City officials have repeatedly asked regional water quality board staff to delay the Nov. 5 hearing, when the board will decide whether to ban septic systems in Malibu, until further studies could be finished. Their requests have been rejected.
By Jonathan Friedman / Special to The Malibu Times
After months of debate, accusations and rival predictions on what the future holds with a Civic Center area septic ban, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board next week will vote on a proposal to eliminate septic systems from Malibu’s commercial center and the surrounding area.
The RWQCB hearing will take place in downtown Los Angeles, but Malibu is expected to bring a large contingent of opponents comprised of city officials, scientists, businesspersons, lawyers, residents and other stakeholders. The city is offering a free bus service for those wishing to attend.
Under the belief that Malibu septic systems are the main culprit in the pollution of Malibu’s watershed, RWQCB staff has proposed an end to all further permitting of septic systems in commercial sections of the city such as the Civic Center area and the stretch of Pacific Coast Highway from Serra Road to Sweetwater Canyon, as well as the residential areas of Malibu Colony, Malibu Road, Serra Retreat, Sweetwater Mesa and the Malibu Knolls.
Also, all existing septic systems in those areas would have to be phased out within five years. As for what they would be replaced with, the RWQCB has no recommendation. But most likely it would be a sewer system or some sort of wastewater treatment plant.
So-called zero discharge systems had previously been exempt from the proposal. But that clause was removed last week.
Violators of the ban would face fines as high as $10,000 per day, although RWQCB staff member Wendy Philips said at a workshop in August that those fines would not necessarily be issued immediately.
The State Water Quality Control Board as well as the state Office of Administrative Law must approve the regional water plan. The state Environmental Protection Agency might need to review the plan as well.
While the RWQCB has studies that it says prove Malibu septic systems are to blame for the pollution, the city says it has information that says otherwise. Five studies are underway by various groups, including the U.S. Geological Survey, that the city says will show the proposed ban will not improve water quality. But none of the studies will be complete prior to next week’s hearing.
City officials have repeatedly asked RWQCB staff to delay the hearing until those studies could be finished. Their requests have been rejected.
RWQCB Executive Officer Tracy Egoscue told The Malibu Times in a September interview, “As always in these kinds of situations, more science tends to be best. But we have a considerable amount of science that has been done over decades … this has been a long time coming.”
During another workshop, an RWQCB official accused the city of lying about the studies being conducted, and that none of them had preliminary findings siding with the city’s arguments. This accusation was refuted after the workshop by UCLA marine ecologist Dr. Richard Ambrose, who is taking part in one of the studies.
Ambrose said, in his study, preliminary findings show no signs of human fecal matter in the Malibu Lagoon during the dry season, when there is no storm water runoff.
“To me that means the human contamination can’t be very much or else we would have found it,” Ambrose told The Times earlier this month.
Ambrose will be unable to attend next week’s hearing, but scientists involved in some of the other studies will be speaking.
The RWQCB staff’s refusal to delay the hearing has led some city officials to accuse the water agency of playing politics, rather than having a concern for the environment.
Mayor Andy Stern told The Times last month, “I find it very peculiar that with five studies about to be released, the regional board is apparently going to rush to judgment before [they] are released. If science is the motive, as opposed to politics, logic would dictate they would wait just a little while longer.”
There is significant support for the RWQCB’s proposal among environmental organizations and other activists. Heal the Bay Executive Director Mark Gold is one of its most high-profile advocates.
“Nobody wants to cast aspersions saying that Malibu hasn’t been doing anything,” Gold said at the August workshop. “But the bottom line is: is Surfrider safe for swimming and surfing? Does anybody in this room think it is? No. Nobody does. So it’s an unacceptable condition that we’ve been dealing with. The same thing for Malibu Lagoon and Malibu Creek.”
The RWQCB hearing will take place Nov. 5 at 9 a.m. at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Board Room, located at 700 North Alameda Street in Los Angeles. A seat can be reserved with the city’s bus transportation to the hearing by calling 310.456.2489 ext. 224.