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Published on 06/08/1998 All articles from this issue

Sinkhole problem frustrates resident

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By Bruce Barton

Town Crier Staff Writer

This has not been a pleasant winter and spring for Los Altos resident Merle McCubbin.

A large sinkhole - 20-30 feet long, up to 4 feet wide and 12 feet deep - opened in the back yard of her Springer Road home in the wake of the big El Niño storm in early February. The fence separating her property from Hale Creek caved in. The cement channel bordering her property was separating. Her shed was "teetering" at the edge of the sinkhole.

She looked to Santa Clara Valley Water District officials for relief, but she said officials, at first, refused to take any responsibility.

"The water district pointed to the downspout (on her shed), and said it's our problem," McCubbin said.

Engineers later concluded the main problem was a 2 1/2-inch gap between the sidewall and floor of the 38-year-old cement channel, which had separated over the years, allowing seepage from the creek.

She hired a private engineering firm following the Feb. 3 storm to do an analysis. The firm concluded that creek erosion created the sinkhole.

"They said there was no way surface water was causing this problem," McCubbin said.

Only after the private engineers' report did the district vow to address the creek erosion problem, McCubbin said.

The district did put in temporary reinforcement in mid-February to hold the eroded channel in place. "They're supporting their wall on my property," McCubbin said.

Mike Di Marco, a spokesman for the water district, said officials planned to fix the problem all along - they just couldn't do it right away.

Maintenance planner Dennis Ely said the district would repair the channel wall and fill the sinkhole sometime soon after July 1. Ely said the district cannot begin work sooner because of agreements with state and federal wildlife agencies and concerns over fish and frog habitats.

"She has legitimate concerns," Ely said. "It's an old channel that needs repair."

He noted the district last month notified approximately 430 residents along Hale and Permanente creeks of plans to make numerous repairs to creek channels over the next five years.

Ely stood by earlier claims that runoff from McCubbin's shed was part of her problem, although he acknowledged the creek was the main cause.

"We felt part of the contributing problem was that the slope of her roof sends water into the channel, which exacerbates runoff into the channel," Di Marco said. "But whatever the cause, we're going to take care of it."

In addition to "lack of use and privacy," McCubbin is worried about liability. She said her next-door neighbor's preschooler has already climbed the fence into her back yard once. She's concerned the child, or someone else, could get hurt falling into the hole. District officials covered the hole with plywood in February.

Di Marco said the district is intimately familiar with McCubbin's concerns, and that the project is one of more than 200 post-El Niño repair projects that district officials are dealing with.

"We've had an extraordinary winter," he said. "It was so rough - we had to spread maintenance crews into two shifts at 12 hours each."

District crews were at McCubbin's property last week, erecting a temporary fence.

McCubbin's patience is at an end. But relief may be in sight.