Walnut Unified Projects Remain Uncertified, not Unsafe Officials Say

Thousands of school buildings statewide have not been certified under the latest California earthquake and safety standards according to state records, but officials say that certification may depend more on paper than bricks and mortar.

Only one structure from Walnut Valley Unified made a state list of seismically risky buildings — at  — and the structure has been reviewed, according to state records.

However, a total of 36 projects have not received final certification under Field Act building standards for what the district's director of maintenance Jeff Bloedorn said is a matter of documentation and not safety.

A , which was released Thursday, uncovered holes in the state's enforcement and documentation of seismic safety regulations for public schools.

California began regulating school architecture for seismic safety in 1933 with the Field Act, but data taken from the Division of the State Architect’s Office shows 20,000 school projects statewide never got final safety certifications. In the crunch to get schools built within the last few decades, state architects have been lax on enforcement, California Watch reported.

But finishing the certification process can often involve paperwork that Bloedorn said has nothing to do with the safety of a project. In one case, Bloedorn said the district sent documentation to secure final certification for a project at four times before the files were finally received.

"That gets really frustrating really fast," Bloedorn said. "Nowadays, I'm there at (the DSA office) at least once a month and will personally drop off documents so there's no avenue for mistakes."

Bloedorn said that, despite is frustrations, he understands the difficulty of tracking every project in the state, especially as state staff dwindles and weekly hours are cut.

"You can imagine what their files have to look like," Bloedorn said. "It's just a disaster and they don't have the amount of people to pull it off as efficiently as it should be."

A separate inventory completed nine years ago found 7,500 seismically risky school buildings in the state. Yet, California Watch reports that only two schools have been able to access a $200 million fund for upgrades.

This report details the information currently available on related school projects throughout the Walnut Valley Unified School District. Another report at Diamond Bar Patch details the known status of .

AB 300 — Seismic Safety

An assessment of older concrete school buildings ordered by a 2002 state Assembly Bill, AB 300, listed just one project in the Walnut Valley Unified School District, at Walnut Elementary School, as a concern.

Bloedorn said the survey identified a wall of masonry in an administrative building built in 1976 that was since fixed during modernization projects at the school.

"The timing was perfect for us because we were going to do modernization there already," Bloedorn said.

DSA spokesperson Eric Lamoreaux said concrete structures built before 1976 — when new seismic safety standards were drafted — were of strongest concern in the 2002 survey. The districts with possible problems were asked to assess and submit records regarding any seismic retrofits or updates to the buildings to the state architect, but the identification of potential concerns was made based only on project drawings and plans.

"We never went out into the field to make that determination first-hand," Lamoreaux said.

The DSA provided school districts with an 18-month window to produce documentation of upgrades or seismic assessments for buildings that, according to state records, had not undergone review since before 1976 when new building standards were implemented.

"(The district is) relatively young," Bloedorn said. "Some older districts had 10 or more projects that they had to do some work on and we only had one."

But matters of state certification are not always so easy.

Field Act Certification

"It's a nightmare, to be honest," Bloedorn said. "You send them stuff and then they lose and it takes them 18 months to even get back to you… and we're talking about multiple boxes of files."

On paper, the Walnut Valley School District has a total of 36 building projects currently uncertified under the Field Act, which specifies building regulations for school facilities, but Bloedorn said that this certification and "closing out" process "has nothing to do with safety."

Of the 36 projects, only one of the projects — which Bloedorn said was likely an entry canopy installed at  — was closed out in the higher of the two uncertified categories, meaning that the state had not certified a structural change to the project before it was completed.

"I would have to believe that we've done what we need to do there," Bloedorn said. "That doesn't mean that this is going to fall over as a result of seismic activity."

Bloedorn drew a distinction between the final closeout process and the project application process, which he said puts design plans through a weeks- and sometimes months-long review before a project can begin.

"I would much rather have my kids sitting in a school during an earthquake than anywhere else," Bloedorn said.

Bloedorn also said that the inspection process during construction provides thorough oversight.

"Schools have the second highest building construction regulations there are, and the first are hospitals," Bloedorn said. "The closeout does not mean that there was not something done by any stretch — in fact, I would argue that it's almost impossible for that to happen. It's mostly because documentation has not been filed."

Lamoreaux said that the uncertified classification for 35 of the Walnut Valley projects — at the level called "Letter 3" — does not indicate a structural concern, but one of missing documentation.

"Letter 3 has a significant number of final documentation reports that have not been submitted or they have fees that have not been paid that would allow us to close out that project," Lamoreaux said.

Often, Bloedorn said, those documents are not in the hands of the district when a project is completed and responsibility for the closeout process often rests with architects and design staff.

"It is most likely a wet stamp from a change order from a contractor," Bloedorn said. "And that means that we need a wet signature and the original document for the change order that took place 15 years ago."

But there is little incentive for district's to close out a Letter 3 project unless the district is seeking to build or add to the structure in question.

"If they ever decide that they want to do any construction on an uncertified project, we will not approve the plans until they complete the project," Lamoreaux said.

Bloedorn said that tracking down the paper trail for a building can sometimes be even more difficult than wading through decades-old boxes of files.

"If we they asked us to close out the Diamond Bar High football stadium, we couldn't do it because the architect is dead," Bloedorn said.

Bloedorn said he would like to see the state clear the record for such projects, which have been missing final documentation for years.

"It should have been submitted," Bloedorn said, "but it was 25 years ago and who do we talk to now?"

In addition, Lamoreaux said the state records of projects are often based on old drawings and plans for projects that may have been demolished, repaired, and even projects that were never constructed.

Lamoreax said that districts with projects with a lingering Letter 4 Field Act designation will receive letters in early April from the DSA asking for further documentation related to those projects.

Walnut Valley Unified and the project at Chaparral were not listed among those districts receiving any request for further documentation.

The school district was not able to identify the 36 Letter 3 projects or provide further information by press time.

Liquefaction

In addition to state records, the California Watch investigation identified school sites near seismic hazards, including fault lines and landslide and liquefaction zones.

Liquefaction zones were the most common hazard found near Walnut Valley Unified schools, but Mt. San Antonio College geologist Hilary Lackey said liquefaction, which can turn soil or sediment to quicksand in the event of an earthquake, is a fact of life in Los Angeles County.

"If you buy a house (in L.A. County), it would be hard to find one that is not in a liquefaction zone," Lackey said.

Lackey said the soil, which is made up of fine sand and sediments from an ocean basin, will push together in an earthquake, causing the water contained in and between the rocks to bubble up.

In the event of an earthquake, Lackey said liquefaction can lead to foundation damage or buildings falling over.

Maps

An interactive map of all schools, arranged by city, is available for Diamond Bar from California Watch. To see additional schools in the Walnut Valley Unified School Disrict, see the map for Walnut.

The Walnut Valley Unified schools found to be within liquefaction zones are:

• Ron Hockwalt Academies
• Walnut Valley Adult Education Center

The Walnut Valley Unified schools found within a landslide zone are:

This story was produced using data provided to Patch by California Watch, the state's largest investigative reporting team and part of the Center for Investigative Reporting. Read more about with California Watch.