Agency plans to remove 18,000 cubic yards of silt to improve water flow and remove stagnant pools from the lagoon. The $31 million project will replace three dead-end tidal canals and create three islands for birds.
By Hans Laetz / Special to The Malibu Times
Dredging of Malibu Lagoon is on track to begin in the fall, and while biologists and wildlife enthusiasts applaud the plan to restore what they see as a key bird habitat, at least one Malibu resident sees a costly boondoggle to restore what he calls a mud flat.
But biologists praise the $3 million project, which will deepen the 31-acre lagoon, replace three dead-end tidal canals with a broad loop channel and create three islands for birds.
“It’s going to increase the water circulation and eliminate the stagnant areas in the lagoon,” said Damon Wing, project scientist for the Santa Monica Mountains Resource and Conservation District. “Since we’ve lost 95 percent of the historical lagoons along the California coast, it’s important to keep the ones we have functioning and healthy.”
The overall amount of water expected to flow between the lagoon and adjacent Surfrider State Beach is not expected to change after the project is completed, said State Parks and Recreation Department scientist Suzanne Goode. But the improved lagoon water circulation will mean the occasional water flows to the beach will be less fetid.
As with all major projects, an environmental impact report is required by state law to evaluate possible negative impacts on the surrounding terrain and neighbors, and require the project to include steps to minimize those impacts if found.
Officials said no formal objections were filed to the plan during that period, which is on track for construction to begin with the relocation of parking lots close to Pacific Coast Highway’s Malibu Creek Bridge in the fall.
But longtime Malibu geologist Don Michael has come forward to say he disagrees with both the concept and execution of the lagoon restoration project.
“There is no reason to think the lagoon is particularly worthy of restoration based on what it used to be,” he said.
“The mouth of that channel will clog because, when Malibu Creek floods, it brings down all sorts of stuff in suspension,” Michael said. “Permanent, periodic dredging of that channel will become necessary.”
State Parks Department officials see no need for permanent dredging operations that Michael predicts. Goode says hydrological modeling shows that the occasional heavy flow of the creek will be partly diverted to the channel, which will flush silt out to sea, as the lagoon originally flowed.
And she said the likely Rindge Dam removal project “will not be allowed to fill up the lagoon with silt, or deposit huge sediment loads in any of the upstream flat areas that would cause flooding to upstream landowners.”
The lagoon was last restored in 1983, when Little League fields were removed and the three channels were dug at right angles to the creek. The new proposal calls for two bird islands to be created in the west lagoon, with a third sculpted near the Adamson House’s boat dock east of the creek.
Digging up the lagoon is expected to temporarily increase the amount of noise and dust for the neighboring million-dollar beachfront houses in the adjacent Malibu Colony. The impact report calls for noise monitors to stop unusually loud rackets as they occur, and for the project to abide by the city of Malibu’s construction hours. Residents within 500 feet of the project will be given a telephone number for a construction supervisor, who will have the authority to act on noise complaints, the plan says.
The project will include the removal of as much as 18,000 cubic yards of silt, the equivalent of about 1,200 dump truck loads of muck that will be trucked to a landfill. But construction timetables call for the dump truck trips to be spread over 150 days, meaning an average of eight truck trips per day.
Goode said the increased circulation in the lagoon would lessen the already low possibility of mosquito breeding, which requires standing water that has not mixed with the ocean. And she said the amount of water pollution on the adjacent Surfrider State Beach will be monitored, but is not expected to increase.