Rancho Palos Verdes updates Portuguese Bend response as FEMA funding advances and monitoring shows post‑storm uptick in movement

Rancho Palos Verdes city staff told the City Council on Feb. 3 that recent winter storms and monitoring data have produced a measurable uptick in landslide movement and that ongoing dewatering and repair work remain essential to stabilizing the slope.

City geologist Mike Fipp said instruments and GPS monitoring show an average movement‑rate increase of about 14 percent across the slide during the most recent monitoring period, with Abalone Cove up about 18 percent and Portuguese Bend about 20 percent. Staff said those increases followed an unusually wet early season (November–December), during which the peninsula received about 8½ inches of rain that recharged near‑surface systems and produced an immediate response in some monitoring locations.

The city and the local dewatering operators (identified in staff briefings as ACLAD and KCLAD) reported that dewatering and winterization work is substantially complete. Ramsey, a city staff presenter, said the city’s pumping rates were temporarily reduced after three wells sheared; repairs began under contract the following day to restore pumping capacity. Staff emphasized that clusters of deep dewatering wells installed around Abalone Cove and along the toe of the slide show localized reductions in movement where they operate.

“Those heat‑map comparisons show the greatest…