Land movement has caused significant damage to Rancho Palos Verdes’ infrastructure in recent years — creating significant financial concerns for the city.

In response, city officials have sought financial and other assistance through various avenues on the county, state and federal levels. While they have received some relief through Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office and Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, it hasn’t been easy.

On the national level, for example, the Federal Emergency Management Agency recently eliminated the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, which could block the city from getting more than $16 million promised to help fund dewatering wells and other measures to stabilize land movement.

But at the state level, Assembly Bill 986 could offer some relief.

AB 986 would “make it explicit in the law that landslides, as well as pre-existing conditions exacerbated by climate change, be eligible under the California Emergency Services Act,” Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi said in a recent interview.

“The goal of this bill,” Muratsuchi said, “is to make sure that local governments like RPV can respond effectively to landslides by accessing county, state and federal disaster resources and support.”

Muratsuchi and state Sen. Ben Allen co-authored a similar version of the bill, Senate Bill 1461, last year — but it did not advance.

Muratsuchi said the “sticking point” with the California Office of Emergency Services, which is the lead state agency responsible for responding to natural disasters, over the past two years is defining a landslide as a “pre-existing condition.”

“The Palos Verdes land movement has been happening for decades, if not more years,” Muratsuchi said, “and they have been extremely frustratingly resistant to provide more support for what they call a ‘pre-existing condition.’”

Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor David Bradley and City Manager Ara Mihranian traveled to Sacramento, joining Muratsuchi, to testify in support of AB 986 on April 28.

At RPV’s Tuesday, May 6, City Council meeting, Bradley said he got a “little bit heated” and was “frustrated” when questioned why the land movement should be considered an emergency.

“When somebody tells you the Portuguese Band Greater Landslide Complex is not an emergency, it is really frustrating because it’s like, well, you want us to call you when we’re in the ocean?” Bradley said about the hearing. “That’s when you’ll say that it’s an emergency? So hopefully, we were able to get our point across in Sacramento and we’ll get some traction at the Legislature and this oversight will be remediated.”

The City Council on Tuesday also discussed the feasibility of spending nearly $1 million on maintaining and operating dewatering wells, which have been credited, along with a dryer winter, for slowing down the land movement.

Yet, despite ongoing budget concerns, the City Council did allocate another $500,000 toward redrilling several wells that have sheared or have that potential by June 30.

While RPV’s finances are strained, the city’s and resident’s efforts to mitigate the land movement with dewatering wells and other strategies continue. The the dewatering wells seem to have paid off, according to city geologist Mike Phipps.

The city only received 6.44 inches of rainfall this winter, 46% of the historical average, Phipps said Tuesday, which has been a “blessing.” But winterization efforts and the dewatering wells have made an impact, even though “movement rates are still significant for the landslide overall.”

The Abalone Cove slide area is still moving about a foot and a half a month, but the Portuguese Bend slide area is moving less than a foot a month and has “pretty much reached a steady state,” while Altamira and the Abalone Cove are “still slowly decelerating.”

The land movement has caused significant damage to dozens of homes and the city’s infrastructure, including continual and costly damage to Palos Verdes Drive South.

Newsom’s “State of Emergency” proclamation last year intended to speed state resources to assist in the response to the land movement and Hahn transferred $5 million from her office’s discretionary fund. In March, the city announced it will receive $2 million for its winterization efforts from the Los Angeles County Flood Control District.

But FEMA denied $37.9 million in disaster recovery funding last year, which the city appealed in March. The city was notified earlier this week that the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services “will not support the city’s appeal,” according to an RPV press release.

“This is due to Cal OES’ position that while the winter storms may have greatly accelerated land movement,” the city said, “what it considers to be pre-existing conditions in the landslide make the city ineligible for reimbursement under the 2024 federal disaster declaration.”

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FEMA District 9 Administrator Robert Fenton has “90 days to consider the city’s appeal, Cal OES’ recommendation, and to render a decision,” the press release said. The city could then further appeal to FEMA’s Washington, D.C., headquarters.

The city is working with FEMA and Cal OES on the $42 million buyout program, which was funded through FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Programs.

Muratsuchi, meanwhile, said in his Wednesday, May 7, interview that the land movement is a “slow moving train wreck” and that “failing to properly address this ongoing natural disaster” has consequences.

The land movement has impacted Palos Verdes Drive South, “ one of the major regional arterials,” as well as sewer infrastructure that “serves the entire Peninsula.”

“They had to put those sewer pipes above ground,” Muratsuchi said of the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, “because the land is moving so rapidly that in order to facilitate and to try to control the costs of constantly having to repair.”

AB 986 will next go to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, Muratsuchi said.

“It died (last year) in the assembly,” Muratsuchi said, “so that’s why I’m picking up the fight.”