A draft report detailing the environmental impacts of a proposed wastewater treatment plant in Malibu’s Civic Center has been released by the city.
The report highlights several “potentially significant” impacts the project’s construction could have on the vegetation and environmental resources located in the Civic Center, including removal of nesting vegetation for many species in the Malibu Creek and Lagoon, alteration of groundwater outflow due to the planned wastewater injections, impacts on fish that use the Malibu Creek for movement and removal of environmentally protected oak and walnut trees, among many other impacts.
Under a development prohibition placed on the City of Malibu in 2011 by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, the city is required to build a centralized wastewater treatment system in the Civic Center by November 2015. The city is nine months behind on that timeline.
The agreement also stipulates homeowners living within the Civic Center prohibition area must connect to the system by 2019 and phase out their septic systems.
The public has until July 28 to comment on the draft environmental report, which is available here.
The project is estimated to cost $41 million. The city hopes to fully fund the facility through payments from Civic Center commercial and residential landowners to an assessment district. A tentative site has been identified for the facility on a parcel along Civic Center Way in Winter Canyon opposite the Maison De Ville condominiums.
