Terms like "stress" and "fatigue" have meanings applicable when forces like landslides impact houses and other structures. But the words are even more pertinent to the effects such events have upon individuals, families and entire communities.
Early frustration over a creeping slide beneath North Salt Lake's Springhill neighorhood led to "one of the ugliest meetings" he'd ever seen, says Gary Christenson, the Utah Geological Survey's applied geology program manager. "People were kind of worked up because everybody thought it was the gravel pit" nearby that was undermining their subdivision, which itself occupies an old quarry site.Tempers have since mostly calmed, said resident Richard Johnson, who represents the area homeowners' association.
But like other Utahns, on both sides of the Wasatch Range and south to the Arizona border, the Springhill residents want to know if they are going to have to shoulder the burdens of this landslide by themselves. Or will the city, the state, the federal government or possibly businesses involved be compelled -- or feel obliged -- to help?
That is the nature of the blame game.
The question of liability in such cases is important because landslides can so severely impact a family's financial health -- present and future.
"All earth movement is excluded from (homeowner insurance) policies," said Garr Ovard, a property and casualty examiner with the Utah Insurance Department. "You can buy separate earthquake policies, but gosh, some of those are more expensive than a usual homeowners' policy."
Arranging a policy that includes landslide provisions with an insurance policy could be problematic. "If it's a pre-existing condition, they'll want to know -- and probably won't write a policy on that," Ovard said.
"It's 'buyer beware' when you get into real estate, obviously," he added.
Another quandary, said M. Lee Allison, director of the Utah Geological Surlvey, is the transience of some development companies.
"You incorporate as developers -- say, Acme Homebuilding Corp. -- but form Ajax Mountain Homes Inc." to design, promote and build a subdivision, "and when you're all done, dissolve that company but distribute the assets and go away," he said. Tracking down responsible parties can then be a major headache.
For their part, real estate agents, said Ed Tugaw, president of the Utah Association of Realtors, are in the business of "facilitating transactions. To tell you that we understand geologic hazards -- we do not. We're not experts in that area and don't claim to be.
"Basically we don't really get involved in that aspect other than there is in fact a sellers' disclosure provided to any buyer that is filled out by the seller. And hopefully the seller who lives in any specific area would be aware of any hazards that may arise either on or around their particular property," Tugaw said.
Any licensed Realtor in Utah will provide information from the forms to potential homebuyers, Tugaw said. Those selling homes on their own are not similarly bound, he said.
A municipal dilemma
For their part, cities and counties are usually wary about stepping in when problems like landslides develop, said Collin Wood, North Salt Lake's city manager.
Two principal causes of slides, he noted, are oversaturation of the ground and cutting away the toe, or base, of a slope. A city might conceivably be held liable for activating a slide, he said. Cutting a road would be an example.
But, Wood said, the concept of a community absorbing the financial loss that would otherwise impact only a few is murkier.
"A city is a group of citizens," he said, "so the big question is: Should the whole group of taxpayers be responsible for mitigating problems in a particular area? The rule of thumb is that unless there is some act of negligence on somebody's part or one group's part, the burden is borne by the individual property owners.
"Generally cities act as facilitators and nothing more than that," he said.
On the other hand, said Francis Ashland of the Utah Geological Survey, a broader approach is often the only way landslides can be dealt with.
"One of the problems with landslides along the Wasatch Front is that in general they are larger than individual lots," he said. The dozen lots being slowly battered by the North Salt Lake landslide are an example. "When landslides are larger than an individual lot, there is little an individual homeowner can do to stabilize" a subdivision-sized slump, Ashland said.
"In our case," Wood added, "we've at least taken an initial step to determine why it happened and what we can do to mitigate it," including preliminary proposals to set up a special improvement district within the Springhill neighborhood to pay for remedial measures.
However, Johnson said many residents are reluctant to have their unaffected Springhill neighbors dunned to pay for an expensive special improvement mitigation effort. They've also been told that aid programs like those provided though Federal Emergency Management Agency won't kick in until more homes -- 25, he said -- are damaged.
"We're saying, 'Why don't you help us now, before it gets to 25?' "
Wood, for one, recognizes the financial millstone that imposes on a few.
"There's no question -- those folks are stuck with trying to make repairs to their homes and then stuck with trying to mitigate the overall problem," the city manager said. "There's no easy solution to it at all."
Ralph Lewis, vice president of the Timber Lakes Property Owners Association, has seen a similar quagmire affecting people in that development east of Heber City.
Last summer, Wasatch County planners stopped issuing building permits in about a quarter of the 30-year-old but still-developing mountain subdivision, affected by several slides. Officials are trying to mount an in-depth investigation of the complex's slippage and dangers, but property owners are frustrated by declining land values and thwarted dreams.
"The people that are in the moratorium, they can't build, they can't get financing for homes and they can't sell," Lewis said. "It definitely impacts those people, and the stigma is spread through the entire development."
Publicity doesn't help either, Wood said. "If there's a lot of attention brought to the slide area" in North Salt Lake, for example, "then of course their homes are devalued significantly."
Nevertheless, a few Springhill residents believe that public awareness of their plight may help stir local, state and federal understanding and help.
Pre-planning and zoning
All communities have ordinances that deal with development, planning and zoning, said David Church, attorney for the Utah League of Cities and Towns. Many, in recent years, have developed policies requiring preconstruction geotechnical studies.
The league represents 234 constituents, with a range of sophistication in such matters, Church said. Those along the urban Wasatch Front are probably more likely to require geologic reports, he said.
Such studies can provide insights into earthquake faults, prehistoric slides, soil viability and moisture content.
For example, slopes like those in Wasatch County's Timber Lakes Estates may be able to take only so many houses and so many septic tanks, the UGS's Allison said.
"Maybe one home won't cause a problem," he said, "but 100, 200, 400 and septic tanks and it really becomes a problem, and what's the way to deal with that?"
Wasatch County planners and residents are trying, said Lewis, who lives in Timber Lakes.
"We have a very good relationship with the county," he said. "They're really trying to work with the people up there."
The county would like to study the entire mountain and, he said, "make a determination once and for all that certain lots are completely unbuildable land" while others may be marginal or safe.
In fact, Wasatch would like to do a wide-ranging geologic survey and is seeking ways of helping fund such a comprehensive effort, Mathis said.
Not issuing building permits and pausing for further geotechnical studies have been necessary decisions, Mathis stressed.
"Some people feel strongly that these ideas were my ideas," he said. "I've been grateful too, though, that people have been willing to work on it."
There's no question that there are landslides in Timber Lakes, one abode having fallen off the mountain a few years ago and other evidence appearing.
"You can see where it's sliding," Lewis said. "There are sections where you can see little fissures where the ground has slid." The slide zone includes a steep dropoff.
"And there are houses on that portion," he said.
Tuesday: The slides of '98 -- and '99?