Several Malibu beaches highly polluted, enviro group says
Several Malibu beaches received failing grades from the environmental group Heal the Bay’s End of Summer Beach Report Card, which was released last week. The report card assigned an A to F letter grade to beaches throughout California based on their levels of bacterial pollution from May 29 through Sept. 30.
Receiving Fs were Paradise Cove, Escondido Creek, Solstice Canyon, the Marie Canyon storm drain at Puerco Beach and Carbon Beach. Leo Carrillo Beach, Surfrider Beach and Big Rock Beach received Cs. Latigo Canyon, Puerco State Beach and the Malibu Pier earned Bs. And As were received by Zuma Beach, Walnut Creek and Las Flores State Beach, while El Pescador State Beach, Encinal Canyon and Broad Beach received A+s
Men arrested who allegedly robbed home, tied up woman
Two men were arrested last Thursday for allegedly tying up a woman and robbing the display home at which she was housesitting on Latigo Canyon Road, just outside of the city limits.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s officials said the two men, one of them armed, broke into the home at approximately 11:30 p.m. and bound the arms of the woman they found inside. The men allegedly stole two televisions, cell phones and the woman’s purse. They were spotted less than an hour later in Santa Monica by local police officers.
Emergency response training comes to Malibu
The city of Malibu with the Los Angeles County Fire Department is presenting Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT, training for members of the public. The course will be presented as a series of classes on Saturday, Nov. 11, Nov. 18 and Dec. 2 The classes are from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m., with a one-hour lunch break. All classes must be attended in order to complete the full course. The classes are free.
To sign up for the classes, contact Brad Davis at 310.456.2489 ext. 260, or by e-mail at bdavis@ci.malibu.ca.us.
Memorial service scheduled for Malibu cinematographer
A memorial service will take place on Saturday for James Glennon, the Malibu cinematographer who died Oct. 19 due to complications from an illness. The service will take place at the Egyptian Theater, located at 6712 Hollywood Blvd., from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Glennon, who had a more than a three-decade career in the movie and television industries, is survived by his wife, Charmaine, and his children, Meghan, Allison, Andrew and Juliet. The family requests that donations in his honor be made to The UCLA Film School, Attention: Rosalee Sass, UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television, P.O. Box 951622, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1622. Checks should be made payable to UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television
New local fire station to open
Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman will be on hand Saturday to dedicate the new Fire Station 72 at 1832 Decker Canyon Road. The dedication will take place at 10 a.m.
This 4,500-square-foot station will house an engine company and patrol, with dormitory quarters for up to 4 shift personnel and will be one of Los Angeles County’s Safely Surrendered sites for abandoned newborns. This station replaces the 65-year-old seismically deficient facility that was condemned following the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. This is the first Los Angeles County Fire Station to have installed a photovoltaic solar panel system, which will allow us to help power the station; any excess unused power can be “returned” for credit to the power company.
Additional features at the dedication will include static displays of our fire department equipment along with informative public educational materials focusing on the Wildland Fire Season.
Battle against N.Z. mud snail intensifies
The Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission, UCLA and Heal the Bay released a report last month that says the highly invasive New Zealand mud snail is present in 15 of the 44 sites surveyed in the Malibu Creek watershed. Mud snails were found in Medea Creek, Malibou Lake and multiple sites in Malibu Creek and Las Virgenes Creek, including the confluence of Las Virgenes and Malibu Creeks.
The presence of New Zealand mud snails threatens current efforts at habitat restoration and protection, particularly those to restore populations of the endangered steelhead trout, according to Heal the Bay.
“The good news is many of the watershed’s streams are not yet infested, so we can act now to protect the others,” said Los Angeles City Councilmember Jack Weiss, chair of the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission, in a press release.
Typically spread by humans on wet boots, waders and gear, New Zealand mud snails reproduce by cloning. A single snail is capable of producing a colony of 40 million in the course of a single year. In large numbers, these, algae-eating snails can completely cover a streambed and wreak havoc on local stream ecosystems, causing devastating impacts on local fish and amphibians.
Around 400 warning signs will be posted at trailheads and access points throughout the Santa Monica Mountains. The signs describe simple steps to prevent the spread of mud snails, including transferring anything wet from stream to stream, removing all mud and debris and completely drying one’s belongings.
“Although there is no evidence to indicate they have spread to other Santa Monica Mountain watersheds at this time, these findings make clear the need to prevent further spread of the New Zealand mud snail to all Southern California streams,” said Mark Abramson, Stream Team manager for Heal the Bay, who initiated the site study. “There is no easy way to eradicate the snail.”
Efforts are currently underway to develop education and outreach on mud snails, and to incorporate decontamination protocols into Santa Monica Mountains environmental monitoring programs. Many monitoring programs were suspended following the discovery of the New Zealand mud snail in May 2006 and are now set to resume over the next few months.
For more information, go to www.mudsnails.com.
Early morning network outages possible for Charter customers
Charter Communications announced that it will be performing maintenance on its broadband network over the next two months. After midnight, customers may experience network outages from time to time; however, all services should by back on line by 6 a.m.
-Jonathan Friedman