(The following letter was sent to the Water Quality Control Board members.)
I read recently in the July 6 issue of the Malibu Surfside News that you are considering a request from Pepperdine University to discharge effluent into Marie Canyon during “emergency” conditions. I implore you to deny this request, and in fact find it amazing that it would even merit consideration.
As you well know, Malibu is already troubled with pollution, due in large part to actions taken elsewhere, i.e., the Tapia Sewage Treatment Plant discharging “treated effluent” into Malibu Creek, where it proceeds to contaminate Surfrider Beach. This Pepperdine request is to support expansion of their facilities, and the answer should be evident – if their facilities are insufficient to handle the expansion, the expansion must be postponed until the facilities are expanded to match.
To authorize Pepperdine to discharge effluent into Marie Canyon would be dereliction of duty for a Water Quality Control Board. Marie Canyon is not some remote, wilderness area. It is immediately adjacent to the Pepperdine campus, in the watershed of the Santa Monica Mountains that drains directly across Pacific Coast Highway and onto Malibu Beach along Old Malibu Road. Absolutely intolerable.
Beyond the fundamental issue, Pepperdine has long shown a disregard for the well being of Malibu. Although they desired to “be in” Malibu, they deliberately sought to be outside the city. Malibuans know that these “emergency” conditions would become routine, and we would be stuck with pollution, with the polluter given relief from the laws that the rest of the community is forced to live with, and for our own well being are attempting to enhance.
Please deny this request to allow Pepperdine University to dump their effluent in Marie Canyon, or anywhere else in Malibu, under any conditions.
Erwin E. Schulze, Jr.