Rancho Palos Verdes landslide has slowed with below average rainfall, but costs continue to mount

Below average rainfall this year has slowed the landslide in Ranchos Palos Verdes, but some parts are still moving roughly 4 inches a week, city officials reported Tuesday.

While that’s good news compared with the same period last year and in 2023, when the land was moving at twice the rate, the latest numbers highlight how the slow-moving disaster continues to ravage the area, forcing dozens of families to abandon their homes.

The city’s geologist, Mike Phipps, attributed the slowdown to the 6 inches of rain the peninsula has received since the beginning of the wet season in October, which is around 46% of the seasonal average. Phipps said the city’s dewatering wells, which pump water out of the ground, have also helped slow the land movement.

The heavy rains of 2023-24 led to land movement that slowly ripped apart buildings and homes, prompting gas and power shutoffs and constant repairs to the main thoroughfare through the landslide complex.

Responding to the destruction has been a huge drain on the city’s finances, costing roughly $17.5 million just on dewatering wells so far this fiscal year. On Tuesday, the City Council postponed a vote on about $1 million in additional spending on maintenance of the wells — which have so far extracted 200 million gallons of water — as well as a landslide drainage study. Instead, the council sent both items to the landslide committee for further deliberation.

“ Given what's been spent, that's almost like a drop in the bucket,” said Councilmember George Lewis. “But for this city, a million dollars is a ton of money. It is a ton of money for us.”

How we got here

Landslide response efforts have already eaten up a significant portion of the city’s budget. This fiscal year, officials are poised to spend almost the same amount of money it takes to run the entire city — around $39 million — just on the landslide area.

“The adopted budget for the Portuguese Bend landslide expenditures started at $4.6 million in June 2024,” said Vina Ramos, the city’s director of finance, during the meeting. “On October 1, where a majority of the expenditures [in the] additional budget were approved, we went from $4.6 [million] to $31.9 million.”

Funding loss

Compounding the problem is the fact that Rancho Palos Verdes is poised to lose out on federal dollars earmarked for the landslide after President Donald Trump announced that he was canceling a grant that helps communities prepare for natural disasters.

The city had been planning to receive around $2.3 million from the program, which Mayor David Bradley said would go toward installing hydraugers to pump water from the ground, dry out the layer of bentonite clay — which acts as a sort of slide when wet — and stabilize the land movement.

Supporting emergency resources for landslide

At Tuesday’s meeting, council members also approved sending a letter in support of AB 986, a bill that would make landslides eligible for state of emergency declarations in California, freeing up more outside resources.