State Says Simi Valley Soil Is Stable : Geology: Some frustrated homeowners call post-earthquake report a farce because it does not evaluate individual lots.

Despite the continued settling of some topsoil in Simi Valley since the Jan. 17 earthquake, the California state geologist reported Friday that the earth underneath has stopped shifting and most homeowners can plan to rebuild.

Not so, said some homeowners, who described ever-widening cracks in their walls and floors and called the state report a farce because it did not evaluate the soil conditions on individual lots.

And Mayor Greg Stratton said the report revealed unsettled soil conditions that could restrict rebuilding in some areas.

The state Department of Conservation spent three months and $72,089 in federal disaster money to prepare the soil-stability report, which city officials commissioned under pressure from homeowners in the worst-hit part of town.

But a half-dozen homeowners said they did not like what they heard Friday at City Hall from state geologist Jim Davis.

“Why would my doors be popping off their hinges and my house be showing evidence it’s still moving?” demanded Rich Dietrich, who was forced to move out of his fractured home on Sabina Circle.

“You’ll have to ask an engineer that,” Davis replied.

Michael Hernandez said the foundation of his house on Sabina Circle is split nearly in two by an ever-deepening fissure that left his floors on a slant.

“All this today was a free circus,” he said after hearing the report. “Ringling Bros. charge for admission. (State officials) don’t charge, but the ringmaster’s right there.”

Shaking his head, Dietrich said later, “There is definitely evidence that my house is moving, and they’re telling me it’s not.”

Forced to move out by the cracks in his floor and walls, Dietrich said he is unsure whether he will rebuild. His $170,000 insurance settlement won’t pay the full cost of rebuilding, he said.

In Simi Valley, one of the regions hardest hit by the quake, it was the violent shaking, not ground failure such as fissures, that caused much of the damage, Davis reported.

The shaking nearly rivaled the full force of gravity, temporarily liquefying the loose, sandy soil in the city’s southeastern section, Davis said.

Ground water just five to 35 feet beneath the earth’s surface boiled up out of the earth, allowing the sandy soil to compact and settle to a lower level than before the quake, he said.

Some of the worst damage and most obvious liquefaction occurred at the eastern end of Los Angeles Avenue around the intersection of Christine Avenue and Hope Street, where ancient creek beds feeding the Arroyo Simi had been filled in and built over, he said.

But after surveying markers that were pounded into the pavement in that area over a two-week period in May and reviewing maps of the underground topography, geologists concluded that the earth has stopped shifting, Davis said.

The edges of the fissures are still collapsing, which may allow settling of the surface in some places, Davis said.

But fissures such as these will not develop again until the next severe earthquake, Davis said. Chances of one happening in the next 50 years are only 10%, and the region could go another 500 years without one, he said.

“These are estimates, of course,” he concluded. “There is no guarantee that Mother Nature is promising it will not happen again.”

Mayor Stratton said the city probably will require many homeowners to pay for individual soil studies before they obtain permission to rebuild on their lots.

That news angered homeowners who were uninsured or had no luck getting federal aid to rebuild.

Dora Washington said columns on her house are still sinking and twisting in the aftershocks. Nevertheless, she said, the Small Business Administration denied her application for a rebuilding loan.

She said of the study: “I don’t think it’s adequate. I think the city should pay for (individual) engineering studies.”

Stratton said the city will not pay for such studies because they are commonly required for building permits.

“Now it’s a function of finding what exactly is beneath your home,” he told the group. “Now it’s the responsibility of the individual homeowners through FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) and Small Business (Administration) to get those studies done.”