Council votes to delay city wastewater treatment program until Lumber Yard mall opens.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
Two City Council members late last week sent a letter to the Regional Water Quality Control Board in an effort to save a relationship that been has been crumbling during the past several months.
The Regional Water board will vote next month on a proposal from its staff to terminate a 2004 agreement between the city and the state agency on wastewater discharge permitting. An end to the agreement would mean all wastewater proposals, even residential septic tanks, would need approval from the Regional Water board, which meets in downtown Los Angeles and has much more than Malibu on its plate. The letter, written by Council members Sharon Barovsky and John Sibert, asks for the agreement to be renegotiated rather than eliminated entirely. The city had not received a response as of Tuesday.
“As an alternative to dissolution of our successful partnership in the management of onsite wastewater treatment systems in Malibu and additional clean water programs, we request that the board engage in the renegotiation,” the letter states.
City Manager Jim Thorsen said in an interview this week that Regional Water head Tracy Egoscue, who he has publicly accused of being biased against Malibu, told him she and the board members received the letter. He said he asked her if she would recommend a renegotiation of the agreement to the board. When asked by The Malibu Times of her response, he did not give a direct answer, and said, “It’s really a board decision.”
Egoscue and the board members could not be reached for comment for this story.
The conflict between the city and Regional Water is due to a disagreement of which entity has the right to grant the wastewater discharge permit for the under-construction Lumber Yard mall on the city-owned Legacy Park. The 2004 Memorandum of Understanding allows the city to issue permits when the amount of wastewater generated is less than 2,000 gallons per day. Larger projects must still get approval from Regional Water. The mall, when it initially opens, will generate less than 2,000 gallons of water because it will not have its two future restaurants. So the city has decided to handle the wastewater permitting for the initial opening of the mall with the idea that owner Richard Weintraub could obtain an additional permit from Regional Water once the restaurants are ready. Regional Water staff disagreed, saying only one permit-from the Regional Water board-should be issued.
Regional Water staff told the city this fall that if the city issued a permit, it would be considered an illegally issued permit. City staff refused to back down. In response, Regional Water staff has recommended its board terminate the agreement with the city. A staff recommendation for the Nov. 13 meeting also gives the option for a “septic system prohibition,” although that is not listed as the top recommendation.
The city is still going through with its plan to issue a wastewater permit. Weintraub and city staff are working on the final features of the process. This permit does not need Planning Commission or City Council approval. However, the Regional Water board will not vote on its permit until its Dec. 11 meeting.
Meanwhile, the longer the opening of the Lumber Yard mall is delayed, the longer it will be until the city begins work on its wastewater treatment program. The City Council on Monday voted to delay the project until the mall is fully operational, with council members saying they wanted to have the guarantee of Lumber Yard rent money before taking on an expensive project.
Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich, who eventually voted with her council colleagues, said she was concerned about delaying the project. She asked Barovsky how she would explain the delay to the various environmental groups and Regional Water, who are all impatiently waiting for the city to solve its wastewater pollution issue.
“Like an adult,” Barovsky snapped in response to Conley Ulich. “That we can’t afford it right now until we’ve ensured a revenue stream to pay for it, I’m sure they’ll understand. They all have budgets.”