Water Agency Rescinds $5,700 Fine Against Malibu

In a face-off between Malibu and a powerful state water agency over the city’s delay in remedying its septic tank problem, water officials blinked first Thursday.

Heading off a potential legal fight, the five-member Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board voted unanimously to rescind a $5,700 fine proposed as punishment for the city’s tardiness.

Expressing concern about bad feelings that might result if the fine was levied, board members instead decided to try to work out the Malibu problem cooperatively.

Even before the meeting, the fine proposed by the staff of the water board was viewed as a slap on the wrist for Malibu. The fine could have been $131,000--$1,000 for each of the 131 days the city was late in responding to the state’s demands.

But money really wasn’t the issue.

The proposed fine was considered by some as an effort to get the city’s attention. Water agency officials want to force the city to monitor and study septic tank discharge, which environmentalists believe may be polluting Malibu Lagoon wetlands, the city’s famed Surfrider Beach and the ocean along parts of Malibu’s 22-mile shoreline.

On Wednesday, Surfrider Beach, one of the most heavily surfed beaches on the coast, got a grade of “F” from the environmental organization Heal the Bay in its annual report card on pollution at Los Angeles County beaches.

On bad days, surfers say, they are plagued by rashes, intestinal ailments and other health problems.

The problem is that while everyone agrees there is pollution, no one can say for sure what the cause of it is.

Malibu residents have long been wedded to the septic tank system, which is viewed as protection against growth that a modern sewage system might bring.

The city incorporated in 1991 because of local outrage over efforts by Los Angeles County to put a sewage system in Malibu.

Knowledge of the city’s septic tank system is so limited that the state water board has been pressuring Malibu to study the system and come up with a monitoring program. As it is, water officials estimate that about 5,000 septic tanks serve Malibu’s 12,000 residents, but can’t even say that for sure.

Last June, the water agency asked the city to come up with a plan by July. There were delays, and finally an extension to September. Letters and phone calls went back and forth. A plan wasn’t produced until February. And even then, it was considered inadequate by the water agency staff.

“We question the adequacy of the response,” said Wendy Phillips, chief of enforcement for the water board, in pressing for the fine Thursday.

Malibu Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn Van Horn called the fine ridiculous.

She told the five water commissioners the fine would damage the spirit of cooperation she believed Malibu had shown the water agency.

Under questioning about the city’s movement toward getting tighter control over its residents’ septic tanks, Van Horn said the city checks out complaints of leaky tanks, and closely monitors tanks on new or substantially renovated homes.

As for the tanks serving other homes, Van Horn was more ambiguous, saying the city one day would like to inspect them.

“I am not sure what year that will be,” she said.

Commissioner Michael Keston said the board was frustrated with the speed at which Malibu was moving.

Still, Keston proposed that two commissioners meet with two Malibu City Council members in lieu of the fine, and the board went along with him.

After the vote, Malibu City Atty. Christi Hogin said the city was prepared to challenge the fine in court. Among other issues, she said the city questions the water agency’s basic authority to mandate such things as septic tank cleanups on Malibu.