City and Water Board Members Meet on Issue of Issuance of Discharge Permits

• Session Focuses on Need for Improved Communications

BY BILL KOENEKER

Four members of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board and its staff met with two Malibu City Council members and their staff, including the city manager and city attorney, last week, to talk about the memo of understanding between the two entities that controls who issues wastewater discharge permits in Malibu.
The meeting on Wednesday first started in the conference room but had to be moved because of an overflow crowd to the council chambers.
City Attorney Christi Hogin said she thought it was important for everyone, including the public, to understand what is on the table.
“To understand why there is this negotiation, state law requires that onsite water treatment systems get permits from the regional board. The memo is an agreement between the city and the RWQCB for single-family residences and commercial. It is an enormous staff effort. The memo defines those lines. The city is not obligated to do it,” she noted.
Under the current agreement, the city issues permits for single-family homes and some commercial systems under 2000 gallons per day. The board issues permits for all other commercial buildings.
Board member Fran Diamond went on to explain. “This the first MOU of the board and in the state. The MOU is for five years. It is time to renegotiate. Obviously, there are some problems, but we are not pointing fingers,” she said.
Diamond made it clear, though, that the brouhaha between the city and the board was over who would issue permits for the city’s Malibu Lumber Yard shopping center, which is what prompted the current review. “That was a very big issue. Some board members were very upset with that. The MOU was not working to get to that point,” she said.
“I agree,” said Councilmember Sharon Barovsky. “You can’t move forward if you don’t know where you were. The MOU accomplished a lot. It has been a good process up until now.”
Some board members took time drilling city staffer Craig George about where the city was in their process to account for all of the existing wastewater systems in the city.
Talk then focused on how better communications can be maintained between the two agencies.
There was also some discussion about who was supposed to monitor what and who was supposed to do water testing.
That is when the finger pointing began. A municipal official wanted to know why the board was backlogged seven years on some notices of violation.
Whereupon board member Madelyn Glickfeld, a Malibu resident, said some systems in Malibu were polluting and exceeding standards. Barovsky shot back, “You don’t shut those down? We do.”
Glickfeld countered the board cannot be the public works department for Malibu.
Barovsky pursued her line of questioning wanting to know when the RWQCB gets the monitoring reports and why NOVs are not sent out then, but seven years later.
Glickfeld said the board’s work has to be put into context because it oversees a large area of Southern California. “Are you testing water quality?” she asked. Barovsky answered by saying, “The MOU says you are supposed to do that.”
The panelists talked about how to define monitoring and what issues should be explored by the staffs compiling a list of issues.
Then it was the public’s turn to comment. Tom Ford, the executive director of the Santa Monica Baykeeper, acknowledging the group has gone to court to settle some of the issues, insisted permitting should be stopped in the Civic Center. “Stop development in the Civic Center,” he said.
Mark Gold, the president of Heal the Bay, said that 18 years ago he did his doctoral dissertation on human fecal pollution in the waterways of Santa Monica Bay. “Can we put that to rest? We know the water quality. The MOU did not work. “We strongly support a moratorium [in the Civic Center],” he added.
Several representatives from surfing organizations spoke, saying the lagoon and Surfrider Beach “is a toilet that is full and overflowing,” and “toilet water is dripping in my mouth and nose.”
City official insisted they were working on the problem, but being sued by the very organizations that were urging them on held the municipality back. “I don’t know how we can work faster,” said Councilmember John Sibert.