Frequently Asked Questions

The City is providing one State-approved mechanism for property owner compliance with orders from two State agencies, the Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) and the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), that were recorded into state law through a Basin Plan amendment in 2010. The order is a prohibition of discharge from onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS) in a specific zone by specific dates. Penalties for violating the Prohibition Order will be directed at individual property owners, not the City (except as a property owner). The City of Malibu is NOT making property owners connect to the proposed sewer project. A property owner who violates the Prohibition and continues to discharge wastewater to an OWTS could be subject to individual orders from the RWQCB. These orders could range from a mandate to convert septic tanks to sewage holding tanks (with associated truck hauling of the stored flow) to fines of up to $10,000 per day for large volume, high impacting discharges. The RWQCB and SWRCB provided a compliance mechanism via a 2011 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that the City is currently following. If property owners had rejected this approved option (such as through a negative vote on assessment district formation), the consequences would have been imposed by the RWQCB on the individual property owners within the Prohibition Zone, not the City of Malibu. More details about the Basin Plan Amendment and the State’s proceedings to establish the prohibition can be found on the City’s website at: www.malibucity.org/index.aspx?NID=263 and on the SWRCB website at: http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/rwqcb4/water_issues/programs/basin_plan/index.shtml

The City of Malibu commissioned various studies by Stone Environmental and the USGS related to hydrology, geology, bacteria, and nutrients that are available at http://www.malibucity.org/index.aspx?nid=531. Property owners may direct their concerns about the credible scientific basis used in the findings for the Prohibition to the Regional Water Quality Control Board and the State Water Resources Control Board. The Prohibition is a state law, not a local law. The City studies disagree with some of the Regional Board’s findings and partially agree with others. It was through the City’s effort that a phasing plan was incorporated into the MOU that will evaluate the results of additional water quality monitoring before initiating Phase 3.

This is the preferred site because it is the only site with the following combination of advantages: • The site has sufficient land area to locate treatment facilities for all Phases of the Prohibition order. The treatment plant ‘footprint’ for all three phases is approximately 2.5 acres. • The site overlays the Winter Canyon groundwater basin, which is distinct from the Malibu Valley Groundwater Basin underlying the rest of the Civic Center. This adds needed disposal capacity for the project by allowing some of the fully treated water to be disposed of on the treatment plant site itself, rather than just through recycled water use and deep well injection in the Malibu Valley Groundwater Basin. • The proposed use is similar to what is existing on the site, but will be state of the art technology, odor-scrubbed, and visually screened. • The site is located outside the 100-year flood zone, avoiding the cost of flood-proofing the treatment facilities. • The site has a willing seller. Other sites were considered including the Wave property, the La Paz Development site, and Legacy Park. However, these sites did not provide the combination of advantages listed above.

The project will increase the public health, safety, and local amenity of school-goers and local residents. The new facility will replace four aging wastewater systems (the Webster Elementary OWTS, Our Lady of Malibu OWTS, Malibu Colony Shopping Center treatment plant, and County-operated plant at Vista Pacifica St) that serve the two schools and the multifamily residences across from the site. Faculty, students, and residents have complained of odors and daylighting of sewage from failing systems for years. The RWQCB notified the schools that they must meet new water quality standards because of either failing or inadequate treatment in the aging onsite systems. The new facility will have state of the art wastewater treatment equipment that will be fully covered, or enclosed within buildings. All treatment facilities will include full odor control. None of the four existing treatment systems in the vicinity have these features. The treatment facility will have an increased factor of safety because standby equipment and standby power will be built into the treatment systems to allow uninterrupted treatment in the event of equipment or power failure. This degree of safety is not provided by the existing treatment facilities in the area. The treatment facility will be further away from the school and local residences than the County treatment plant, which is not odor scrubbed, is not fully enclosed or covered, and provides little visual screening of its process tanks. The closest example of a treatment plant being sited in this type of location is the County treatment plant, which treats flow from the nearby condominiums. As stated previously, this plant is closer to the condominiums than the proposed new treatment plant. Los Angeles’ Hyperion wastewater treatment plant, which treats 800 times the projected flow of the Malibu plant, is within 400 feet of residential structures.

The proposed facility is likely to improve property values over conditions that exist today. As described above in the response to Question 4, the new wastewater service will replace four aging systems that have chronic odor, and other complaints that affect children and adults, with a safe, reliable, state-of-the-art treatment facility. While the treatment plant property will be visible from properties across the street, views over the plant site will greatly improve. The unkempt current appearance of the site will be replaced with new onsite buildings that will be architecturally treated with a neutral rural style that is compatible with the site and surrounding area. Equipment has been sited underground whenever possible, and the existing four large white vertical tanks will be removed. Extensive landscape screening will be used to hide above-ground equipment and the new treatment buildings from views across the street, and will be properly maintained for a neat appearance. The City acknowledges that it will take some time for newly planted foliage to substantially screen the project, but is committed to making the design as compatible as possible with the surrounding area.

All water will be treated to the same high standard and will be highly disinfected, filtered water that exceeds all requirements set forth in California Title 22 standards for unrestricted non-potable water reuse. It will also be free of ammonia, low in nitrogen, and virtually free of suspended solids. This level of treatment will be protective of the public health of the water users and the water quality of the groundwater and ocean. Furthermore, extensive groundwater studies conducted for the project indicate that injected flows will not reach Malibu Creek or Lagoon. It should be noted that the project will eliminate the current septic tank flows that reach Malibu Creek and Lagoon.

No airborne pathogens are associated with the treatment processes. Furthermore, all treatment processes will be enclosed within buildings or will be covered, and all processes will be odor-scrubbed to prevent odor releases to the environment. The odor-scrubbing processes use naturally occurring bacteria growing on wood chips to breakdown the odor-causing sulfur compounds. It is an odor control process that is used with great success on treatment plants throughout the country.

According to materials presented by the Regional Board during the Prohibition proceedings (between 2004 and 2009), both facilities had violations: - Malibu Colony Plaza – 55 total violations - Malibu Water Pollution Control Plant – 644 violations It should be noted that the totals include a variety of violation types, such as late or missing submittals, reported parameters, discharge violations, etc.

The design team is trying to avoid the use of ‘bump outs’ into the parking lane on Malibu Road. However, if the injection wells cannot be sited between the existing underground utilities, approximately two parking spaces would be lost. The total linear footage of on-street parking in the area of the proposed injection wells along Malibu Road is approximately 1,020 feet, which equates to approximately 51 twenty-foot long parallel spaces. It is not likely the loss of two spaces would be noticed, given the nearest public beach or access way is over 1,000 feet away. Furthermore, the potential loss of two public parking spaces, if needed, would be more than offset by the addition of more than 100 parking spaces when nearby Legacy Park was constructed.

An existing 50,000-gallon underground fiberglass storage tank on the treatment plant site will be reused for recycled water. The tank provides the capacity necessary to deliver recycled water to properties within Phase 1 that can be used for irrigation.

There is no intention to build a 10 million-gallon recycled water storage tank as part of any phase of the project. Reference in the EIR to this amount of storage is because the Regional Water Quality Control Board asked the City to explore different storage scenarios as part of studies and reports it requested. Maximizing reuse of recycled water is one of the project objectives. Although availability of 10 million gallons of storage would allow for maximum reuse of the recycled water produced by the treatment facility, maximized reuse is not feasible and not needed to make the project ‘work.’ Extensive field testing and modeling of the groundwater basin indicate that there is sufficient injection capacity to dispose of the total volume of effluent from all phases of the project, assuming zero recycled water use. The siting difficulties and expense of providing 10 million gallons of storage would jeopardize the feasibility of the project, and is not an essential part of the project. Therefore, it is not a recommended project component. When the project moves into Phase 2 (or when it moves into Phase 3), additional recycled water storage may be considered, but would only be implemented if acceptable sites are found in proximity to areas that would use the recycled water. This may require additional environmental (i.e., CEQA) documentation, depending on the site sizes, locations, etc.

In practical terms, the opposite is true. Phase 1 property owners will pay for some of the costs associated with future phasing and are not likely to be fully reimbursed by subsequent phases. Phase 1 was designed, and is being implemented, so that the infrastructure necessary to operate Phase 1 is fully constructed. The Phase 1 owners will shoulder the costs of the entire plant for several years until a future phase is constructed. Property owners in Phase 2 and Phase 3 will be assessed for costs related only to collection, treatment, and management of wastewater that their individual parcel(s) produce(s). Phase 1 includes some treatment equipment and processing tanks that will eventually benefit Phases 2 and 3. If, and when, subsequent phases are implemented, a reimbursement formula will be calculated by a qualified assessment engineer to allow a cost sharing that results in all property owners, from all phases, paying for only their prorated share of total facilities.

The cost associated with treatment and distribution of recycled water to Serra Canyon will be calculated when the assessment engineer is contracted for Phase 2. The proposed Phase 1 project meets environmental objectives and will ‘work’ even with zero recycled water reuse in all areas of the project. Therefore, recycled water use in the Serra Canyon area, or in any other area, is not needed to make the project ‘work.’ However, the opportunity to reduce dependence on dwindling imported potable water supplies affords Malibu a resource that will be maximized to the extent feasible. If Serra Canyon does not want recycled water, expanded use opportunities west of the Civic Center would be accelerated.

The Phase 1 pipelines will run as follows: • Along the length of Civic Center Way, between Cross Creek Rd and Malibu Canyon Rd • Along public portions of Cross Creek Rd, between Pacific Coast Hwy and approximately 3661 Cross Creek Rd. In Phase 1, no pipelines will extend beyond the private gates of Serra Canyon. • Along Malibu Rd, west from Webb Way to the end of the Malibu Creek Plaza (Ralphs shopping center) property • Along Stuart Ranch Rd, from City Hall south to where it becomes Webb Way, where it continues to the point where Webb Way reaches Malibu Rd • Along Malibu Canyon Rd, extending from Bluffs Park north to Civic Center Way • Along Winter Canyon Rd to Our Lady of Malibu Church and School

The City did not set the water quality standards and did not adopt the prohibition regulations or set the prohibition boundaries. A request by property owners to change any of the above points must be made to the Regional Water Quality Control Board and the State Water Resources Control Board, not to the City. It is the City’s understanding that the Serra property owners’ representatives met with staff of the Regional Board, and that Regional Board staff will prepare comments on the claims and requests made by Serra property owners. The City has not been provided a copy of the Serra property owners’ commissioned study report and cannot comment on whether the study was conducted using standards that will be accepted by the Regional Board with respect to quality assurance protocol used for studies of this type.

All of the Phase 1 facilities will be located outside the 100-year flood zones, or above the 100-year flood elevations, as shown on FEMA’s Flood Insurance Rate Maps. This includes the groundwater injection facilities, the treatment plant, the Bluffs Park Pump Station, and the Legacy Park Pump Station. Nevertheless, all well heads will be sealed as an extra margin of safety. It should be noted that FEMA’s maps do not show the re-contouring of elevations at Legacy Park, and, therefore, show much of the park within the 100-year flood zone. However, many areas of the park are currently above the 100-year flood elevations, and the pump station facilities are located in these areas.

All of the facilities are designed to withstand an earthquake without damage. The pipelines will be plastic material with substantial ability to flex during earth movement. The project includes backup power generators for the pump stations and treatment plant to allow continued operation in the event that an earthquake disrupts electric power supply to the facilities.

The project includes backup power generators for the pump stations and treatment plant to allow continued operation in the event of power failures from Southern California Edison. With regard to spills and flow backups at the plant site, onsite spills drain to a system that conveys flow back into the plant for treatment.

Properties that are below street level will need to install a sewage pump to convey their flow to the street sewer. These are widely used in hillside residential areas on down-slope properties.