My husband Herb and I attended the May 23 meeting held by the Environmental Protection Agency at the Performing Arts Center, 800 Hobson Way, Oxnard. We were the only Malibu residents in attendance. The subject was water discharges from the proposed LNG facility off the shores of Malibu and Oxnard, namely Ballast Water, Deck Drainage, Gray Water, Sanitary Waste, Desalination Unit Discharge, Non-contact Cooling Water, Bilge Water, etc. and how this will affect sea life.
There will be another meeting concerning the effects on air quality on June 5. I think it is commendable that our Mayor Andy Stern committed $50,000 to fight BHP Billiton. But Billiton is the largest mining company in the world and that amount won’t have much of an impact, I fear. But what I do think will have an impact is a large number of Malibu residents, standing beside the Oxnard residents, to fight this dangerous project.
We have until June 20 to submit comments to: Lisa Honor, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9, CWA Standards and Permit Office (WTR-5USEPA) 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA. 94106, email honor.lisa@epa.gov.
I would ask our local papers to announce the June 5 meeting and any future meetings so that we can have a showing of Malibu residents. It’s easy to get there. Turn left at 5 Points onto Wooly. Turn right on J Street, which turns into Hobson Way.
My husband I only found out about the May 23 meeting by a chance phone call from the Sierra Club late the night before. Announcements of these meetings are crucial. It is interesting to note that one of the three EPA members who led the meeting expressed surprise to me that all of the people who spoke at the May 23 meeting were against the LNG proposal.
Ellen Reich