Upstream Homeowners Oblivious to Runoff Impact on Malibu

Photo credits MSN Photos/Hans Laetz
MOVING POLLUTION—Urban runoff, full of fertilizer and pet droppings, flows towards Surfrider Beach in an Agoura Hills storm channel.

WASTERS—Randal Orton examines a computerized map that shows nearly all of the residences in one Calabasas neighborhood are overusing water. Overirrigation causes urban runoff, which flows into Malibu Creek and is suspected of making surfers sick at Surfrider Beach.

• Water Agency Hopes to Convince Water Wasters that Pollution Must Be Checked

by Hanz Laetz

A disappointingly small percentage of upstream residents are signing up for a program to reduce flows from lawn sprinklers leaking into Malibu Creek, water district officials say, setting back a pilot program to reduce chronic water pollution at Surfrider Beach.

The plan by the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District is to help reduce the chronic water pollution problem at Malibu’s Surfrider Beach by eliminating as much urban runoff water as possible in Malibu Creek during dry seasons, said Randal Orton, a resource conservation administrator at the Calabasas-based water and sewer utility.

“It is exceedingly difficult to get people to change their habits voluntarily,” Orton said.
Armed with studies that show 58 percent of the homeowners in the district’s Malibu Creek watershed area are overwatering their yards, scientists are worried that the resultant chronic runoff can carry fertilizer, dog droppings and bacteria into the Malibu Creek watershed.

The water district sent letters to the 550 worst-offending homes out of the 20,000 residences in the district this summer, offering a free water use survey and up to $350 in reimbursements for repairing leaky irrigation systems. But only a handful of the homeowners responded.

“We have a plan B, which is to start knocking on doors,” Orton said. If that doesn’t work, plan C is city ordinances against dry-weather runoff into a curb, something the City of Santa Monica has enacted to reduce urban runoff there, Orton said.

Although tests show the Las Virgenes runoff is fairly clean, it adds flow to the creek at times when it naturally should dry up. Las Virgenes is under government pressure to prevent dry weather flows in the creek, which adds water to Malibu lagoon and causes occasional flushes of dirty water into the ocean right in the middle of a world-famous surf break.

“It isn’t that the runoff water itself is polluted, it’s that it is a medium for picking up other things,” said Jeff Reinhardt, a water district customer service manager.

The district is part owner of the Tapia sewage plant, which during wet weather sends highly cleaned sewage effluent into the creek. Although that water is virtually drinkable, the fact that any effluent at all is in the creek has some downstream users very upset.

That, in turn, has cast Las Virgenes as a bad neighbor, despite having the most expensive, most effective sewage plant operating in Los Angeles County.

Using computers, weather sensors, and individual household meter readings, the district has drawn detailed maps that show where street runoff can be expected in its service area of Agoura Hills, Westlake Village and Calabasas. Orton said his staff then goes out and collects evidence of constant water runoff, such as stained pavement and algae growing on curbs.

Overuse of watering is related to the amount of water running into the street, studies show, Orton said.

Offending homeowners are offered the free services of a landscaping expert who will measure soil moisture, look at timers and examine sprinklers. Repair costs up to $350 are reimbursed by the water district, which will also pay additionally for the installation of automatic sprinkler computers that sense plant needs.

“It’s a great deal,” said Reinhardt. “We’re offering to buy people the equivalent of a Prius water controller.” The water experts hope door-to-door visits to the 550 homes can increase participation in the pilot project. “We may be victims of our own success, making water the least-expensive commodity that you can buy,” Orton said. “But the upstream cities are on the hook to clean this urban runoff up, and we have to take steps now.”