Searching your online paper, the last mention of the Malibu Lagoon Restoration Project I could find was a 2016 reader letter. Your paper should write a piece on the results of the six-year post-construction study, released just last month by The Bay Foundation.
The resounding success of the project is stunning and should be celebrated by your entire community. Furthermore, the leaders of project opposition back in 2010, and who continued to oppose it at significant cost to taxpayers, ought to be publicly called out for their misdeeds and lies.
In short, the Final Monitoring Report (santamonicabay.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Malibu-Lagoon_YR6-Report_FINAL_8-7-19.pdf) shows the project wholly succeeded in meeting its set goals, performance standards and success criteria, and requires no supplemental work. In other words, it was done perfectly right on the first try and is done. The lagoon’s water circulation and water quality is improved, a benefit to swimmers and surfers at Malibu Beach, who were in the past exposed to fluctuating and sometimes unhealthy water quality prior to the project. Also, compared to the pre-project days, a diverse native plant and animal ecosystem is thriving there and seems resilient to natural and manmade impacts, including the Woolsey Fire. Access is much improved as well.
Marcia Hanscom and her “Do Nothing” allies opposed the project at every turn, even going so far as petitioning the coastal commission to stop the project after construction had already commenced, which caused coastal commission staff to prepare a costly, 993-page defense of the project. At the ultimate Aug. 8, 2012 hearing on Hanscom’s petition, Commissioner Jana Zimmer summed it up nicely: “There’s not a single shred of evidence that would have to be proven for us to entertain revocation,” Zimmer said. (Marina Del Rey Patch, 8/8/2012)
Now, your southern neighbors advocating for the state’s Ballona Wetlands Restoration Project are unfortunately dealing with the same baseless, deceitful opposition from Hanscom and her flock. Anything Hanscom ever says should be greeted with extreme skepticism and prejudice.
Dr. David W. Kay