City Council Approves Las Virgenes Creek Study

The City Council recently approved a study of Las Virgenes Creek that will investigate how development is affecting the watercourse and also incorporate residents’ ideas about how to better protect it.

The $29,000 study will be performed by graduate landscape architecture students from Cal Poly Pomona and should be completed by mid-June. The students will take aerial photographs, meet with residents and prepare a history of the creek, said Heather Merenda, the city’s storm water program manager.

There is not much data available about Las Virgenes Creek, a shallow watercourse that roughly parallels Las Virgenes Road and flows into the larger Malibu Creek watershed, Merenda said. Walking along the creek’s deep slopes, Merenda has noticed trash--fast-food containers, paint cans, wood from construction sites, the occasional dead animal--and sediment from erosion.

In a separate program, volunteers collect water samples from the creek once a month, Merenda said. They test the samples for nitrogen, phosphates, ammonia and other chemicals.

With the study results, officials hope to make the creek more user-friendly and to inspire people to find ways to protect it.