The long brewing battle over the discharge of treated wastewater into Marie Canyon, adjacent to Pepperdine University, has long been a source of contention between the inhabitants of Malibu Road and the students and staff of Pepperdine University. A number of Malibu Road residents have charged that the discharge from the Malibu Mesa plant are undermining Malibu Road, a point which Pepperdine hotly disputes.
Next week, the Malibu Mesa Treatment plant, which is actually run by the County of Los Angeles, but services the septic needs of both Pepperdine and the Malibu Country Estate residential community, will be before the Region Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) for a renewal of their discharge permit, which currently permits them to make emergency discharges into Marie Canyon.
The City of Malibu, represented by attorney Greg Aftergood, and the Malibu Road homeowners charge that the plant has abused the permit by making discharges into the canyon when emergencies didn’t exist, and want additional restrictions put on the discharge.
The issue appears to hinge on a difference of opinion about the capacity of the two Pepperdine storage lakes on the campus, which hold the effluent after treatment. It’s only when the lakes are filled that the discharge into the canyon is permitted.
“We are hoping for, and are cautiously optimistic, that the board will adopt orders with definitive standards,” said Aftergood.
The city is also looking for the RWQCB to determine what the actual capacity of these reservoirs are and what level the reservoirs should be brought down to before the onset of wet weather, said Aftergood, who wants the board to establish clear parameters to constitute a true emergency condition warranting release of water.
In the past, the city found that the wastewater treatment facility, operated by L.A. County Dept. of Public Works, released water into the canyon two months per year in a four-year period.
“The question is whether this is violation,” said Aftergood.
Part of the problem is that it seems no one had the information about the true storage capacity of the reservoirs and without that, it is hard to determine whether a true emergency exists, he said.
“Until we got into the picture to find out what it really is, Pepperdine said they only hold eight million gallons,” said Aftergood, who indicated the true storage capacity is 12.4 million gallons.
However, Kelly Ray, director of Regulatory Affairs at Pepperdine, has an explanation for the discrepancies in storage capacity numbers.
The 12 million gallon figure came from an old report based on an engineer drawing created in 1985, she said.
“We have been asked to commission an outside consultant to check what the elevations are and how deep the reservoirs really are,” said Ray. “Right now we were just submitted numbers, which are tentative until next week.”
The total volume for both reservoirs is approximately 8.4 to 8.5 million gallons, she said. This does not include unusable water at the bottom because this water cannot be pumped out since it lies below the pump.
“The pump can only draw water so far,” said Ray.
But pumping is necessary at times because, if the reservoirs are too full, rain and wind can blow the water over and that is something to be avoided, explained Ray.
There was a meeting last week with the RWQCB, Heal-the-Bay, the Santa Monica Bay Keepers and Pepperdine that was promising, she said.
“We are very close to everybody being happy.”