Residents Discuss Landslide Fears With County Officials

Anxious residents of the tiny beachside community of La Conchita met with Ventura County officials at an outdoor meeting Saturday to discuss a recently discovered five-acre landslide that is threatening houses.

County geologist Jim Fisher said the 600-foot-high hillside is moving “very slowly” toward about eight houses on the north side of Vista del Rincon Road. The land is owned by La Conchita Ranch, county officials said.

Portions of the hillside have moved several inches since the landslide was discovered in June, Fisher said. But he said an earthquake or heavy rains could convert the brush-covered bluff into “an oozing mass of semi-consolidated mud and debris.”

About 85 La Conchita residents attended the meeting, many toting video cameras, tape recorders and note pads. County officials estimate the area is home to about 400 people. County Supervisor Maggie Kildee and officials from the Sheriff’s Department’s office of emergency services addressed the crowd.

“Should any of us leave? Are we in danger of losing our lives?” one resident asked in a written, anonymous question to officials.

Unable to quantify the risk of a major landslide, county officials said residents had to weigh the risks for themselves.

Fisher did say, however, that in the event of a major landslide, property damage was more likely than loss of life.

Some residents said their property values were sliding downward faster than the earth on the hillside.

George Caputo, whose house on Vista Del Rincon Road is about 100 feet from the foot of the slide, said he was concerned about property values “more than anything else.”

Mary Lou Olson’s house near the foot of the landslide was for sale before the earth movement was even discovered. Now, she despairs of ever selling it, she said.

The residents’ fears are magnified by the presence of an oil pipeline 10 inches in diameter that runs through the middle of the landslide.

A representative of Pacific Operators Offshore, which operates the pipeline, told residents the company plans within a week to install a system of gauges and a pressure-sensitive valve that would shut off the pipeline if the earth shifted significantly or if the pipe is ruptured. The company pumps crude oil for Chevron.

“You’re not going to have an oil-spill problem here, ladies and gentlemen, if we have a catastrophic landslide here,” said Charlie Capell, a member of the oil company’s board of directors. “You will have a landslide problem.”

County officials said they were notified of the landslide in late August by the manager of La Conchita Ranch, who had noticed cracks in an access road that runs along the hillside. The ranch has already installed several wells designed to drain ground water that is contributing to the slide and for use in monitoring the site.

“We’re concerned about it,” ranch manager David Orr said in an interview before the meeting. “There’s some potential earth movement.”