State and county officials turned out for the groundbreaking ceremony for Legacy Park, which they say will improve local water quality. Environmental groups, however, say more needs to be done.
By Olivia Damavandi / Assistant Editor
Malibu residents, city officials and state representatives gathered at the 17-acre Legacy Park Project site Monday to celebrate the official start of its construction, despite an active lawsuit that claims the project violates state law.
The $45 million project, located on a vacant parcel between Pacific Coast Highway and Civic Center Way, will include a storm water treatment system designed to capture, disinfect and recycle more than 2 million gallons per day of storm water and urban runoff from the surrounding watershed. Completion is scheduled for October 2010.
After an opening speech by Malibu Mayor Andy Stern, State Sen. Fran Pavley, State Assemblymember Julia Brownley and Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky publicly praised the project.
“We are facing a record third year of drought…we are going to have to be more resourcefully sustainable, and this project goes a long way in accomplishing that goal,” Pavley said in a speech during the ceremony. “This will become an educational learning environment. I know for many of you it’s been many years of a fight. What a wonderful legacy not only for city council but for all of Malibu.”
“It’s a really great day for us to celebrate,” Brownley added. “This park is going to be a Legacy Park that will restore our habitat and most importantly clean up our beautiful Pacific Ocean.”
City officials say the project will restore and develop riparian habitats, create an open space for recreation and environmental education, and drastically improve water quality of Malibu Creek, Malibu Lagoon and Surfrider Beach, which has been continuously cited among the state’s most polluted beaches.
But four local environmental groups-Heal the Bay, Santa Monica Baykeeper, Surfrider Foundation and the Malibu Surfing Association-say Legacy Park, as designed, will not remedy the pollution because it does not address wastewater discharge, or sewage, which they view as the primary problem of poor water quality in the area. The park was originally intended to treat wastewater as well, until the city in 2007 concluded from initial planning studies that it was not large enough to do so. Since then, environmental groups have revolted against the city’s plans to move forward with construction.
Heal the Bay Executive Director Mark Gold on Tuesday in a phone interview said Legacy Park’s storm water treatment facility could significantly reduce ocean pollution during wet weather, but that it seldom rains in Malibu.
The City of Malibu in April was served its third water quality-related lawsuit from Santa Monica Baykeeper, which claims the city-approved Legacy Park Project violates state law by failing to meet water quality standards and by inadequately treating sewage, or wastewater, generated in the Civic Center area.
Baykeeper Executive Director Tom Ford on Tuesday said he was “not discouraged” by state representatives’ support of Legacy Park, and that Baykeeper’s position on the project remains unchanged.
“We still contend that the design of Legacy Park can better attain the water quality protection that the lagoon and the creek and Surfrider Beach deserve in order to protect the public health and the natural resources of the area,” Ford said in a telephone interview.
“We are still working out a number of issues with the city in settlement discussions regarding Legacy Park, so it seemed premature to protest [the construction ceremony]” Ford said. “But I thought about it.”
Mayor Stern, however, said Monday that Baykeeper didn’t show up to protest the construction ceremony “because they know they’d lose,” and that the organization uses litigation for profit and to gain notoriety.
“The Baykeeper has never said they believe the park is harming the environment so it’s always been bizarre to me that they want to stop the city from cleaning up the pollution,” Stern said. “No environmentalists would try to do that.
“I’ve never understood the motivation of the lawsuit, it’s certainly not environmental,” Stern continued. “We’re cleaning up 90 percent of pathogens in the creek. Baykeeper is good at getting press out and that they like to sue people. That’s their chief function-suing people. They ought to call themselves the Baykeeper Litigation Group.”
Ford, in response, said Baykeeper “is not a profit driving enterprise at all” and that it “resorts to litigation over water quality after years of not getting progress.”
“It’s our commitment to making sure the Clean Water Act is met and that our resources are protected,” he said. “Right now the only losers I see are the people that get sick and wildlife that gets harmed by Malibu’s inability to deal with wastewater pollution.”
Stern said the city is planning on implementing a wastewater treatment facility at the La Paz property, located at the corner of Civic Center Way and Cross Creek Road where Papa Jack’s Skate Park is situated. The project is currently under developmental review by the California Coastal Commission.
However, in December of 2008, Santa Monica Baykeeper filed a lawsuit against the city for its approval of La Paz’s environmental impact report, which, Baykeeper claimed, failed to evaluate the environmental impacts associated with flooding, water quality and storm water runoff in the Civic Center area.
Yet, the city insists that plans to implement a wastewater treatment facility by 2013 are underway.
“That’s the big concern,” Gold continued. “Legacy went forward, it’s a $45 million project. It would be nice if the same urgency existed for solving the wastewater problem.”