As exemplified by our successful efforts to prohibit dry-weather discharges from April 15 to Nov. 15 from the Tapia Sewage Treatment Plant, our successful Stream Team volunteer monitoring program, and our numerous successful research and advocacy projects to protect water quality in Malibu Lagoon and Surfrider beach, Heal the Bay is tremendously concerned about the health of the Malibu Creek watershed. We can not understand why the city does not become more proactive on initiating restoration efforts in the lower watershed.
The city has not attempted to purchase the proposed Malibu Self-Storage Facility along the banks of the creek despite the fact that $1 million from County Proposition A has been available for linear park development for over five years. In fact, the City Council approved the Malibu Self-Storage Project despite strong objections from the Malibu Environmental Review Board and Heal the Bay.
Also, the city has not fought to remove the hideous, rock rip-rap along the banks of the creek next to Cross-Creek Plaza. Not only is the rip-rap an eyesore, but it has eliminated local riparian vegetation and pollutant removal efficacy that the creek had in that area. The rip-rap should be removed and replaced with bioengineered stream banks with native vegetation as soon as possible. The rip-rap was added to the creek during the El Nino to protect the plaza, but a careful bioengineered solution could provide equal flood control with the added value of improving the ecology and aesthetics of the lower watershed.
With the passage of Propositions 12 and 13 and the existence of Proposition A funds, we strongly urge the city to take back the creek by using available funding sources to restore degraded habitats and provide sorely needed buffer zones and flood control.
Mark Abramson,
Stream Team program manager and longtime Malibu resident