Local Schools Face Seismic Safety Questions

Buildings at two Fountain Valley schools are considered potential seismic hazards and need detailed evaluation, according to state architects.

The state grades school construction projects using a four-letter rating system for compliance with quake regulations. Letter 4 is the lowest score; Letter 1 is the best. A 19-month California Watch investigation, which was released Thursday, uncovered holes in the state's enforcement of seismic safety regulations for public schools.

Five potentially hazardous buildings at , as well as several others, were classified as Letter 3 buildings because of missing paperwork. Most of the questionable structures were portable buildings. Administrators at the Huntington Beach High School District did not return repeated calls and e-mails seeking comment.

At , the auditorium and gymnasium was deemed a potential seismic hazard and also classified as Letter 3. Ocean View School District officials did not return phone calls or e-mails.

At least one project at every campus in the Fountain Valley School District was classified as Letter 3, although none of the buildings was cited as hazardous.

Noticing a pattern? Data from the Division of the State Architect’s office shows 20,000 school projects statewide never got final safety certifications, according to California Watch. 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. However, judging a school’s structural safety based on state records and ratings can be tricky. Sometimes, state records are out of date and don't show retrofits and repairs.

In others, the state might be sugarcoating problems. According to California Watch, state officials in recent years have upgraded hundreds of Letter 4 buildings to Letter 3 without visiting schools to verify problems were fixed.

Nevertheless, that doesn’t necessarily mean the buildings would fall apart in a quake. Because local school district officials and builders can be criminally prosecuted if students or staff are injured by tremor damage at an uncertified campus, they hire their own inspectors and generally don’t open any structure that isn’t deemed up to snuff, said Eric Lamoureux, a spokesman for the Division of the State Architect.

Lamoureux downplayed concerns about Letter 4 buildings reclassified to Letter 3, saying most simply involved missing paperwork. “We don’t believe there are any significant safety issues with any of the Letter 3 projects,” he told Patch on Wednesday.

Even if a school’s construction is sound, it could face other hazards. California Watch created an interactive map that charts school locations in relation to earthquake faults, landslide areas and liquefaction zones. In liquefaction zones, soil can turn to mush during strong tremors, shaking buildings more violently and damaging underground infrastructure.

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.