Flow of Mud Brings Freeway Traffic to Halt : Commute: Slide apparently severs pipeline, sending a gush of water along with soil down the hillside near La Conchita. Drivers are delayed for hours.

A river of mud cascaded down a hillside just a few hundred yards north of La Conchita early Monday, cutting off the Ventura Freeway and causing a traffic nightmare for commuters between Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

Unlike a March landslide three-quarters of a mile south that crushed nine homes, Monday’s mudflow was in an industrial area and damaged no buildings.

A landslide apparently severed a 14-inch steel pipeline about 4:30 a.m., sending more than 2.5 million gallons of drinking water along with the soil down the hillside for two hours while workers tried to cut off the flow.

Traffic heading south stood still until 11:30 a.m. and northbound travelers had to wait until 2 p.m. to pass.

The situation was aggravated by the fact that the simplest alternate route--Highway 150 from Carpinteria to near Ojai--is still closed because of winter’s heavy rains and landslides.

Monday’s slide, which started in a steep canyon about a quarter of a mile from the freeway, unleashed a foot-high wave of mud that oozed through the Pacific Offshore Petroleum refinery, over the railroad tracks and across the roadway just as commuters were on their way to work.

A few got through before officers from the California Highway Patrol could close the roadway--some, just barely.

Unable to see the mud in the darkness and fog, Jorge Avalos, 28, drove his white Jetta--with his wife, his 2-year-old daughter and his young cousin on board--into the mess.

“I saw some cars ahead of me slowing down, but I didn’t see why,” Avalos said. “When I did, I hit the brakes.”

The car hydroplaned through the mud, nearly spinning out before it smashed into a concrete wall between the roadway and the beach 20 feet below.

The family made it through unscathed, but shaken.

Avalos was on the way to Los Angeles International Airport from his home in Santa Maria to send his vacationing cousin back to Mexico. “We’re not going anywhere now,” he said, looking at his mud-encrusted and badly dented car.

Apart from damage to Avalos’ car, the slide spared property in the area, which is still reeling from a slide that crushed nine homes in March.

Crews from Caltrans worked feverishly most of the morning to clear the loose mud and open the four lanes of highway.

The CHP and Caltrans were trying to divert some traffic as far north as Paso Robles and as far south as Los Angeles. The effort did not save hundreds of motorists from being caught in the mess.

In Ventura at Mission Plaza on West Main Street, stranded motorists lined up at pay phones, loitered around their vehicles and chatted with strangers. Cars and 18-wheelers jammed the parking lot. Restaurants did a booming business, and Avenue Donuts tripled its usual coffee and doughnut sales.

Hugh Finley of Oxnard had driven up Highway 33, trying to find a bypass to Santa Barbara, where he manages an appliance parts store. He turned around when he hit the closed Highway 150 and joined the crowd at Mission Plaza.

“If I can’t get to the store, we don’t open today,” said Finley, who has the key. “It’s all lost profits. There’s not much I can do about it, but I do care. It’s affecting more than just me. It’s affecting my customers.”

Drivers headed south were in a similar predicament, with waiting motorists crowding Carpinteria businesses and trying to divine alternate routes.

Meanwhile, geologists are trying to determine whether the slide indeed severed the water pipeline, or the severed pipeline caused the mud to flow.

Dick Barnett, an official with the Casitas Municipal Water District, which owns the pipeline, said all indications were that a slide knocked out the waterline.

“That’s what we believe at this point, but there is some disagreement,” Barnett said.

It could take more than two days to repair the water main, leaving about 600 households in the beach communities between the city of Ventura and the Santa Barbara County line without water. Trucks will dispense drinking water at Solimar, Faria Beach, Seacliff, Mussel Shoal and La Conchita while repairs to the pipeline are completed.

Inconvenience is becoming a way of life in the seaside village. After March’s landslide, one-third of the 190 homes were evacuated. Most of the residents returned, but they have been on a perpetual watch, told by county geologists that the hillside is unstable.

Last month, 53 La Conchita homeowners filed a lawsuit against the La Conchita Ranch Co., which owns the section of hillside that fell in March, saying the company over-irrigated its crops and turned the mountain to mush.

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La Conchita Slide Monday’s slide, which started in a steep canyon about a quarter of a mile from the highway, unleashed a foot high wave of oozing mud that flowed through the Pacific Offshore Petroleum refinery over the railroad tracks and across the roadway just as early morning commuters were on their way to work. The area is about half a mile north of La Conchita.