The City of Malibu California State Parks are working to correct an error that may have left the city temporarily out of federal compliance, dating back to the beginning of the Malibu Lagoon Restoration Project in 2012. The error could potentially make the city partly liable for disaster relief expenses should a flood occur in the Malibu Creek flood plain while it remains out of compliance.
The matter concerns the dredging and reshaping of the Malibu Lagoon, which lies in a floodplain and special hazard area designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Malibu’s municipal code includes a floodplain management plan that requires the city to ensure any development meets minimum FEMA guidelines for floodplain management.
Malibu City Manager Jim Thorsen said State Parks was required to submit a study to FEMA prior to the project to determine if the work would change the floodplain characteristics of Malibu Creek, as well as “as-built” information at the project’s conclusion to receive final approval. But it did not do so, and now the city is working to regain compliance. The city sent a letter to State Parks in November requesting it conduct a floodplain study and potentially a hydraulic analysis of the Malibu Creek and lagoon.
“We should’ve caught that ahead of time, we did not, we came in afterwards,” Thorsen said in a November City Council meeting. “I’ve seen many floodplain studies over the years, and it’s my belief that the study itself will be something of value, but I doubt it’ll change [anything]. But it should’ve been done, and now we’re catching up to it.”
Thorsen said Monday the study should be completed within a month or two.
Recorded accounts of flooding in Malibu Creek occurred as early as 1884 and 1890, and more recently in 1978, 1983, 1992, 1995 and 2005. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which tracks flood losses, shows a total of 73 claims in Malibu from 1978 to 2011, totaling about $1.7 million.
The matter first came to the city’s attention in October, when a Malibu Colony resident began corresponding with Thorsen about the matter after other Colony residents wanted reassurance the lagoon project would have some oversight by FEMA to assure the hydrology was sound. Malibu Colony is adjacent to the Malibu Lagoon, and would be the most impacted residential area in the event of a flood.
Craig Sap, superintendent of the California State Parks Angeles District, acknowledged in a phone interview that the FEMA matter wasn’t brought to their attention until “halfway through the [lagoon restoration] project.” Sap said State Parks is now in the process of putting together the information Malibu needs in order to satisfy its FEMA requirements.
“We retained the company that’s done hydrology studies for Malibu in the past (ICFI), and the study should be done in the next couple of weeks,” Sap said. “There’s not a material change in the area, though. The elevation hasn’t changed and we stayed in the footprint.”
Sap went on to explain that the same engineer that made the original grading plans has been retained by the state to look at the old and new footprint of the lagoon and analyze the changes that have been made. The state has also arranged to use a mapping program to run other analyses.
“I think what we put in [the lagoon] provides even better protection for the Colony against flooding than what they had before.” Sap said.