Also, the city received a $925,000 grant from the California Resources Agency to continue the restoration of the Las Flores Canyon area.
By The Malibu Times Staff
A small demonstration project at Paradise Cove that has been in existence for a couple years could soon be expanded to clean the local beach that has consistently not been meeting healthy water quality standards.
The city received word last week that the State Water Resources Control Board’s staff has recommended the voting body approve a $927,000 Clean Beach Initiative grant to build a water treatment facility at Paradise Cove. Although it had been reported in other local media and some city officials announced at Monday’s City Council meeting that Malibu had already received the grant, the SWRCB will not vote on whether the city will get the money until September.
If the city gets the grant, which former Malibu Interim Public Works Director and current Special Projects Engineer Granville “Bow” Bowman said he believes is likely to happen, the money will be used to build a water treatment facility that will curb the polluted water and debris coming from Ramirez Canyon. A smaller version of such a facility already exists at Paradise Cove.
The water treatment plant will collect water traveling from Ramirez Canyon and remove debris, oil and grease from it. UV rays will then be used to disinfect the water before it enters the beach.
Bowman said “some bureaucratic stuff” must be dealt with once the city receives the money, but he said a project could be designed, constructed and completed within a year “if things go right.”
While the city waits to hear about the Paradise Cove grant, it already knows that it will be getting $925,000 from the state Resources Agency through Proposition 50 funding for its Las Flores Creek area restoration project. The multimillion-dollar project, for which the city has now received almost all the funding it needs, will be going into the design phase shortly.
The restoration project, according to the city, includes removing the creek’s hardening embankments, building a foundation and re-contouring the land to allow the creek bed to widen out to reduce scour of the streambed and embankments. The project also includes protecting native vegetation and specimen sycamore trees, removing non-native invasive species and planting additional native plants to recreate a natural creek area and enhanced habitat for fish and wildlife. Also, some small trails and other basic park amenities will be added.