New Pollution Hotspots Mar the Coast

• One Can Be Explained; the Other Remains a Mystery

BY BILL KOENEKER

While water experts said the so-called first flush of storm drains and creeks spilling polluted stormwater runoff into the ocean last week was not large-scale, there remain troubling questions about two hotspots of pollution along the Malibu coastline.
Solstice Creek, most of which is located on National Park Service land, is supposed to be a pristine creek that flows perennially into the Pacific Ocean, but that has not been the case for the past few months.
It is one of the few streams that run year-round even in drought years, but for the past two months when the water reaches the Pacific Ocean, it is polluted and so far experts are scratching their heads about the cause.
The results of Heal the Bay’s weekly beach report card have shown for about the last eight weeks when the creek water reaches the outlet at Dan Blocker Beach the water is so polluted, it is getting a flunking grade.
Water quality experts at Heal the Bay said they have noticed the poor water quality and have discussed the matter.
Using contacts at the Santa Monica Baykeeper, they hope to have input from an initial field survey sometime in the next couple of weeks. “We have raised the flag with the [Heal the Bay] stream team,” said a Baykeeper spokesperson. “We expect they will do some upstream water testing shortly.”
The National Park Service, which owns most of the canyon bottom and hundreds of acres of the canyon’s watershed north of Corral Canyon Road, indicated park officials have no regular water quality testing program in the canyon.
“We have not done any testing recently. We may have done water quality testing last spring,” said a Park Service official.
Equally troubling are the flunking grades still being posted on the weekly report card for the Marie Canyon storm drain outlet at a Malibu Road beach.
The outlet had been testing positive for poor water quality all summer long, but Los Angeles County officials explained that the stormwater treatment facility had been broken and untreated water was fouling the ocean at the testing location at the outlet.
A county public works official said weeks ago the stormwater treatment facility was online after major repairs. However, county officials now say new problems have developed with the water treatment system.
Last spring, the pumps of the facility became clogged with debris from the fire at Bluffs Park.
The pumps were replaced and with little fanfare the system went back online, but with little improvement for water quality showing up on the beach.
A spokesperson for the county department of public works, which oversees operations, said the latest problem is the ultra-violet light going off and on. The UV process is what kills infectious organisms.
The light apparently has malfunctioned for some time without detection.
The county spokesperson said they would begin to do closer monitoring of the plant and of the output of the treatment facility after being informed the beach downstream had been receiving flunking grades for the last two months.
These two hotspots of pollution are in stark contrast to the rest of the coastline where beaches, including Surfrider Beach, have been scoring A or A-plus grades.