live in that area. I used to live in Long Beach. Such a mess but definitely predictable. Maybe the great California severance will be more of a gradual slide into the ocean.
I enjoy these videos and was wondering how surveying/property rights are affected with these types of landslides. Meaning, if house A slides downhill 50' and is now on owner's B property (by GPS coordinates), does owner A still own the house?
Thanks for all the good info and back up data sources. Learning that the subsurface is bentonite tells me that there are no cost effective solutions. You might mention the low hydraulic conductivity of bentonite and how that helps create the low strength soaked soils and helps maintain that low strength condition longer. Now this is all bad news for the static condition - but isn't this also a prime candidate for a liquefaction zone during an earthquake? With all the cards stacked against them isn't this a case of get out while you can because it's only going to get worse.
The bentonite is not weak, but the contact areas with the bentonite are going to be slide prone because wet bentonite is almost as slick as grease so the layers resting on the bentonite move quite easily. All it takes is a few millimeters of bentonite and you have a slip zone in otherwise normal soil.
@@jaymacpherson8167 Thank you so much. If there are any particular topics of interest that you would like to see me cover than I am not already, please let me know.
Something to keep in mind is that the population of Rancho Palos Verdes is over 40,000. This represents more than 15,000 households with an average of 3 people per household. Most of Rancho Palos Verdes is not sliding into the ocean. The median price of houses in Rancho Palos Verdes is increasing steadily. Yes, some % of houses in Rancho Palos Verdes are in trouble but most are not.
The whole area will be affected hugely by this slide. Been there done that. Drop will be up to 75% depending on where the home is imho. This was an ancient. slide that reactivated who knows how far it will or can continue to. imho
@dennychaput4689 I believe Lucky Baldwin imported the peacocks from India. It was most likely Baldwin's daughter who supplied peacocks to Palos Verdes Peninsula developer Frank Vanderlip, introducing the species to the area.
Side note: bentonite clay is used in Chemical warfare situations. I have used it during training in the US Army back in the early 1970 period it was in soft porosis bags used to blot up fresh chemical agent from skin very effective with blister agents if used right after exposure not as good on serious nerve agent contamination of a thickened mixture used by Soviet forces in Scud missiles due to the very high toxicity of that particular agent. Atropine injectors used fast enough can help with the application of the clay powder so the patient is not jerking around as much. In training with live nerve agent, the unit, I was with at that time carried 100 atropine injectors in a well-marked ammo can. One exposure in an earlier class needed 84 injectors to get the patient to the hot line. PAM-2C was then given using 2 1-liter bags intravenous application got the patient to the base hospital. I also sold for facial treatments and digestive applications.
Instead of local, state and possibly federal taxpayer dollars being used to pay for temporary fixes, the local government should buy out the homeowners. In the end, this would be less expensive compared to continuing to pour millions more taxpayer dollars into fixes; inevitably nature will reclaim this land.
After the Christchurch Earthquake sequences, that risk assessment determined that much of the swamp land was unsuitable for buildings. They ended up removing housing whole areas. In wellington, some areas cannot be built on for exactly the same reason as this case…
Are there any land surveyors in the crowd? If your land moves horizontally, are you now encroached on someone else's property? I have heard that that physical monuments (i.e. property pins) supersede survey observations made from external control points. So if your property pins move along with your house, is that still your property?
Geotech studies caveat: stability based on weather modeling for ‘normal’ rainfall. California has had ‘atmospheric rivers’ of torrential rain. And that maybe on the increase.
Oops. I think I was a bit tired when I did this video. It is funny how the brain slips into old knowledge because I certainly remember the "other" Jessica!
Great overview. Going forward, no matter the geologic risk mitigation, the limiting factors will be how to provide: - potable water - natural gas - electrical grid - sewerage system
And the hardest part is the sewer system. They have already had major spills. Natural gas is easily deleted with propane or all electric. And off grid systems are out there for electric. Water is the second hardest to do but from what I have heard they are able to pump water but are shutting it off to avoid sewer spillage. People also forget the days of cisterns and water delivery unless you live on a Native reservation. Much of the four corners area do it all the time.
@@CaseyJones-Engineer Refreshingly informative & enjoyable - thank you again! (Incidental: Should you ever have time, a discussion of the ease (or difficulty), these days, in coming up with an independent engineering review (notable for its excellence, thoroughness, & objectivity) would be most welcome.)
This reminds me of the condo collapse problem in Florida. They chose to build despite known hazards, and when the bill comes, they want me to pay for it.
Because we've already lived here for over 60 years and not died That's why we can think it's fine We have build houses that are strong enough just like people who live in the ocean They could drown right but they live there So it's all about the risk and nobody's died remember nobody's died say that 10 times maybe you'll understand why we live here it was cheap to move in here My husband built the house for 30k how about you can't judge from the outside and you can't judge from the new builds A lot of time has passed
You get into the problem north of LA up HWY 1 which is miles and miles, both inland and along the coast of the fairly young unlaminated bedrock along sharply cut valleys in a seismically active area, past history of volcanism, and extremely variable year-on-year rainfall due to the ENSO. Last year was an El Niño event registering a peak intensity at 2+, 2.5 being the up limit of recording. In Ventura they had extensive damage from waves. This is what we see above ground. What we don’t see below ground is the change in hydrological pressure in cracks and fissures that can be intensified by the channeling of water under ground. Essentially natures water hammer. Again, rising sea levels, increased intensity El Niño events, greater fluctuation of rainfall as predicted by climate change, and an evolving knowledge of the geological history of the escarpment is the answer to the question. The area is an active landslide area, it may not be active in a given year at a single point, but motion at other points build the risk that it will be active in future years and this is un preventable. So the question is this relatively good or bad. Again the whole issue of conservation of resources and best long term building practices, coming from a person who work involves repairing the mistakes of home builders and contractors, is bewildering. I cannot even fathom what is relatively good or bad building practice in California. But for someone buying a home, any home, anywhere in the US . . . Caveot emptor. Cosmetically anyone can polish a turd. Look at the engineering reports, look at the maintenance reports if available. I just finished some work on a house in which, a decade or so ago the electrical conduit to the service panel subsided with the existing ground disconnecting the service. The electricians who did the work did not even remove the old conduit and wire, this is SOP for contractors in Houston and so you have a buried “birds nests” of cable, phone, internet, electrical, landscaping running all over the place. The conduit was replaced and the new conduit also disconnected at the service panel, fortunately the contractor created a loop of wire inside the service panel. So this is not in California, not in a seismically active zone. What happened here. In Houston much of the land is flat, the topsoil is dirt to trinity clay overlying gumbo which successively deorganifies with depth. Good building practices is that you dig down to this deorganified clay, then buildup with a clay that has high compaction >97%. The conduit should also similar go into this deep clay, but the code requires only it be below 16” (18” deep + 2” of conduit) and this is what is practiced “on a good day”. So what happens is the clay away from the house contracts due to deorganification and drying the conduit sinks and it separates from the panel. If a drought is bad enough tree roots will remove water from the organified clay under the house and the slab will break. The problem with soil instability is not just in areas with landslides, soil instability can occur as a result of development,poor home construction techniques and excessive and un maintained landscaping (e.g. planting trees too large for the available root area they are being planted on). Details on construction are important and a fair number of homes here become valueless do to bad slab foundation and construction. This does not get the media coverage like landslides in California. I essentially can go through my neighborhood, look at the number of trees a yard has, and determine about when the house will be torn down. One of the signs concerning instability is fence post behavior. In soft unstable soils fence post will tend to sink, 3 to 4” per decade. Because the concrete mount for the posts deepen over time fence contractors won’t bother to dig them up, electing to mount new post right next to the old. As a result if you excavate the old posts what you see is a stair-step to the underworld in old concrete tops. This sinking virtually insures the fence will fail in 10 to 15 years because as the concrete sinks its overtopped with compost, the acids in the compost don’t care about PT of wood and they rot the bottom of the post out and the next big storm the fence blows over. Prior to failure though as the post sinks it begins to tilt variably as the bottom of the post seeks the path of least resistance. The problem in this country really is we don’t have routinely and uniform enforced standards for residential contractors, and the permitting process is broken. As a consequence contractors can get away with work that won’t last a decade. Home builders are building houses, a fair number of which won’t last 50 years without extensive monetary output for remedial maintenance.
That's in the Portuguese Bend area of the P.V. Peninsula (kind of the southern-most area, west of Point Fermin and east of Portuguese Point). I've lived in the Los Angeles area almost all my life (+50 years) and its had slides over-and-over-and-over, again and again and again. Sometimes the slides are just the road that goes around the Peninsula on the cliff top, sometimes its in the hills. Big geologic movements like these happen every 10-15 years. Anyone who buys a house in that area is just taking a big risk and asking for trouble.
Have you seen the video of that village in Norway that was built on glacial till? The whole hillside houses and all washed into the sea. Fortunately the householders were aware of the likelihood of that happening and everyone left beforehand. No fatalities.
That area in Norway was all holiday homes- the owners and local governments knew the risks and built small and cheap, knowing full well they were "enjoying the moment" as it were, and it would all go eventually. Places like Norway and I think also Iceland have taxes levied against all properties to pay into a landslide reclamation fund. They know the risks and plan accordingly.
It's built on an ancient landslide ... They dug out the toe of the slide to make a highway/road... Nails were in the coffin loooooong before this started moving quickly due to rain. No sympathy from me whatsoever
Casey, This is really enlightening, the property owners just wanted to exploit this land ,and why not, well, the reason why not is now apparent, in simple reality, either insurance will pay or they stand their loss, The lessons learned are, get the geology survey of where you propose to develop,
I said it someplace else but it seems I should have said it here. The developers made their money. They have been gone for decades. The people who own there now are just the unlucky ones left 'holding the bag'. Those houses have, likely been resold about every 10 years. Have you ever played musical chairs? The question now is how much political resolve can they muster to get public funds to save them?
Here's my "cost benefit analysis" (as an engineer having experience going through paying for a geologic survey to ensure the house I was buying wasn't on unconsolidated soil & rock): Due to the recent discovery of a +300 foot deep slip slide, It's not cost beneficial to pour more money or effort into this slow moving trainwreck. (How the hell do they maintain their plat maps???) But since these homeowners will continue in denial mode and demand to do additional remediations (at taxpayer expense), most of the initial cost and subsequent dewatering maintenance should be borne by the homeowners living there, as it should force some of their bone headed neighbors to refrain from exacerbating the situation (for example, a nearby homeowner in the area I bought that house channeled his rainwater onto his lawyer neighbor's property below him, causing severe erosion and earth movement)
Why should anyone but the land? Especially with tax monies. The land is worthless. Those who built and bought there knew and accepted the risks. It's all on them. Don't bail out rich fools with tax monies.
Not a favor of government bailout because this situation was litigated to force development in the landslide. Playing davil's advocate, buying the area and condemning it is a fixed cost. Mitigating the slide over time will likely be a perpetual cost .
You mentioned protentional drilling deep water mitigation wells. I was on an irrigation-well drilling crew near Stockton around 10 years ago during the drought. I don't know of the geology is the same at Palos Verdes as it is near Stockton but, if it is...Good luck! Our bit would get stuck several times a shift due to the different layers of material such as gravels one minute and dense clay the next, different layers would require a completely different drilling mud mixture. Each time the drill stuck we would have to trip-out of the hole, clean the bit with shovels and then trip back in.
Being longtime Californian, 78 years. I am appalled how people make stupid judgment calls and expect the rest of us in the state to pick up your mistakes and fix you because you make stupid choices. The stupid label comes from you knowing the geology of over thousands of years and still willing to play Russian roulette. If that was a flood zone and was prone to flood. Would you still build there? I know I would not. I AM TIRED OF BAILING OUT STUPID PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY PUSHED THE BUILDING ISSUE IN A SLIDE PRONE AREA. You made the choice now live with it.
Lots of places in California are prone to landslides, and that's why most homes aren't built in those places. I've lived in about a dozen different houses in California and none of them had an entity created that I had to pay fees to to help make sure the land under my house didn't slide into the ocean or a canyon.
I appreciate what your doing getting the army corps of engineers involved may help the reason I may is that they asked I believe back in the 1950s or early 60s would like what they think they can do FEMA spent over a ton of money in New Orleans after Katerina another thing I’m wondering is getting house insurance and bank loans I feel for the home owners no real solutions please keep the updates coming my interest comes from working in a open pit mine operation for 32 years and yes we two north wall slides back in 1999 and again about 2005 thank you Gary Gearhart
At 10:23 et seq. Whichever authority overturned the building moratorium should have been bonded to pay for all the properties already existing at the time of the overturning in the event that empirical evidence arises.
I wanted to buy a lot on a slope with a view here on Whidbey Island. The county said the area was unstable and prevented me from doing it. Since then it has slid. Some regulations are life savers.
47 homes * $5million per home = ~$250million. Or about 1/4 the remediation cost even factoring in the law suites that will follow. Seems like a no brainer to impose imminent domain, much as I hate the thought of it in principle. The City is on hook (partially at least) for setting the rules which were followed in good faith even if they were forced into it.
There can't be any lawsuits for the houses that got built because they all signed away that right. The biggest lawsuits in this area are mostly for builders remedy LLCs are all trying to buy up all the lots even now and they're suing for builders remedy They want to come in and build low income housing here like 17 story buildings so explain that on an active landslide That's their expectations it's used builders remedy here Go look at the lawsuits Go check them out they're already there
Subscribed! I 100% agree that there needs to be a comprehensive cost benefit analysis of all options. This could very well end like Centralia, Pennsylvania.
Thank you. The Millennium Tower seems like it is similar to the U.S. census: new information only comes out every 10 years! But seriously, the people involved with this building are doing their best to keep it out of the news and off TH-cam. I am still following the story and will do updates when merited.
When it is the whole slab going 100+m deep that is sliding, it is hard to imagine being able to stop that with only 1G$. Give the area another quake or flood triggering a slide, then much of the incomplete work will likely need to start over due to getting ripped apart.
Here in BC we have entire towns that were vacated because of landslide risks (Jordan River on Vancouver Island and Black Tusk Village near Whistler being prime examples) where the government decided it would be cheaper to buy out all the property. A billion dollars to *maybe* stabilize this situation? How much is that per affected property? Maybe it's time for eminent domain and a new state park.
Sounds like the fruits of deregulation, that ideological pillar of modern politics. Well, this is what comes of that. People living in flood zones or on top of impending landslides and being surprised when their house suddenly falls apart. Sucks for people who got in later and were not part of the initial legal action in '02.
How does deregulation have anything to do with this? CA realized it was unstable and had regulations against building there but the property owners sued and forced CA to allow them to build on the property. In this case CA did something right but was overruled by the courts. Blame it on the courts not deregulation.
@@kennethstaszak9990 Deregulation has been a running theme for decades now, and thinking judges are above political trends or notions of what is currently normal and accepted is naive. Mistrusting any and all government regulation is very fashionable at the moment, in all strata of society.
The credibility of politicians and their apparent influence on our judicial system is probably prevalent in this case! Their quest for building population, and thus taxes for their area was more important in their mind then safety or the effects of landslides would possibly be!
@@CaseyJones-Engineer Much of our society has slowly entered into a belief zone that tells them that in order to be valued you have to be right. Over many decades of traveling on this planet I have discovered that being “right” is not at all what I once thought it to be. Instead of being “right” what I have discovered to be massively powerful is clarity. Once clarity is brought into any event where humans are fighting against one another, a shift into collective Genius occurs. When it happens, we often call it magic, but it is actually a very normal part of human interaction. At our core we seek oneness, connection and creativity. While we believe and behave as though we are separate the “magic” or Genius cannot emerge. At the point someone comes along who has no interest in being “right” but who, at their core, Yearns for clarity, the power of collective Genius appears. When it’s happening, it doesn’t seem like magic, and it actually often gets attacked as useless fantasy machinations. But when clarity emerges, most if not all who are stakeholders, feel the power of and Genius that appers in clarity. Yep…I love clarity!
As a southern Californian, I have always wondered why wealthy people were willing to live on these unstable cliff areas. If they wanted to take the risk, fine. But the end up accepting taxpayer money to compensate their loss when the inevitable happens. When I buy a house, I consider the possibilities of floods and landslides.
IMO, It’s pretty much too late for this area, and well beyond any ROI for remediation. Dewatering may have delayed water penetration, but bentonite is hydrophilic up to it’s saturation point, so you can put all the wells in you want, but the water that’s in there is not coming back out. I’ve set enough environmental monitoring wells with bentonite to know it loves water and has a very high lubricity…. Think of holding a bar of wet soap. That slide is in mother nature’s hand now.
Would the person who commented about color balance tools please repost their comment? I saw it briefly on my phone but before I could study it further it disappeared.
Yea, you are looking a bit 'cool' in this vid.
Wasn't me, but I use Davinci Resolve for editing. I think most of the high end editors call it color grading. If it's the same throughout the video, it's generally very easy to adjust hue and saturation. With the most popular tools, there are a ton of TH-cam videos for how to do just about anything. I don't even bother going into the documentation anymore.
@@major__kong Thank you. This video was off a little bit on the colors because I forgot to turn on my LED backlight.
@@CaseyJones-Engineer do I hold on the super chat till a re-upload happens, or are you going to let the color thing I totally missed slide?
@@Zarcondeegrissom Honestly I'm not sure could you just repost your comment without the pic?
This area should have been condemned 100 years ago and relegated to that of a nature preserve. The same should be done today, except we have an army of politicians here in California and across the country with priorities that support their reelection over that of fiscal responsibility and public safety. There is no engineering answer to the ongoing slide condition that exists here as well as other areas along the Pacific Ocean coast.
I think some hard truths need to be spoken about this situation now. Many of these people in the impacted area are being given false hope, combined with their denial of the situation makes staying there long term very problematic. The activation of this deeper, ancient slide is a game changer.
It was farmland before WWII.
The Japanese farmers were interred and most lost their land.
@@CaseyJones-EngineerYeah those decisions would have been better if they'd turned the area into a big park in the early 60s. I can't imagine that with all the well logs in the area, the 60' thickness and the dip of the unit wasn't known after the Portuguese Tuff started to slide in the late 50s. But unfortunately, bad decisions like this are how laws finally get written.
The settlement in the 60s should have lead to condemnation. Everyone screwed up in the 60 years since @@CaseyJones-Engineer
@@patmcbride9853 Reparations for Internment coming. Then again, Japanese aren't spoiled and don't sulk
I like it when you and other TH-camrs make the date explicit in the video. It is often a very important piece of information.
Thank you. I will endeavor to do this more often on stories that are news worthy or rapidly changing.
@@CaseyJones-EngineerYes, thank you.
I always look for the date on all TH-cam videos!!!
@@CaseyJones-Engineer Definitely helpful for these rapidly changing situations like the Palos Verdes landslide complex.
hu ???
Bizarre - people living in a place that 'only' moves 1 foot a year?? And were building homes for decades in a place that moved 40-50 feet per year? And they expect taxpayers to bail these very very wealthy folks out? The place needs to be condemned and turned into open space and just let nature do what it's been doing for at least 500,000 years.
It's always the rich folk taking money from the normal people
then the normal people blame the government and vote in people who claim they will help them while only helping the rich folks abuse the rest even more (example from my country but seems to be simmilar everywhere)
very surprising how many people vote against their own self-interest
my fate in humanity has been long gone
The land owners who sued in order to build share a large measure of responsibility in this matter. When land is bought on speculation, there is an inherent need to thoroughly investigate viability beforehand. If not, this would be likened to buying a pig in a poke. If you don't open the poke(bag), you deserve what you get. Do your due diligence. As always, I enjoyed your presentation.
P.s. For those who may have a problem picturing the challenge by clay, when dry, it is unfired ceramic, when wet, it is mud, closely resembling grease. Which would they prefer to stand on?
Unfortunately since time passes the land owners and developers have sold off the land to the current property owners, and with that the built in problems. If a lot of time has passed then the original seller and developer may have left this realm so there's nothing but ghosts to try to milk the money from.
@@ehsnils any of it would have been disclosed when the homes were bought, especially considering there's an entity that can asses fees on the owners to help make sure the slide doesn't slide anymore.
@@ehsnils Yes, the risks taken before 1980 have long since been laundered by subsequent sales. If the "original sinner" is most responsible then you're absolutely right about ghost milk. Mostly I blame humans for thinking they'll defy Mother Nature when it comes to water, gravity, tectonics, weather. Nature wins every time.
This area has one of the highest property values in California. I have some friends who are living in the area now.
They are responding alone, that is not the issue at hand the city wants that road stabilized. What do they do for New Orleans where people do die.. spend 💰
The Onion Creek area in Austin Texas had the same situation, relative to experts stating that no housing should be built. But a developer sued the city to be allowed to build and prevailed. 30yrs later (long after the developer had taken the money and run), the area had flooded so many times that the city bought the owners out based on the repeated costs and risks of emergency services to rescue the residents during flood events. All tax dollars spent from that lawsuit. The city knew the issue, but a judge apparently knew better.
how much did the judge gain from ruling in favor of the developers, I wonder?
Happens in Houston, too. All those houses built INSIDE Addicks Reservoir.
@@Premier-Media-Group citizens rejoiced because the gubberment don't decide where they want to live it's the land of the free heeyaa
10:51 In Summary, the land owners sued and retained the right to develop their land. The land owners ultimately built homes and now the land owners want public financial assistance to assure their homes retain value. The full cost of remediation should fall upon the land owners. Judging by the historical data going back 50+ years EVERYONE involved with the development, sale and purchase KNEW the ground was landslide in progress. They gambled and lost!
Precisely.
Dumping public funds into this is not only inethical is is a foolish waste . Nature will win this battle eventually.
If people even back then sued to build against better advice, I have a hard time seeing merit in any calls for public resources. Even stabilizing the whole thing (that's a lot of dirt to drain or retain) will do little good as the sea keeps eating at the toe of the slide. A billion dollars buys a lot of homes even in California, and the public should not be responsible for spending more than that in terms of dollars/house for lots built in a known risk area - if you want to spend public money, then use it to build other homes somewhere else for less money.
Yeah, even if the addition of new homes isn't causally linked to the new sliding activity the state/municipality has to have some answer for not being liable for the risky decisions of private citizens either by constraining those decisions as they had before or being able to separate themselves from liability for negative consequences. Even if the bulk of California poses some slide risk it's clear that this area in particular was considered even more risky given how far back those studies and remediations go. Honestly this might be an interesting case for Casey and Legal Eagle or some other law educated youtuber to discuss whether the judge was wrong legally and what sort of laws could be drafted that could permit the judge to rule differently ( presuming the judge didn't just screw up ).
My thought too. No public funds should be used. The city and state should send a letter that says, "sucks to be you."
Most of the homes were built before the slide.. very few were built after
@@drunvert As you heard in the video - the slide began many thousands of years ago and has been there and ongoing ever since. And prior generations were well aware that it is, in fact, a slide.
@@jmazoso The people there built their houses for private benefit, so the associated cost should be private, too. If it were public housing or nonprofit (including property value)... then we could talk about using public funding for any restoration. But even in that case, that money seems better spent elsewhere. There's a lot of dirt on the move and spending a billion or three ain't gonna stop it.
So, this geology has been understood for a very long time. With only a little research anyone would have known that buying a house on this sand was an unwise thing to do.
the landslide are is marked out in the 1930's
this place has been stable for a long time, there's been two major subsidence events in the past, decades apart. it seems the dryness(lack of moisture for plant roots) and the increased tectonic movements recently is triggering something. i wonder if the previous two events were caused by similar conditions.
Confusion says " Man who build house on moving sand,very stupid"
"Man who build house on bedrock,very wise"😂
City issued building permits and declared recent building in Portuguese Bend safe
Yes, but have you seen the views??? 🧑🏻🍳 💋
😘😘😘😘😘😘😘
In a Geologic timeline that soil really is a fluid .. but slower than molasses… and I’m doubtful if any sane geologist would move into this area..
Most of us who got our degrees in the LA area did a field trip there & for the rest of us it did get into our textbooks as a classic no-no for building.
don't forget about swelling clay's! that and landslide are my first concerns.
@@JackMcGuire-em7nt The bentonite layer swells up to 30 times it's dry volume when wet.
@@JackMcGuire-em7nt The wet bentonite is used as a drilling fluid because of it's lubricant properties.
@@cagal1066 even my geology teacher said it was bad.
Thank you for the updates. They are so helpful! 😎
I always appreciate discussing Southern California Geology and watching presentations such as yours.
I'm not a professional Geologist, nor am I qualified to make critiques or criticisms regarding your presentation.
With that said, I can say, I'm a sixth Generation Californian. The Bell family arrived in the 1840s, so the Bell
family has been around for a while. The rule of thumb was, don't live near the beach nor the mountains.
This advice had been handed down though multiple generations of family.
I picked a valley in which to buy my house and raise a family. Sadly, our concern is liquefaction.
California is a very attractive state in which to live.... this State has everything you would want... and a bunch
of stuff, you don't.
Mark Bell
Thank you for your comments. I think the willingness for people to put up with some many issues to live there is a testament to the wonderful climate in much of California.
Six generations and none were smart enough to leave California. Six generations of Democrats voting for what you deserve.
Clarification: the cities have nothing any sane person would want, the rural areas are pretty good (except for the parts overrun by the drug dealers).
@@RS-ls7mm Cope, troll!
For Whom the Bell Tolls 🙂
It's been a long time since California had a big quake. That big lag between quakes allows complacency to sneak back in. They build where they shouldn't and things they shouldn't (Millennium Tower).
Define long time and what you mean by big quake.
California had a 6.0 eargtquake a few years ago.
And Los Angeles had a minor tremor in January 1994. Some people call it the Northridge Earthquake. Only 6.7
We had an earthquake today…
@@ws1825 4.7 according to USGS. It wasn't "big", but I wonder how it will affect the landslide movement.
Earthquakes do not seem to adjust our landslide at all . Long Beach has liquefaction that is not here. The constant settling seems to make us immune, no dust even rises after quakes. Our homes with alternate foundation ride over the force does transfer into our structure..
@@tuvelat7302it doesn't our setting seems to prepare our land our steel foundation do not transfer loads to our structure.
As someone who lives just outside of the current slide boundary, I’d just like to offer my sincerest thanks and appreciation for this video. I’ve been trying to piece together this story for months and you’ve manage to summarize all of our technical, political and even ethical problems (and even some solutions) in a 25 minute easy watch. Bravo! You recommended an outside reviewer for this landslide and mitigation efforts…well I think you might have just thrown your hat into the ring. Thank you again for your hard work!
Thanks so much, I appreciate it! This situation definitely has many facets.
I've read a lot about this and really appreciate all the information you have reviewed and shared. It's a fascinating, if sad, situation. When I was in college, my mother and stepfather moved to Southern California. I recall driving through this beautiful peninsula as they evaluated areas in which they might live. My stepfather was an engineer who had lived part of his life in San Francisco, and although he'd dreamed of living on the ocean, he was very concerned, in general, about the stability of such land.
The original Portuguese Bend slide was actually determined to have been caused by septic systems in the 150 homes that were located in the slide area. The septic drainage saturated the bentonite layer 167 feet below the surface if I recall the depth correctly. The road extension at the top of the hill brought heavy equipment and trucks of fill which were applied to the head of the slide. They were running rollers to compress soil and then the slide began just down slope from the road construction. But it was the trapped water that caused 140 houses to be lost... Emergency responders were roped up to vehicles parked just off the slide area, they traversed moving ground in the dark to rescue people from homes before they slid off into the ocean.
In the 90's I worked for a marine research company doing shallow surface coring (0-3m) and suspended sediment collection for the ACoE (between Redondo and San Pedro, with a focus on PV/PB/AC) who seems to be one of the agencies involved in trying to determine a find a short-term solution to the problem. Even then, the movement was amplified in wet years and was also tied to residential watering of yards. Given the photo you showed from the 30's, it is obvious older slides (no called out in the photo) are further upslope. Also, there are the slides (not shown in your map) that occur all the way down to Whites Point. When we look at the 22-23 rain year, it was in the top 10% and spread across many many months. Even the 23-24 year saw unseasonal rainfall spread across the period from Nov-June. I also will add, for my 60+ years, no governor has addressed the problem, so blaming GN seem a bit petty, especially given, at times, these rates of movement have been seen in the last 60 years... No one wants to buy out the ALL the owners and turn it into a park (IMO the real solution, like what we see in SLO/Morro Bay).
Turning the area into a nature preserve by
giving the 30 homeowners fair market value for their homes via eminent domain seems the most cost effective logical option.
I think there is a good chance that will happen once they realize that the low slide is unstoppable.
Market value? You mean $1 ??? Homes there have zero value
@mibz1117 A nature preserve has some value. In theory, the town should sue the builder who gave fraudulent data regarding the feasibility of the development.
If they just let it play out and red tag the homes, the homeowners won’t get anything. They have turned off the electricity and gas. Soon they will also turn off water and sewer then it will be red tagged.
I agree. Sooner rather than later. These people must go now.
Happens all over the US. Developers stomp their feet to get their way, threaten to sue the city or county, then 30 years later the homeowner's house is destroyed by nature. Developers should be required to post bonds for future mistakes in these areas to help pay for the mess.
We simply cant afford to pay to fix landslides with public funds. Special insurance was available to these homeowners it was their responsibility to learn about it and choice as to whether or not to purchase it.
"choose"
I am so grateful you are investigating and reporting on this. Although I’m in Montana now I spent my 20s and 30s in Torrance and am very interested in this issue. News media just can’t do this situation justice. So thank you‼️
Thank you so much! I'm planning regular video updates as events continue to unfold.
Thanks for the update. Your final thoughts are exactly what this issue needs. Independent experts who do not and have not had a stake in the problem. Well done as usual.
17:36 -- Why is the city spending millions to rescue private property that should never have developed? If you build a house on a beach and a hurricane hits it, you bear the loss. If you build a house on a flood plain and a flood occurs, you bear the loss.
I would say the city is trying to protect the life of those idiots.
No, if you build a house on Malibu Beach and a ocean storm wipes it out, then a brush firee sweeps across your property and after the rainy season, your lot is covered in mud, taxpayers pay for your loss because your insurance is assigned risk.
How much does New Orleans spend on those dykes to keep the ocean from flowing in and killing people When a hurricane comes they spend a little bit of money there right and people are dying So why did they ever build there in the first place slap my head
@@bigx9963😊 well you would be wrong They are trying to keep the road open to get taxes They get a lot of taxes from the people driving by when they come in and spend spend spend they have to keep terranea open and Trump's golf course open That's why they want to spend it's not the little people so stop saying we're idiots that is not nice it's not respectful I hope you find a way to find some respect and kindness in your heart today
@@1225KPHLast slides are not considered a disaster They are not covered by the same insurance as fire or storm damage
I lived on Sweetbay Rd. Portuguese Bend from 1967-1973 and the end of Peppertree Rd had already slid before we moved there! Absolutely beautiful place to live but we knew the danger back then!
Yeah soooo beautiful as you slide into the ocean
@@OffendingTheOffendable Yes it was and still is beautiful!
And you lived and your home is still there fine..
@@OffendingTheOffendableso I will die before then and I can move my home back up . House moving is a thing .. look it up we do that here we are.. can do people.. what is in your mirror 🪞?
@@madeleinemcjones652 Our old home is still there!
What baffles me is that six homes are for sale on that landslide! All over $1.4M.😮
I just looked. Eight are for sale and two are for rent, so ten total on the market. It’s ridiculous.
A clear example of what P.T Barnum called "A sucker born every minute".
What insurance company would insure those houses?
Good luck getting financing.
What’s so baffling about selling your house? U can list for whatever u want, doesn’t mean they will get that number. What’s the other option, not selling? They want out and somebody might take a chance.
Hell, no. Everybody is always known that that area is slide prone. Don’t know why they ever allowed anyone to build homes there.
Thank you for the research and analysis.
Thank you so much I appreciate it!!
It seems a good quake from the Inglewood fault would nullify any attempts to shore up the damage already done and possibly exacerbate the situation. That fault is relatively active. I live pretty much on top of it and have experienced its hissy fits.
After listening to this presentation I wish I had taken a class in Geology in College. Very Good for a lay person.
7:03 - Yikes!!! 50 feet a year is an incredible amount.
1 foot a year makes your house a boat in geologic terms. 50 makes it the log flume ride at Disneyland.
Excellent report. This is an impossible problem which will be complicated by many lawsuits. Even a billion dollars will not provide a permanent solution. They are years from a significant improvement and by then the damage will be extensive. This is like adding water to a bucket with a hole in the bottom..
What bottom?
There ain't no bottom in that bucket.😂
Santa Barbara and the adjacent community just south, Montecito, are built almost entirely on debris flow deposits. Tectonic uplift in the area is extreme, second only to the Himalaya as I understand.
From my perspective as a foreigner this is a classic American situation.
City tries to control development on a known landslide area.
Landowners sue
“You can’t tell me what I can or cannot do on my land”.
Judge overrules city.
Suckers buy the lots
Houses sliding down the hill with residents sitting on the roof hollering’freedom’
I see this a lot in u.s.
Weird zoning situations.
Good summation but you left out the final chapter. Landowners sue the city/county for allowing them to build on a known landslide area.
Cliff Notes version.
Then: "Let us build homes on compromised land!"
Now: "Why did you let us build homes on compromised land?!"
And the as an American I look at the enlightened UK. People post a naughty line on social media they get prison. MEANWHILE a group of Muslims chant DEATH TO THE INFIDELS and police say that is free speech.
And then of course there is France which hosted the Olympics. Lets make the swimmers swim in a river full of SEWAGE. Only in Europe.
@@MikeNaples It reminds me of people who sue motorcycle manufactures after they crash and blame them for making such a powerful machine.
Truly insightful.
Add this as another chapter to John McPhee's book, The Control of Nature. The continued hubris of humans never ceases to amaze me. Good luck, Palos Verdes.
I live in Norfolk Va. we have the same problems from here to Ocracoke NC. people were permited to build to the dune line and in our city they were at first fine with it because these structures were assessed at high rates and increased tax base. Then over the 45 years I've lived here we've have tropical storms and Nor Easters that have eaten away the beaches and dunes. We have one large area, Willoughy (by the Hampton Roads Tunnel I 64) that was created by a hurricane in the 1700s and is basically a barrier island and over the years some homes have had the dunes actually migrate into their homes and they've illegally moved the sand which then weakens the "protection" from the next storm and they are now demanding that the city spend millions for beach replenishment, but other taxpayers revolt over this issue becsuse these same residents fence off "THEIR " beach and chase the public away when they attempt to use it, even as they demand TAX dollars to fix the problem. the OBX has a different issue, the Graveyard of the Atlantic now claims more beach homes than ships, and owners, who were able to charge $3000 a week renting these beach homes abandon them as overwash destroys their septic fields, damages driveways, water lines etc. and makes them un rentable, the NPS which owns the beach gets ignored when these landlords who seem to live "up north" become ghosts when the NPS attempts to force them to demolish these dangerous structures, which eventually fall into the ocean in pieces, which is where it because a real problem, As tides carry this dangerous debris up to 10 miles up and down the beach, and requires the NPS to stop anyone from going on the beach, much less the water until they hire contractors to find and remove debris loaded with rusty nails, deck screws, broken glass, furntiture and house wares and other sharp edged detris that can hurt or kill others who paid $3000 a week to enjoy the beach, which now their renter's cannot. Meanwhile taxpayers get stuck with the bill of removing these dangerous houses and the investors hire lawyers and fight being charged in court or hide behind LLCs that they file as bankrupt and thus have no $$$ to pay. These are why we inland tax payers have no sympathy for beach dwellers and get a satisfaction when their homes fall into the sea. All I write here can be researched by going on newspaper, TV, or other local websites to fact check.
I have friends who live down the street to the left of the house you show on Dauntless Dr. They’re fine and not impacted (yet). That area has always had sliding since my family moved to RPV in 1963. NOT in a slide risk area thankfully. Thank you for this information!
By the way, it’s Rancho Palos Verdes, not Ranchos…
This has been sliding actively since the 1950s I remember going with my boss rich Martin PE to a council meeting in the 1980s about this , I recall most of the argument was about noisy feral peacocks and the slide was put off until the next meeting, I remember rich doing the forehead slap in frustration, he was a good Geotechnical engineer and a great boss RIP rich
They didn’t want to “deal”.
Oh my god. I was at that meeting as an 11 year old kid with my parents who were there to complain about the peacocks and didn't know about the unstable ground because the realtor didn't say anything about it.... Holy crap. Small world.
It is important to mention that the last two years had very high rain totals. This water gets into the subsurface and if there are weak layers of clayey material it causes slope failures. Thanks for the update and for acknowledging that government has and is involved in dealing with this problem.
Construction and road building accelerated movement of the current 160 ft deep slide. What activated the older, deeper slide remains to be demonstrated but if only a couple of really rainy seasons does this, this land will be in the ocean sooner than later.
I think the rain intensity can be more of a factor than rain totals, but yeah. Plus, you said clayey, which just happens to be today's magic word!
Drove the area multiple times in the early 1990's, I thought it unstable then. Appreciate you focusing on not only the situation now but what should be next steps! Thank You!
You've explained a lot. Having lived most of my life in California I really appreciate the explanation of the root causes of the RPV slide. Good work.
Excellent video, thanks for putting it out there.
Glad you enjoyed it!
If I heard correctly, if the cost of possible remediation is upwards of a billion taxpayers dollars and there is no guarantee that the remediation will work for the next 50 years or so would it not be cheaper and safer to simply use that money to force buyouts of the homes and property in the area? Or, if not possible to force people out then buy out those willing to leave and then tell those who refused that they are on their own.
Yes, a buy- out would would be best long term solution...but it's irritating that homes were built in such a geologically unstable area
No bailout for the rich or anyone. There are risks everywhere. That's why insurance is necessary. It's mandatory and expensive in many locations.
There's universal coastline erosion. Are taxpayers expected to foot the bill for the rich who can afford and choose ocean front homes? Not this taxpayer. Not the politicians I'll vote for.
I love your videos. They are very professional and educational. I am certainly not a geologist but when I first saw one of your videos I subbed. Thank you for sharing your insight and wisdom. Your numbers are growing. Please keep up the great work.
Wow, thank you!
@@CaseyJones-Engineer 👌👌👌
Thanks for the detailed research on this topic and the high quality presentation. The new activation of the deeper slip surface is a major change to the situation and your explanation is excellent. The surface water mitigation has to be done quickly as we have only a month or three before the rainy season starts in Southern California.
No. This has been known for 70 years. It is baloney that they did not recognize the risk.
Thanks. I have many friends who live in that area. I used to live in Long Beach. Such a mess but definitely predictable. Maybe the great California severance will be more of a gradual slide into the ocean.
I enjoy these videos and was wondering how surveying/property rights are affected with these types of landslides. Meaning, if house A slides downhill 50' and is now on owner's B property (by GPS coordinates), does owner A still own the house?
Thanks for your reviews, they are great.
Thank you!
Thanks for all the good info and back up data sources. Learning that the subsurface is bentonite tells me that there are no cost effective solutions. You might mention the low hydraulic conductivity of bentonite and how that helps create the low strength soaked soils and helps maintain that low strength condition longer. Now this is all bad news for the static condition - but isn't this also a prime candidate for a liquefaction zone during an earthquake? With all the cards stacked against them isn't this a case of get out while you can because it's only going to get worse.
The bentonite is not weak, but the contact areas with the bentonite are going to be slide prone because wet bentonite is almost as slick as grease so the layers resting on the bentonite move quite easily. All it takes is a few millimeters of bentonite and you have a slip zone in otherwise normal soil.
Thanks!
Thank you so much!!!
@@CaseyJones-Engineer you are welcome Casey. You do a great job.
@@jaymacpherson8167 Thank you so much. If there are any particular topics of interest that you would like to see me cover than I am not already, please let me know.
Excellent presentation and recommendations
Something to keep in mind is that the population of Rancho Palos Verdes is over 40,000. This represents more than 15,000 households with an average of 3 people per household. Most of Rancho Palos Verdes is not sliding into the ocean. The median price of houses in Rancho Palos Verdes is increasing steadily. Yes, some % of houses in Rancho Palos Verdes are in trouble but most are not.
Thanks for making that point.
Irony: As this part of RPV slides into the sea, the rest gets more valuable because it isn't as unstable.
The whole area will be affected hugely by this slide. Been there done that. Drop will be up to 75% depending on where the home is imho. This was an ancient. slide that reactivated who knows how far it will or can continue to. imho
The peacocks are far from wild. They were introduced and are an enormous source of contention between residents. Almost worth a video itself.
They’re all over the hill now… I enjoy them but my neighbor doesn’t.
Peacocks are beautiful birds, but they bring a lot of bird excrement.
Lucky Baldwin imported them to PV Baldwin Hills, Arcadia and Chatsworth back in the 20’s and 30’s from Italy
@@dennychaput4689Oh wow, did not know that. Fun. Thank you!
@dennychaput4689 I believe Lucky Baldwin imported the peacocks from India. It was most likely Baldwin's daughter who supplied peacocks to Palos Verdes Peninsula developer Frank Vanderlip, introducing the species to the area.
Side note: bentonite clay is used in Chemical warfare situations. I have used it during training in the US Army back in the early 1970 period it was in soft porosis bags used to blot up fresh chemical agent from skin very effective with blister agents if used right after exposure not as good on serious nerve agent contamination of a thickened mixture used by Soviet forces in Scud missiles due to the very high toxicity of that particular agent. Atropine injectors used fast enough can help with the application of the clay powder so the patient is not jerking around as much. In training with live nerve agent, the unit, I was with at that time carried 100 atropine injectors in a well-marked ammo can. One exposure in an earlier class needed 84 injectors to get the patient to the hot line. PAM-2C was then given using 2 1-liter bags intravenous application got the patient to the base hospital. I also sold for facial treatments and digestive applications.
Wow, now that is a story!
Thank you very much for the excellent update. I love this area and am very interested in see what is done to remediate or not. Great channel!!! ❤
Thank you, I appreciate it!
Instead of local, state and possibly federal taxpayer dollars being used to pay for temporary fixes, the local government should buy out the homeowners. In the end, this would be less expensive compared to continuing to pour millions more taxpayer dollars into fixes; inevitably nature will reclaim this land.
After the Christchurch Earthquake sequences, that risk assessment determined that much of the swamp land was unsuitable for buildings. They ended up removing housing whole areas. In wellington, some areas cannot be built on for exactly the same reason as this case…
Are there any land surveyors in the crowd? If your land moves horizontally, are you now encroached on someone else's property? I have heard that that physical monuments (i.e. property pins) supersede survey observations made from external control points. So if your property pins move along with your house, is that still your property?
Really?? It's an act of "god". God doesn't exist so not sure why they use that term
Geotech studies caveat: stability based on weather modeling for ‘normal’ rainfall.
California has had ‘atmospheric rivers’ of torrential rain. And that maybe on the increase.
Very insightful. Appreciate the details.
Thank you!
Great you are covering the context. There is also some good information in interviews with california insider released on yt recently
Thanks for checking it out.
DO NOT REBUILD THIS AREA. This site needs to be a wildlife refuge.
0:40 Janice Hahn, not "Jessica". (Old-timers know why you misspoke...)
Oops. I think I was a bit tired when I did this video. It is funny how the brain slips into old knowledge because I certainly remember the "other" Jessica!
Great overview. Going forward, no matter the geologic risk mitigation, the limiting factors will be how to provide:
- potable water
- natural gas
- electrical grid
- sewerage system
And the hardest part is the sewer system. They have already had major spills. Natural gas is easily deleted with propane or all electric. And off grid systems are out there for electric. Water is the second hardest to do but from what I have heard they are able to pump water but are shutting it off to avoid sewer spillage. People also forget the days of cisterns and water delivery unless you live on a Native reservation. Much of the four corners area do it all the time.
Wonderfully thorough & interesting - thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
@@CaseyJones-Engineer Refreshingly informative & enjoyable - thank you again! (Incidental: Should you ever have time, a discussion of the ease (or difficulty), these days, in coming up with an independent engineering review (notable for its excellence, thoroughness, & objectivity) would be most welcome.)
Any costs should come out of that judge’s assets.
Is he forcing the city to pay to fix it? The problem isn't letting people take a risk it's the government bailing them out afterwards.
This reminds me of the condo collapse problem in Florida. They chose to build despite known hazards, and when the bill comes, they want me to pay for it.
I don't get how any supposedly sane person would think that ground moving one foot per year is... nothing to worry about.
Because we've already lived here for over 60 years and not died That's why we can think it's fine We have build houses that are strong enough just like people who live in the ocean They could drown right but they live there So it's all about the risk and nobody's died remember nobody's died say that 10 times maybe you'll understand why we live here it was cheap to move in here My husband built the house for 30k how about you can't judge from the outside and you can't judge from the new builds A lot of time has passed
You get into the problem north of LA up HWY 1 which is miles and miles, both inland and along the coast of the fairly young unlaminated bedrock along sharply cut valleys in a seismically active area, past history of volcanism, and extremely variable year-on-year rainfall due to the ENSO.
Last year was an El Niño event registering a peak intensity at 2+, 2.5 being the up limit of recording. In Ventura they had extensive damage from waves. This is what we see above ground. What we don’t see below ground is the change in hydrological pressure in cracks and fissures that can be intensified by the channeling of water under ground. Essentially natures water hammer.
Again, rising sea levels, increased intensity El Niño events, greater fluctuation of rainfall as predicted by climate change, and an evolving knowledge of the geological history of the escarpment is the answer to the question. The area is an active landslide area, it may not be active in a given year at a single point, but motion at other points build the risk that it will be active in future years and this is un preventable.
So the question is this relatively good or bad. Again the whole issue of conservation of resources and best long term building practices, coming from a person who work involves repairing the mistakes of home builders and contractors, is bewildering. I cannot even fathom what is relatively good or bad building practice in California. But for someone buying a home, any home, anywhere in the US . . . Caveot emptor.
Cosmetically anyone can polish a turd. Look at the engineering reports, look at the maintenance reports if available.
I just finished some work on a house in which, a decade or so ago the electrical conduit to the service panel subsided with the existing ground disconnecting the service. The electricians who did the work did not even remove the old conduit and wire, this is SOP for contractors in Houston and so you have a buried “birds nests” of cable, phone, internet, electrical, landscaping running all over the place. The conduit was replaced and the new conduit also disconnected at the service panel, fortunately the contractor created a loop of wire inside the service panel.
So this is not in California, not in a seismically active zone. What happened here.
In Houston much of the land is flat, the topsoil is dirt to trinity clay overlying gumbo which successively deorganifies with depth. Good building practices is that you dig down to this deorganified clay, then buildup with a clay that has high compaction >97%. The conduit should also similar go into this deep clay, but the code requires only it be below 16” (18” deep + 2” of conduit) and this is what is practiced “on a good day”. So what happens is the clay away from the house contracts due to deorganification and drying the conduit sinks and it separates from the panel.
If a drought is bad enough tree roots will remove water from the organified clay under the house and the slab will break.
The problem with soil instability is not just in areas with landslides, soil instability can occur as a result of development,poor home construction techniques and excessive and un maintained landscaping (e.g. planting trees too large for the available root area they are being planted on). Details on construction are important and a fair number of homes here become valueless do to bad slab foundation and construction. This does not get the media coverage like landslides in California. I essentially can go through my neighborhood, look at the number of trees a yard has, and determine about when the house will be torn down.
One of the signs concerning instability is fence post behavior. In soft unstable soils fence post will tend to sink, 3 to 4” per decade. Because the concrete mount for the posts deepen over time fence contractors won’t bother to dig them up, electing to mount new post right next to the old. As a result if you excavate the old posts what you see is a stair-step to the underworld in old concrete tops. This sinking virtually insures the fence will fail in 10 to 15 years because as the concrete sinks its overtopped with compost, the acids in the compost don’t care about PT of wood and they rot the bottom of the post out and the next big storm the fence blows over. Prior to failure though as the post sinks it begins to tilt variably as the bottom of the post seeks the path of least resistance.
The problem in this country really is we don’t have routinely and uniform enforced standards for residential contractors, and the permitting process is broken. As a consequence contractors can get away with work that won’t last a decade. Home builders are building houses, a fair number of which won’t last 50 years without extensive monetary output for remedial maintenance.
TL;DR: California is hills of sand that are constantly becoming more flat due to water and shaking. Don't build there.
That's in the Portuguese Bend area of the P.V. Peninsula (kind of the southern-most area, west of Point Fermin and east of Portuguese Point). I've lived in the Los Angeles area almost all my life (+50 years) and its had slides over-and-over-and-over, again and again and again. Sometimes the slides are just the road that goes around the Peninsula on the cliff top, sometimes its in the hills. Big geologic movements like these happen every 10-15 years. Anyone who buys a house in that area is just taking a big risk and asking for trouble.
Parts of trumps golf course is built on ancient landslides
Have you seen the video of that village in Norway that was built on glacial till? The whole hillside houses and all washed into the sea. Fortunately the householders were aware of the likelihood of that happening and everyone left beforehand. No fatalities.
Reminds me of the towns in the Alps built under known slide areas. Like making yourself the resident of a dart board.
That area in Norway was all holiday homes- the owners and local governments knew the risks and built small and cheap, knowing full well they were "enjoying the moment" as it were, and it would all go eventually.
Places like Norway and I think also Iceland have taxes levied against all properties to pay into a landslide reclamation fund. They know the risks and plan accordingly.
It's built on an ancient landslide ... They dug out the toe of the slide to make a highway/road... Nails were in the coffin loooooong before this started moving quickly due to rain. No sympathy from me whatsoever
Can you say Dumb as a rock!!!
Casey, This is really enlightening, the property owners just wanted to exploit this land ,and why not, well, the reason why not is now apparent, in simple reality, either insurance will pay or they stand their loss, The lessons learned are, get the geology survey of where you propose to develop,
I said it someplace else but it seems I should have said it here. The developers made their money. They have been gone for decades. The people who own there now are just the unlucky ones left 'holding the bag'. Those houses have, likely been resold about every 10 years. Have you ever played musical chairs? The question now is how much political resolve can they muster to get public funds to save them?
Here's my "cost benefit analysis" (as an engineer having experience going through paying for a geologic survey to ensure the house I was buying wasn't on unconsolidated soil & rock):
Due to the recent discovery of a +300 foot deep slip slide, It's not cost beneficial to pour more money or effort into this slow moving trainwreck.
(How the hell do they maintain their plat maps???)
But since these homeowners will continue in denial mode and demand to do additional remediations (at taxpayer expense), most of the initial cost and subsequent dewatering maintenance should be borne by the homeowners living there, as it should force some of their bone headed neighbors to refrain from exacerbating the situation (for example, a nearby homeowner in the area I bought that house channeled his rainwater onto his lawyer neighbor's property below him, causing severe erosion and earth movement)
Yes, IMHO, a lost cause. Use that $1 billion to buy the homes in danger. Then demo the houses, turn land into a park.
Why should the taxpayer but out these people? If the area that was hit were inhabited by minorities, or poor people, no one would pay
it is throwing good money after bad money...
no , I don't go to a casino and gamble where I know that my chances of winning is close to zero...
Why should anyone but the land? Especially with tax monies. The land is worthless. Those who built and bought there knew and accepted the risks. It's all on them. Don't bail out rich fools with tax monies.
Not a favor of government bailout because this situation was litigated to force development in the landslide. Playing davil's advocate, buying the area and condemning it is a fixed cost. Mitigating the slide over time will likely be a perpetual cost .
You mentioned protentional drilling deep water mitigation wells. I was on an irrigation-well drilling crew near Stockton around 10 years ago during the drought. I don't know of the geology is the same at Palos Verdes as it is near Stockton but, if it is...Good luck! Our bit would get stuck several times a shift due to the different layers of material such as gravels one minute and dense clay the next, different layers would require a completely different drilling mud mixture. Each time the drill stuck we would have to trip-out of the hole, clean the bit with shovels and then trip back in.
Being longtime Californian, 78 years.
I am appalled how people make stupid judgment calls and expect the rest of us in the state to pick up your mistakes and fix you because you make stupid choices.
The stupid label comes from you knowing the geology of over thousands of years and still willing to play Russian roulette.
If that was a flood zone and was prone to flood. Would you still build there?
I know I would not.
I AM TIRED OF BAILING OUT STUPID PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY PUSHED THE BUILDING ISSUE IN A SLIDE PRONE AREA.
You made the choice now live with it.
Always fascinating, thank you
Glad you enjoyed it
Lots of places in California are prone to landslides, and that's why most homes aren't built in those places. I've lived in about a dozen different houses in California and none of them had an entity created that I had to pay fees to to help make sure the land under my house didn't slide into the ocean or a canyon.
I appreciate what your doing getting the army corps of engineers involved may help the reason I may is that they asked I believe back in the 1950s or early 60s would like what they think they can do FEMA spent over a ton of money in New Orleans after Katerina another thing I’m wondering is getting house insurance and bank loans I feel for the home owners no real solutions please keep the updates coming my interest comes from working in a open pit mine operation for 32 years and yes we two north wall slides back in 1999 and again about 2005 thank you Gary Gearhart
This is fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing the history of how decisions were made regarding building in this area.
Thank you!
Smart and well explained education on geotechnical engineering issues. Thanks!
Thank you, I appreciate it!
At 10:23 et seq. Whichever authority overturned the building moratorium should have been bonded to pay for all the properties already existing at the time of the overturning in the event that empirical evidence arises.
There's a sad Irony that Mr. Monks who fought the moratorium died two months after the decision.
I wanted to buy a lot on a slope with a view here on Whidbey Island. The county said the area was unstable and prevented me from doing it. Since then it has slid. Some regulations are life savers.
47 homes * $5million per home = ~$250million.
Or about 1/4 the remediation cost even factoring in the law suites that will follow.
Seems like a no brainer to impose imminent domain, much as I hate the thought of it in principle.
The City is on hook (partially at least) for setting the rules which were followed in good faith even if they were forced into it.
There can't be any lawsuits for the houses that got built because they all signed away that right. The biggest lawsuits in this area are mostly for builders remedy LLCs are all trying to buy up all the lots even now and they're suing for builders remedy They want to come in and build low income housing here like 17 story buildings so explain that on an active landslide That's their expectations it's used builders remedy here Go look at the lawsuits Go check them out they're already there
Love your videos. I so much prefer listening to an engineer than a "journalist".
Wow, thank you!
Also, the land movement has destroyed all but three of the dewatering Wells and now with no power the remaining three are not operating
Subscribed!
I 100% agree that there needs to be a comprehensive cost benefit analysis of all options. This could very well end like Centralia, Pennsylvania.
Great video! Thank you for making these!
Good job !
What’s the latest on the Millennium tower in S F?
Thank you. The Millennium Tower seems like it is similar to the U.S. census: new information only comes out every 10 years! But seriously, the people involved with this building are doing their best to keep it out of the news and off TH-cam. I am still following the story and will do updates when merited.
When it is the whole slab going 100+m deep that is sliding, it is hard to imagine being able to stop that with only 1G$. Give the area another quake or flood triggering a slide, then much of the incomplete work will likely need to start over due to getting ripped apart.
Here in BC we have entire towns that were vacated because of landslide risks (Jordan River on Vancouver Island and Black Tusk Village near Whistler being prime examples) where the government decided it would be cheaper to buy out all the property. A billion dollars to *maybe* stabilize this situation? How much is that per affected property? Maybe it's time for eminent domain and a new state park.
Sounds like the fruits of deregulation, that ideological pillar of modern politics. Well, this is what comes of that. People living in flood zones or on top of impending landslides and being surprised when their house suddenly falls apart. Sucks for people who got in later and were not part of the initial legal action in '02.
Expanding the tax base and donations from land developers.
How does deregulation have anything to do with this? CA realized it was unstable and had regulations against building there but the property owners sued and forced CA to allow them to build on the property. In this case CA did something right but was overruled by the courts. Blame it on the courts not deregulation.
@@kennethstaszak9990 Property owners = land developers = tax revenue = campaign donations
@@kennethstaszak9990 Deregulation has been a running theme for decades now, and thinking judges are above political trends or notions of what is currently normal and accepted is naive. Mistrusting any and all government regulation is very fashionable at the moment, in all strata of society.
some spray foam in the cracks and some flex seal should fix it up
But wait, there's more
Duct tape could be the solution!
The letter from Perry Ehlig caught my attention, as I was one of his engineering geology students at the time. By the way, it's Ehlig with a long E.
Thanks for the clarification.
The credibility of politicians and their apparent influence on our judicial system is probably prevalent in this case! Their quest for building population, and thus taxes for their area was more important in their mind then safety or the effects of landslides would possibly be!
Love clarity! Well done! Thank you.
Awesome, thank you!
@@CaseyJones-Engineer Much of our society has slowly entered into a belief zone that tells them that in order to be valued you have to be right. Over many decades of traveling on this planet I have discovered that being “right” is not at all what I once thought it to be. Instead of being “right” what I have discovered to be massively powerful is clarity. Once clarity is brought into any event where humans are fighting against one another, a shift into collective Genius occurs. When it happens, we often call it magic, but it is actually a very normal part of human interaction.
At our core we seek oneness, connection and creativity. While we believe and behave as though we are separate the “magic” or Genius cannot emerge. At the point someone comes along who has no interest in being “right” but who, at their core, Yearns for clarity, the power of collective Genius appears. When it’s happening, it doesn’t seem like magic, and it actually often gets attacked as useless fantasy machinations. But when clarity emerges, most if not all who are stakeholders, feel the power of and Genius that appers in clarity.
Yep…I love clarity!
As a southern Californian, I have always wondered why wealthy people were willing to live on these unstable cliff areas. If they wanted to take the risk, fine. But the end up accepting taxpayer money to compensate their loss when the inevitable happens. When I buy a house, I consider the possibilities of floods and landslides.
IMO, It’s pretty much too late for this area, and well beyond any ROI for remediation. Dewatering may have delayed water penetration, but bentonite is hydrophilic up to it’s saturation point, so you can put all the wells in you want, but the water that’s in there is not coming back out. I’ve set enough environmental monitoring wells with bentonite to know it loves water and has a very high lubricity…. Think of holding a bar of wet soap. That slide is in mother nature’s hand now.
So the slide area is a wet bar of soap without a rope
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