Shine Light of Impartial Review

For all the expense and uneasiness it is bringing to Thousand Oaks City Hall, the federal investigation of the Hill Canyon sewage spill has the potential to provide something the city strongly needs:

A clear, impartial verdict on who--if anyone--deserves blame for the mess.

We welcome the outside investigation, urge the city to cooperate fully and swiftly and encourage the full spectrum of concerned citizens in Thousand Oaks to abide by its findings.

The rupture of a 30-inch-diameter concrete pipe during an El Nino deluge Feb. 3 sent 86 million gallons of untreated sewage sluicing down Conejo Creek into Calleguas Creek, Mugu Lagoon and the Pacific Ocean, polluting 30 miles of beaches.

The city was quick to label the break an unavoidable act of God. Said City Atty. Mark Sellers, “We have had an unprecedented weather event that caused a torrent of rainwaters to break this [sewer] line.”

But the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles is investigating whether the spill was a negligent violation of the federal Clean Water Act. It has subpoenaed thousands of pages of documents recounting the events leading up to the break. If federal investigators find compelling evidence that city negligence helped cause the spill, the city and its leaders could face civil and criminal charges.

The key question is whether Thousand Oaks purposely delayed replacement or repair of the city’s main sewer line although it had broken in 1989 and 1995, spilling 13 million gallons of sewage. That sewer main was on a list of long-term capital improvements for more than a decade without being replaced. For two years of that period, the replacement project was tied up while council members fought over the size of a $75-million sewer-plant upgrade and who should pay for it.

Throughout those debates, city public works officials warned that a major spill could occur if the sewer lines were not replaced. The upgrade was eventually approved in its original form last year--too late to finish replacing the line before the El Nino-driven storms. The burst pipeline is scheduled for replacement this summer.

The two-year delay in overhauling the treatment plant was a central issue in last year’s recall of Councilwoman Elois Zeanah, who with Councilwomen Jaime Zukowski and, later, Linda Parks voted against the improvements out of concern that enlarging the plant’s capacity would open the way for a growing population, and over their desire to make developers pay for the work. With the recall election just two months away, Zeanah joined the council majority to approve the sewer plant upgrade essentially as it had been proposed all along.

As the campaign for November’s City Council elections begins to build, with Zeanah and Councilman Andy Fox up for reelection, the issue has already begun to polarize Thousand Oaks even more deeply than the recall effort.

The best antidote for a poisonous campaign of half-truths, revisionist history and political spin is a thoroughly impartial and authoritative review by outside investigators.