South Pas Schools and Seismic Safety

If an earthquake hits, it appears the schools in South Pasadena are mostly ready.

According to data from the California Division of the State Architect (DSA) and the nonprofit journalism outfit California Watch, the South Pasadena Unified School District has no schools slated for additional earthquake preparedness upgrades, nor does it have any projects at its schools designated to fix the most severe issues that would pose immediate danger if a temblor arrived. The data also show no South Pasadena schools are located in any soil-oriented danger zones and are far enough from major fault lines.

That would make South Pasadena schools the exception. The DSA completed a review of schools across the state in 2002 that showed that thousands of California school buildings were unlikely to perform well in earthquakes and needed to be evaluated by structural engineers.

A 19-month California Watch investigation, which was released Thursday, uncovered holes in the state's enforcement 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.

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.

The DSA and California Watch noted two risk categories for schools: AB 300 projects, which are older school buildings with potentially dangerous seismic hazards that require more detailed evaluation, and Letter 4, which indicates uncertified projects with safety isuses that violate the Field Act, a nearly 80-year-old law that requires careful design and inspected construction for public K-12 schools.

As a map from California Watch indicates, none of the South Pasadena district's schools fall under those categories.

Prior to the Field Act, there were no statewide building regulations of any kind, except for a few concerning issues such as area and lighting in private homes.

"Our disaster preparedness planning, especially for our schools, is something we're very, very proud of," said Joe Shapiro, the district superintendent. "We're even planning on hiring someone to look at the plans and upgrade them even further."

The South Pasadena Unified School District hosts five schools: , , , and , which is in the middle of a major expansion project.

But while none of those schools have been tagged with AB 300 or Letter 4 designations, several projects at South Pasadena High School were closed out in the early 2000s with Letter 3 status, according to the DSA's project database. The Letter 3 designation signals missing documentation for a project, or possibly fees that haven't been paid, said Eric Lamoreaux, a spokesman for the DSA.

"These are documents that we need in order to know about any changes or that any activity that happened has been signed off by architects, contractors, everyone who worked on the project," he said.

According to DSA records, Letter 3 projects for South Pasadena High School involve alterations to the rigging supports to the school's auditorium (the project was closed in 2001) as well as a two-phase project that dealt with construction and alterations to an administrative building and library (2004).

Two other schools, Arroyo Vista and Monterey Hills, are within a quarter-mile of liquefaction and landslide zones.

Liquefaction is what happens when soil is shaken with so much force that it essentially loses its strength, therefore giving it properties similar to quicksand. This can do damage to anything underground, such as pipelines. This can also ruin runways, harbors and the general infrastructure of an area and have repercussions to other public safety forces. For instance, damage to underground water pipes could hinder the fire department's ability to fight flames that could arise from a disaster.

Liquefaction zones are areas the state has noted where liquefaction has happened during earthquakes. These areas also include poorly compacted landfills. State law dictates that any development in these zones requires strict regulation. Before a project gets the green light, the soil must be deemed safe enough for construction. Since 1998, the Natural Hazards Disclosure Act has required real estate sellers or their agents to inform buyers if a property is within one of these zones.

According to information from the city's website, a trio of faults can be factors: the Raymond Hill Fault, the York Boulevard Fault, and the Elysian Park Fault. The Raymond Hill Fault is the only active fault running through the city that is designated as an Alquist-Priolo Special Study Zone. The website said the fault is 12 miles long and extends through the southern area of the city. The Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zoning Act, passed in 1971, restricts construction on or around earthquake faults. It also states that buildings must be at least 50 feet away from an active fault.

Mayor Mike Ten wasn't surprised to hear about South Pasadena's relatively clean bill of earthquake health, mentioning that a series of measures have led to the rebuilding and retrofitting of all of the city's schools in roughly the past decade.

"The voters decided then that they wanted to help rebuild the schools and put the safety of the educators and children first," he said. "Now it's just a matter of making sure everything else gets done."

Joseph Payne, the city's police chief, mentioned that whenever a school needed to be retrofitted or rebuilt, part of the requirements deemed that everything be upgraded to the latest guidelines.

"The school have done a really good job of staying on top of that," he said. "We've always been very fortunate."

Across the state, California Watch found that:

• More than 1,000 schools have been on a state's list of officials' highest safety concerns, but students and teachers have continued to occupy them anyway.
• Those schools are among nearly 20,000 projects the state architect allowed to open without a safety certification required under the Field Act, enacted nearly 80 years ago
• Some state officials responsible for certifying the schools became dues-paying members of a construction firm lobbying organization representing contractors the officials were tasked with regulating.
• One state architect ordered about 1,000 safety warnings downgraded to simple paperwork errors without requiring regulators to visit the projects in question.

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.