LAKEPORT, Calif. – County officials are investigating what led to sinking earth and a potential landslide situation that’s threatening several homes, along with water, sewer and storm drain systems at a Lakeport subdivision, with the Board of Supervisors to hear an emergency item on the matter Tuesday.
Several homes have had structural damage because of the conditions that have developed at Lakeside Heights, a cluster of mostly Tudor-style homes on a hilltop across the street from Sutter Lakeside Hospital in north Lakeport.
A visit to the site Monday revealed that a roughly 30-foot-wide path of earth sank, damaging the homes, one of which had a large split up its exterior wall, with the home appearing crooked when viewed from the front. Another home was pulling off of its foundation.
A roughly 5-foot-deep fracture in the ground surface has made its way under the homes and through several empty lots between the homes. An emergency pumping system also was set up at the site.
While a landslide hasn’t yet occurred, officials – and neighbors – are concerned that a slide could still happen.
The issue appears to be a broken water line, according to Kevin Ingram of the Lake County Administrative Office.
“There are two possible culprits out there,” said Ingram.
The first is a Special Districts-run public water line system, the second a 2-inch irrigation line that belongs to the Lakeside Heights Homeowners Association, the county reported.
Special Districts had a leak detection company at the scene on Monday in an attempt to figure out which line had saturated the ground and caused the earth to sink, Ingram said.
Earlier this month, Special District’s staff performed a video inspection of the public sewer line serving residents of Lakeside Heights, Special Districts Administrator Mark Dellinger reported Monday.
During the inspection, they discovered that a point repair that had been completed in December 2012 had failed, Dellinger said.
While performing site inspections to determine the cause of the point repair failure, Special Districts’ staff noticed significant surface ground cracking and structural damage to several homes, according to Dellinger’s report.
Due to the severity of the offset sewer pipe, Special Districts implemented an emergency temporary bypass in order to continue to provide sewer service to the community in Lakeside Heights, Dellinger said.
Last Thursday Special Districts alerted the Community Development Department to the structural damage and ground movement occurring at Lakeside Heights, according to Dellinger.
Ingram said several homes have been red-tagged on Lancaster Road, the main street that continues through the subdivision. One home was tagged on Friday and the other two on Monday.
Altogether, there is one duplex, a fourplex and a single family dwelling that have been affected, said Ingram. Only individual units with damage were tagged, so one unit in the fourplex did not get a red-tag. Some of the units also were unoccupied.
Community Development was reported to be notifying PG&E of the potential for further movement of the red-tagged homes.
In addition to the damage to the homes, Dellinger reported Monday that he’s very concerned about the potential loss of the public water and sewer systems that serve the Lakeside Heights community. There also may be damage to the storm drain system managed by the Lakeside Heights Property Owner’s Association.
On Monday a leak detection survey began, Dellinger said. Special Districts contracted with a firm to identify potential water leaks from the public water system and the Lakeside Heights Homeowners Association’s irrigation line.
Dellinger reported that on Monday his staff met with a geotechnical engineer at the subdivision to develop a scope and budget for geotechnical recommendations that will look at answering a number of questions, including how to relocate a 6-inch gravity sewer line in order both to serve the community and avoid further unstable ground conditions, determining if the public water system is at risk of failure to the slide, and if so, where it should be relocated.
They also worked to determine what homes affected by the landslide are uninhabitable and if there is a risk to Hill Road from further slide movement, Dellinger said.
Dellinger and his staff will take to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday an emergency item for contracting with the geotechnical firm RGH Consultants to complete the site analysis and answer the questions about the site and conditions.
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