City of Malibu also cited for water quality violations
By Laura Tate
The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board has cited three main Malibu shopping centers and more than 30 other Malibu businesses and public facilities in the vicinity of the Civic Center area for violating wastewater discharge permit requirements, the board stated Friday on its Web site.
Malibu Country Mart, owned by developer Michael Koss, Cross Creek Plaza, managed by Pouya Abdi and Michael Shabani., and the Malibu Colony Plaza, owned by sports team owner and developer E. Stanley Kroenke, are alleged to have violated conditions of their existing wastewater discharge permits.
Alleged violations include failure to submit monitoring reports, incomplete monitoring reports, flow violations, water quality (effluent) violations and failure to report material changes in operations.
Surfrider Beach, Malibu Beach Inn, owned by DreamWorks co-founder David Geffen, HRL Laboratories, and a couple facilities and the office building, owned by Miramar Properties, that is home to Malibu’s City Hall were also cited for these violations.
Among the businesses and other facilities cited for allegedly operating wastewater discharge systems without the required water quality permits are City National Bank and JP Morgan Chase Bank National Assn., Casa Malibu Inn, the Kentucky Fried Chicken on Pacific Coast Highway, Our Lady of Malibu Catholic Church and Webster Elementary School. Although it has been closed for several months, the Malibu Inn restaurant and nightclub was also issued a notice.
All must begin the permitting process and, within 90 days, provide information on the design, construction, operation and groundwater and surface water impacts of their on-site wastewater disposal systems.
The City of Malibu is working on building Legacy Park, which would include a stormwater treatment facility to address water pollution concerns. The park is still in the planning stages, and the city is still looking for funds to help build the park. It is also looking for land large enough to build a central wastewater treatment facility to treat sewage from businesses in the Civic Center area.
City of Malibu also cited<</b>
The Los Angeles Regional Board has also issued notices to Malibu and Los Angeles County and 19 other cities along Santa Monica Bay regarding violations of bacteria limits set to protect public health, according to the board’s Web site. These violation notices follow from previous Board actions on September 2006 and August of 2007, when the Regional Board established requirements for the County of Los Angeles and the cities within the Santa Monica Bay Watershed to prevent urban runoff with unacceptable levels of bacteria from being discharged into Santa Monica Bay and Marina del Rey Harbor from April through October —the height of the recreational season.
Malibu was issued a letter in March 2008 that it was in violation of exceeding set bacteria limits in Malibu Creek and other local bodies of water and stated it most comply with provided monitoring reports detailing the source of violations, and preventive and remedial actions it would take regarding the violations.
The city was to provide such information by April 21, 2008, or face fines up to $10,000 per day.