Malibu’s mayor says staff is playing politics and not interested in science.
By Jonathan Friedman / Special to The Malibu Times
City officials earlier this month were once again denied their request for a delay on the Nov. 5 hearing by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board to ban septic systems in a large portion of the eastern end of Malibu. The city made the request during the public comment portion of a water board hearing.
The proposed ban covers commercial sections of the city such as the Civic Center area and the stretch of Pacific Coast Highway from Serra Road to Sweetwater Canyon, as well as the residential areas of Malibu Colony, Malibu Road, Serra Retreat, Sweetwater Mesa and the Malibu Knolls. RWQCB staff has not said what should replace the septic systems, but most likely it would have to be a sewer system or some sort of wastewater treatment plant. So-call zero-discharge septic systems would be exempt from the ban.
Malibu officials say there are five studies, including one that is partially city-funded, being conducted at this time that will prove the proposed ban will not improve water quality. The city wants the septic ban hearing delayed until those studies can be finished, which will be in about six to nine months. RWQCB staff has already provided the public with various pieces of information and studies that it says prove Malibu septic systems are the major cause of watershed pollution.
RWQCB Executive Officer Tracy Egoscue recommended the board not support the city’s request to delay the septic ban hearing. She said in an interview this week that she gave that advice because the RWQCB already has enough information to proceed with a vote.
“As always in these kinds of situations, more science tends to be best,” Egoscue said. “But we have a considerable amount of science that has been done over decades … this has been a long time coming.”
Egoscue also noted that although the permitting of septic systems would be halted if the board were to approve the ban, the city has five years to phase out existing systems.
“If these additional studies add some benefit and value, there’s a five-year time frame; ample time to influence the way that the city chooses to deal with the water quality issues,” Egoscue said.
Mayor Andy Stern said this week that the RWQCB staff’s reluctance to delay the septic ban hearing shows politics, rather than science, is on the water board staff’s mind.
“I find it very peculiar that with five studies about to be released, the regional board is apparently going to rush to judgment before [they] are released,” Stern said. “If science is the motive, as opposed to politics, logic would dictate they would wait just a little while longer.”
Upon hearing about his remarks, Egoscue responded, “The improvement to water quality is the motive.”
Among the five studies the city says will refute the notion that Malibu septic systems are to blame, one is being conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey and is partially funded by the city. City Manager Jim Thorsen said, based on preliminary information from that study, it appears that the high concentrations of bacteria in the Malibu watershed come from the sand, rather than from Malibu septic systems.
Thorsen said the city is urging the USGS to complete as much of the study as it can prior to the Nov. 5 hearing and for next month’s Headwaters to Ocean conference in Long Beach on water and beach issues, at which the city will make a presentation.
RWQCB staff will host a public workshop on the proposal at Pepperdine University’s Elkins Auditorium on Oct. 1 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. A copy of the proposal and studies associated with it can be found at www.swrcb.ca.gov/rwqcb4/. Written comments to the water board on the proposed septic ban must be submitted by Oct. 8.