More homeowners join fault line suit in The Woodlands [Houston Chronicle]

Nov. 09--What Gordy Bunch initially called The Woodlands' "dirty little secret" -- that a fault line lies beneath at least 150 upscale homes there -- is now drawing more homeowners into a court battle.

Twenty-four other families will have joined the Bunches in suing The Woodlands Development Co. by next week, said one of three attorneys representing them, Geoffrey Binney.

"I expect there will be more before it's over," he added. "A few might still not know there's a lawsuit going on."

The majority of the families involved in the lawsuit own homes -- average value, $450,000 -- whose slabs are perched on the fault lines. These homes are located in the Carlton Woods, Alden Bridge, Cochran's Crossing or Sterling Ridge sections of The Woodlands, a premier master-planned community that in the past has won accolades for infusion of green space and artistic attention to detail.

The remaining four homes in the lawsuit have lots, swimming pools or driveways crossed by the fault lines that the plaintiff's geologists say move an average of a half inch a year.

Backed by geologists

In a written response, The Woodlands Development Co. states the homeowners' claims are "baseless and without merit."

"While we appreciate the homeowners' concerns, the number of clients pulled into the lawsuit doesn't change the facts," said the developer's spokeswoman, Susan Vreeland-Wendt. "We do not believe the plaintiffs will be able to show that any of their houses are impacted by a surface fault. We have done actual testing, and none of the testing that we've done to date has found any evidence of an active fault line in proximity to any Woodlands residence."

But the plaintiffs' attorneys say five different geologists have verified the existence of at least three fault lines -- Big Barn, the longest and most active line that runs about 33 miles underground from a salt dome near Hockley to the flank of a salt formation near Conroe, as well as two smaller faults, Jones and Panther Branch.

The San Jacinto River Authority's geological report also recently pinpointed these same surface faults when working on plans to install a new 52-inch pipe to bring water into The Woodlands. To protect from the shifting soils, a special flexible pipe will be used wherever the pipe crosses a fault zone.

"They do exist, and they are active," said Mark Smith, division manager over the water authority's water project.

But Vreeland-Wendt says the San Jacinto River Authority has not proved any of the houses rest on a fault line.

'Smoking letter'

However, plaintiffs point a finger at the so-called "smoking letter" that they say forewarned the developers about the surface faults. In a 1993 letter, Furgo-McClelland (Southwest) Inc., a geological consulting firm, warned a Woodlands Development vice president, Virgil Yoakum, that it was "highly likely that a geological fault" passed through Cochran's Crossing and urged further studies be done to identify it and any other potential faults.

The Woodlands developers, however, say they had hired another engineering firm to conduct fault studies before receiving that letter and this other firm found "no evidence of active faulting" in that area.

Homes can be built safely within 30 to 50 feet of active surface faults but cannot sit on top of them without becoming destabilized, said Dr. Carl Norman, a geologist and University of Houston professor,

The first to sue the developer, Bunch, treasurer of The Woodlands governing township and vice chairman of the community's convention and visitors bureau, finds himself in the awkward position of loving the community but hating the lot where he lives.

Damage from slippage

The creep or slippage of the fault beneath his home has caused thousands of dollars in damage to his $1.5 million home, he said.

He's experienced all sorts of horrors -- from a large crack that drained his new swimming pool to pipes that burst and sent water cascading through the ceiling.

"We can't get anybody to insure us, and the ground is still moving," Bunch said. "We've put in extensive pilings, but it won't last."

Binney says the plaintiffs in the lawsuit tell the same stories.

"At first, they blame their builders and foundation companies. They fix the slab, but then it breaks again. The cracks reappear over and over, because there's nothing they can really do about it," he said. "They feel despair, because this is the most valuable, prized possession that they own. And it's worthless because there is no permanent fix" for the shifting ground.

A visiting district judge from Chambers County, Carroll Wilborn, was appointed this week to come in and hear the case. Attorneys on both sides expect the case won't be concluded for another 18 months.

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