Mayor Paul Seo says landslide stabilization making progress; dewatering wells remain active

Mayor Paul Seo said on the RPV City Talk program that work to stabilize slopes under the city's ongoing landslide state of emergency is showing measurable progress, but some areas remain active.

"Right now, even after the rains, we've had great stabilization in the Klondike Canyon area. It's still effectively zero movement," Seo said. He added that "on the western portion of Abalone Cove in Portuguese Bend, we're still having about 1.5 to about 2 inches of movement every week." Seo said the city's deep dewatering wells "are still in place" and "they're still pumping water out" to slow the slide and help restore service.

The mayor said geologic monitoring informs real-time decisions. He urged residents to watch council and technical briefings for details and said a geologist gave a status update at a February meeting. Seo described current goals as reducing movement to roughly an inch per week so the city can restore electricity and other services safely.

City officials stressed that rains have created intermittent "blips" in movement but that pumping operations had returned to schedule. Seo framed the work as operational rather than final: the city continues to monitor the ground, coordinate with technical staff and the county, and prioritize public safety and access.

The mayor also emphasized the infrastructure consequences of ongoing movement: PV Drive South, a major arterial that the city says carries about 15,000 vehicles daily, must remain open for residents and first responders, so road maintenance is being coordinated alongside stabilization work.

What remains unspecified in the public remarks are total projected costs, an estimated timeline to reach target movement rates citywide, and exact dates for electricity restoration.