Environmental Groups File Lawsuit against
Malibu
• City and County Said to Be Guilty of
Federal Clean Water Act Violations
Following through on the threat of
litigation made in June of last year, two environmental groups
filed test lawsuits in U.S. District Court on Monday, charging
that the City of Malibu and Los Angeles County are in
violation of the federal Clean Water Act.
The 31-page complaint and 54-page brief are
elaborations of contentions first raised by the Natural
Resources Defense Council and Santa Monica Baykeeper with the
city and the county last summer.
The groups allege that the city and the
county are guilty of “discharge [of pollutants] into
Southern California’s surface and coastal waters in
violation of the federal Clean Water Act for at least the past
five years.”
NRDC and Baykeeper hope to see their court
action result in a ruling that “governments [will be]
held accountable for measurable results.” They use the
county’s own data to show that toxics from fecal material
to poisons exceed allowable legal levels and there has
been no quantifiable improvement since the issue was raised.
David Beckman, director of NRDC’s
Coastal Water Quality Project, said, “It’s
time to stop going through the motions of fighting water
pollution, and actually clean up the water.”
When the groups announced their intention
to sue last year—they are required to give 60 days
notice—Malibu city officials appeared stunned at the
possibility, asserting that the Civic Center water quality
projects represented a municipal effort to clean up the
pollution in the area.
But NRDC and Baykeeper responded at that
time with a “too little, too late” reaction. That
local officials appeared equally caught off guard with this
week’s court filings is just as surprising in light of
the two groups’ ongoing expressions of concern about
water quality off the Malibu coast.
Of special concern to the pair of activist
organizations is the stretch of coast from Mugu Lagoon in
Ventura County to Latigo Point in the city, one of 34
designated Areas of Special Biological Significance in
California.
They stress that “ASBSs are unique
areas afforded special protection by the State of
California’s Ocean Plan, which prohibits any pollution
discharges into or near these areas.”
The lawsuit does not spell out how the city
and the county should clean up local waters. The complaint
implies that there is the technology to deal with this, but
that local governments have dragged their feet in exploring
alternatives and actually putting anti-pollution programs in
place.
Tom Ford, the executive director of Santa
Monica Baykeeper, said, “We need results, not more paper
shuffling.”
While attorneys for the defendants cry foul
in that they are moving as quickly as possible on these
matters, the complaints said the foulness of the water causes
illness in beachgoers, adversely impacts marine life
and degrades the chemical composition of local coastal waters.
