LAKEPORT, Calif. – Concerned that further ground movement at a north Lakeport subdivision could damage sewer infrastructure to the point of a sewage spill, the county had a contractor working on Tuesday to replace a manhole that has been made vulnerable by the situation.
The work at Lakeside Heights continued a day after a special meeting in which county officials told residents that the manhole on Lancaster Road needed to be replaced immediately if a sewage spill – and a temporary evacuation of the entire subdivision – was to be avoided.
Since late March homeowners in the subdivision of 29 Tudor-style homes just off of Hill Road have watched as the earth has moved under their homes, with a total of seven being red-tagged, according to the county. Three are destroyed, having either broken in half or fallen into fissures that have opened on the hillside.
A contractor hired by Lake County Special Districts dug a large hole on Tuesday morning as part of the effort to reroute the county sewer line that runs along Lancaster Road.
Neighborhood residents Garey Hurn and Randall Fitzgerald estimated the hole measured 9 feet by 10 feet and was 6 feet deep. They said the work was delayed by the intrusion of groundwater at a depth of 58 inches, below the road surface.
Hurn reported that the water volume was “quite significant” and required pumping from the hole to a temporary sewage bypass system Special Districts has put in place. Existing sewer line also was being patched.
In an email sent to county officials, Fitzgerald observed that the water was flowing west to east through the gravel that surrounds the sewer pipe in two large and steady streams.
He said the pipes appeared to be acting as a French drain, with the hole needing to be pumped numerous times. He and Hurn calculated that the water rose 5 inches every 15 minutes.
Special Districts Administrator Mark Dellinger told Lake County News that the pipe trench was being dewatered and the water sent downstream into the county’s sewer collection system.
“The contractor has to have the trench dewatered so they can install the new manhole and connect it to existing pipes,” he told Lake County News in a Tuesday email.
For Fitzgerald, the appearance of so much water confirms the suspicions that he and other residents have had, namely, that one of the forces behind the landslide is a “natural flow” of water in the hillside.
That raises the concern that the county’s infrastructure is acting as a French drain and channeling water beneath all of the remaining houses along Lancaster Road via their home connections, which Fitzgerald suggested would explain why the hillside along Downing Street is constantly wet.
Fitzgerald and other residents in the subdivision are asking the county to expand its studies beyond just protecting the county’s infrastructure.
They want the source of the water found, with Fitzgerald proposing exploratory borings and the installation of multiple trench dams at the top of the hill where Downing and Lancaster meet.
County Counsel Anita Grant told a group of close to 40 subdivision residents at the special Monday night meeting that their concerns could be scheduled to go to the Board of Supervisors on the next available agenda.
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