City working on renegotiation of memorandum of understanding with the water board.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
City officials are already upset about the Regional Water Quality Control Board staff’s recommendation to terminate an agreement with the city on wastewater discharge permitting. And a new proposal to install a sewer system in Malibu will likely trigger further outcry from local politicians and residents.
Threats of sewer installation have never gone over well in this area, where the belief is that keeping the city on septic tanks limits development. The last significant sewer proposal in Malibu, by the county, triggered the successful campaign for cityhood nearly two decades ago.
The staff report for the Nov. 13 Regional Water meeting, released on Monday, does not specifically call for a “sewer” by name. But many observers contacted by The Malibu Times agreed the language implies it. Regional Water staff has proposed for the Civic Center area a “prohibition of all future discharges from septic systems and the termination of discharges from existing systems and, following an adequate period of time, to allow for the provision of an alternate wastewater disposal system.”
The report criticizes Malibu’s various water pollution issues. It also refers to a septic prohibition in the El Rio area of unincorporated Ventura County that “has led to extensive compliance with [water quality] standards in the Oxnard Forebay.” Septic tanks are being phased out and a sewer system has been built in that area.
The nine-member board is not asked to approve the prohibition, but rather to begin the process toward one.
The Nov. 13 meeting has been on the city’s calendar since September when it was alerted Regional Water staff would be recommending the termination of a 2004 Memorandum of Understanding between the city and the state agency that allows the city to issue wastewater discharge permits for residences and small commercial projects. This recommendation followed a dispute over which entity could issue the permit for the under-construction Lumber Yard mall.
But the staff report does not include the recommendation for termination, instead it calls for a renegotiation with the city on the MOU. Also, in the revised MOU, the report states Regional Water staff wants commercial projects excluded from the city’s authority for wastewater discharge permitting.
City Councilmember Sharon Barovsky, who, along with Councilmember John Sibert, last week sent a letter to the Regional Water board members asking for a renegotiation, said this week she is not concerned about what the actual recommendations are in the staff report, because she said it is the beginning of a negotiation.
“I’m delighted that we’ll be talking and I hope it comes to a productive outcome,” said Barovsky, who as of Tuesday had not had a chance to read the staff report. “As long as you’re talking, you’re not shooting at each other.”
Regional Water staff head Tracy Egoscue did not return a call for comment. City Manager Jim Thorsen, who has been at odds with Egoscue the past few months, also did not return a call.
The agenda for the Regional Water meeting, including the staff report on the Malibu item, can be viewed at www.swrcb.ca.gov/rwqcb4.