Geologist Fears Major Slide at Asilomar

Geologist E.D. Michael, who specializes in engineering geology, hydrogeology and forensic geology, has warned City of Los Angeles officials about the increasing danger of a landslide at the Asilomar bluff, between Wynola Street and Puerto del Mar.   The 200-ft. slope, directly below Asilomar and located above the Palisades Bowl and Tahitian Terrace mobile home parks, is part of an historically active landslide area.   Michael, who is testifying as an expert witness in two lawsuits involving the Palisades Bowl, revisited the site on July 29 and August 1.   ’Although movement in the past has been intermittent, it now appears to have accelerated and is moving either frequently episodically or conceivably constantly,’ Michael wrote to the City in mid-August. ‘I believe a catastrophic movement of the slide mass must now be regarded as a serious risk.’   Michael, who was the principal geotechnical consultant for No Oil, Inc. (which stopped Occidental Petroleum’s efforts to drill in Pacific Palisades), wrote that even though movement historically has been gradual, ‘a sudden catastrophic movement, triggered either by an unusually high ground-water level rise or an earthquake, is certainly possible. If such movement were to occur, loss of life in the Park or serious injury or damage is to be expected.’   Michael, who said that he could not speak freely beyond what he wrote to the City because of his involvement in the Palisades Bowl lawsuits, told the Palisadian-Post: ‘Where public safety is concerned, I am ethically required to bring such a matter to the attention of the authorities, independent of my duty to any client, nor would attorneys in such cases have it otherwise.   ’It is a matter of public record that the slide began more than 50 years ago and has been moving episodically ever since,’ Michael continued. ‘I believe the risk has increased substantially based on the progress of the slide I have observed since October of last year.’   Norman Kulla, Councilman Bill Rosendahl’s Northern District Director, told the Post on August 18, ‘We met with City engineer Gary Lee Moore and our Bureau of Engineering is preparing a report. We are revisiting short-term and long-term strategies to address this hillside failure.’   Kulla noted that interim improvements could include surface repairs, filling holes and repaving to facilitate better runoff flow into storm drains.   Short-term fixes have been tried before. In April 2006 (‘Residents Insistent on Asilomar Repair Work’), the Post reported that the ocean-side lane of Asilomar had been closed off with sawhorses because of a 12-inch drop on that side of the street and a large sinkhole that had developed adjacent to the roadway.   At the time, residents believed the problem was more than a surface issue and urged the City to make long-term repairs. Asilomar resident Janice Old warned, ‘I think the way the City responds is, the disaster happens and then they respond.’ She predicted that ‘the City is going to be sued one way or another, if [the hillside] falls. Should it fall, it could be a killer slide.’   The City repaved the roadway and filled in the sinkhole in 2006, but five years later, the lane has again become impassable.   Last Thursday, Kulla explained that a long-term fix is complicated by the fact that the Asilomar hillside is jointly owned by the City of Los Angeles, Palisades Bowl and Tahitian Terrace.   ’It’s not only a tough problem geologically speaking,’ Kulla said. ‘The [land] failure is on both private and public property, so the responsibility and authority is divided. Moreover, California has regulatory authority over mobile homes, not the City, so we not only have the failing hillside split among differing owners, but differing regulators.’   In 2007, the three parties hired geology consulting firm Ninyo and Moore, which released a 212-page geotechnical evaluation.   The study noted that the Asilomar landslide (which is actually two slides’the first 60 feet deep and the second 85 feet and extending under the mobile home parks to the Pacific Ocean) had been evaluated by several consultants dating back to 1958. Prior remedial recommendations were made to the City in 1962, 1980 and 2001.   The Ninyo/Moore report added, ‘We recommend that the remedial repair consist of a combination of a pile supported retaining wall with tie-backs and buttress construction with a subsurface drainage system.’   According to City Bureau of Engineering spokesperson Michelle Vargas, ‘Estimated costs are anywhere from $18 million to $60 million and include permanent solutions for the whole Asilomar landslide area.’