Many statements have been made about pollution in the Malibu Lagoon and some beach areas by several organizations, including the Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB). These organizations have assumed that Malibu’s Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems (OWTSs) are responsible for the pollution. Nothing could be further from the truth. The RWQCB’s own records show that none of the 6,000 plus OWTSs under the City of Malibu’s jurisdiction have had incidents in which effluent has surfaced and drained to any watercourse or ocean during the past three years. This is a 100 percent clean record.
Although 34 additional incidents were reported in Malibu, those incidents involved OWTSs not under the city’s jurisdiction but under the jurisdiction of the RWQCB, with 23 in Paradise Cove. The City is not responsible for these failures.
In contrast, the County of Los Angeles’s 2007-2009 record reveals 390 spill incidents that drained 647,000 gallons of raw sewage into rivers and oceans which washed up onto beaches used for recreation. Malibu’s exemplary record should put the city into the Hall of Fame, not the Hall of Shame.
Malibu’s flawless OWTS record is attributable to the expertise and commitment to safety and environmental protection on the part of the City Council and the city’s highly trained professionals. The city has spent enormous amounts analyzing the most advanced OWTSs and then requiring property owners to construct the (very expensive) systems most effective at eliminating all forms of pollution. A prohibition on systems that meet clean water standards will not reduce pollution.
Norman Haynie
Chair Malibu Wastewater Advisory Committee