Civic Center Wastewater Plant Workshop Scheduled

City officials have scheduled a public workshop this week regarding plans to build a $41-million wastewater treatment site in Malibu’s Civic Center. 

The treatment plant is slated to be constructed on a parcel in Winter Canyon, across from Webster Elementary School and Our Lady of Malibu. The meeting, led by the city’s Planning Commission, is scheduled for Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Malibu City Hall. 

A draft report analyzing the plant’s potential environmental impacts was released earlier this month. The draft report forecasts potentially significant impacts on the vegetation and environmental resources located in the Civic Center, including removal of nesting vegetation for many species in the Malibu Creek and Lagoon, alteration of groundwater outflow due to the planned wastewater injections, impacts on fish that use the Malibu Creek for movement and removal of environmentally protected oak and walnut trees, among many others. 

The public has until July 28 to comment on the draft environmental report, which is available here. 

On Wednesday, “the city’s consultant team will provide a presentation on the project and members of the public and the Planning Commission will have the opportunity to ask questions,” according to an announcement from the city.

Under a development prohibition placed on the City of Malibu in 2011 by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, the city is required to build a centralized wastewater treatment system in the Civic Center by November 2015. The city is nine months behind on that timeline. 

The agreement also stipulates homeowners living within the Civic Center prohibition area must connect to the system by 2019 and phase out their septic systems.