Portuguese Bend Landslide Update
NOW THE GOOD NEWS
On October 28, 2024 the City held a Town Hall meeting and provided updates on the landslide movement. According to the City, due to the efforts of pumping underground water into the ocean in combination with a dry summer:
Seaview and the Portuguese Bend Beach Club have STOPPED sliding.
The rest of the landslide has seen a 50% average reduction in land movement.
The city is working with utility companies to restore services to most of the affected residents. To date, 16 properties at the western edge of the Portuguese Bend Community Association had their power restored.
Efforts To Slow Down The Landslide
To date, the following has occurred:
10 Deep Dewatering Wells (DDWs) are operational. One more is planned:
DDWs 1-6 have been installed west of the Portuguese Bend Beach Club community (PBBC).
DDWs 7 & 8 have been installed near Palos Verdes Drive South- one east of Peppertree Drive and one near the entrance to the South Bay Archery Range.
DDWs 9 &10 have been installed along the coast of Abalone Cove.
These 10 DDWs extract over 850 gallons per minute or approximately 1.25 million gallons per day from the slide area.
Access is being developed for an additional DDW 11 in the Abalone Cove area.
Since the start of the DDW program on September 13, 2024; approximately 28 million gallons, or approximately 85 acre-feet, of water have been extracted from the toe of the Landslide Complex.
The Contractor will mobilize a drill rig this week to the Portuguese Bend Community Neighborhood to conduct additional test boreholes.
Deceleration of land movement in the areas of the installed DDWs continues to be observed, based on a sampling of points from GPS monitoring data. Four sample points in the Seaview and PBBC have shown no movement for two consecutive surveys (October 13, 2024 and October 20, 2024).
Winterization
To prepare for the potential winter rain:
Fissure filling of Altamira Canyon and nearby areas is ongoing and is expected to be completed by the end of this week. A protective pond liner will be installed at the base of the canyon starting next week.
Mobilization for fissure filling and lining of Kelvin, Portuguese, Ishibashi, Paintbrush, and Klondike canyons is expected to start next week.
Construction crews have mobilized to the Seaview Neighborhood and have begun winterization of the Exultant and Dauntless intersection, as well as sections of Admirable and Exultant Drives. The work is expected to be completed within the next two to three weeks.
It remains to be seen if these efforts will continue, with these same results, if we have another heavy rainy seasons.
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