City officials say the city is eight months behind county-imposed deadlines to build a wastewater treatment plant in the Civic Center by November 2015.
The deadlines were established as part of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) agreed to by the city and the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board in 2011.
City Manager Jim Thorsen said design work ground to a halt in July while the city awaited funding approval from commercial property owners in the area, who agreed to pay special taxes totaling $6.5 million on Nov. 20. Under an agreement with the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, the City of Malibu is obligated to complete an environmental impact report (EIR) for the project by March 31. But it cannot collect $5 million of the $6.5 million in bonds to fund the design of the treatment facility until the end of January, and Thorsen said the city will likely miss the EIR deadline.
“Once we have proceeds in hand, our [engineering] consultant will then be authorized to start again,” Thorsen said.
The eight-month delay in planning has officials from environmental group Heal the Bay fearing a negative ripple effect on the remainder of the project.
“We see this as a very dangerous precedent,” said Water Quality Director Kirsten James. “This means another eight months with water quality that’s not acceptable.”
The last deadline came in June, when Malibu completed a groundwater injection plan for the proposed sewer system based on field testing.
Malibu officials allotted $2.54 million of city money for preliminary design work on the sewer system during the early stages of the project. That money ran out in July, bringing plans to a standstill until Civic Center commercial proper ty owners passed the special tax measure on Nov. 20. At its Nov. 26 meeting, the City Council certified voting results and is expected to certify the sale of bonds at its meeting Monday.
That money should provide $4 million to fund design services and an environmental impact report, and also reimburse the city with $1 million of the $2.54 million it’s spent thus far on the sewer project. The city will not recoup the remaining $1.54 million it spent until the city sells off additional bonds sometime in 2014.
Thorsen would not say for sure whether the city would ask for a deadline extension, but officials for the county water board said they could vote in February or March to revise the mandated timeline, despite Malibu falling behind.
“Every time something is behind, there’s concern, but we understand that being behind doesn’t mean the project won’t get done,” said RWQCB Chair Maria Mehranian.
Sam Unger, executive officer of the regional board, said the delay does not mean Malibu will miss the Nov. 2015 goal to build the treatment center.
“There is a slight possibility of trying to make up time in other areas of the project,” Unger said.
Heal the Bay officials remain critical of the MOU, alleging that Malibu will not be held sufficiently accountable over water quality once the treatment plant is built. They are also concerned about the city’s plan to discharge treated water, which includes the possibility of drilling into an active earthquake fault line through groundwater injections in the Civic Center.
“The [deep well injection] plan should evaluate the possibility of the injection of water to aggravate the earthquake fault,” Heal the Bay officials wrote in a comment letter to the RWQCB.
Thorsen defended the plan, saying the faultline is miles beneath the surface and will not be touched by groundwater injections.
“We’re not having any problems with the fault line,” he said.
The board is still examining the deep well injection plan and third party comments and plans on coming back with its own comments sometime in the next month, Unger said. The EIR should also provide additional research on the feasibility of drilling into an area atop the faultline.