Court Sides with School District Over Malibu PCB Cleanup Efforts

MALIBU, CA — A U.S. District Court has sided with the Santa Monica-Malibu School District over its polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) mitigation and cleanup effort, the district announced Thursday.

The district was sued by a group of Malibu parents who alleged that the district had violated the Toxic Substances Control Act for its failure to remove all caulk around the windows at Malibu High School and Juan Cabrillo Elementary School — two schools in the district that were found to contain PCBs in excess of 50 parts per million.

The court ruled that the schools, which were the subject of the lawsuit, contained PCBs in excess of Toxic Substances Control Act, but decided that there was no need for a costly caulk removal operation in light of the district's planned modernization of the schools, according to the district. The court ordered the district to remove all PCBs by 2019.

Jennifer DiNicola, the president of the group, America Unites for Kids, told Patch in an earlier interview that the district had spent nearly $13 million defending the lawsuit when it would have cost it roughly half that amount to remove the PCBs.

PCBs were a popular building material up until the government banned its use in 1979, and they been linked to various health issues, including cancer.

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The school district said it was following the Environmental Protection Agency's guidelines for removing the toxic chemical and views Judge Percy Anderson's ruling validation that it was doing the right thing. SMMUSD said it is in the middle of a modernization effort at the two schools in question and all the PCBs will be removed through the upgrades.

The modernization of Malibu High and Juan Cabrillo Elementary began over the summer break, the district said. The plan includes the construction of two new buildings, technology upgrades and the replacement of pre-1979 windows and doors in several buildings that have been the subject of concerns about the presence of PCBs in caulk, according to the district.

“We respect the court’s determination in this case,” Board of Education President Laurie Lieberman said. “With the planned modernization already in the works at Malibu High School and nearly complete at Cabrillo, which is the court’s endorsed remedy, we’re very pleased to now turn back to our primary purpose of providing quality education for our students.”

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The district, however, has resisted testing other schools in Malibu for PCBs.

DeNicola said it was disingenuous for the district to claim this as a victory.

"It is incomprehensible that after the federal judge’s very clear ruling that the school district is in violation of federal law, that the School District is trying to spin away the facts," she told Patch. "This ruling confirms how ridiculously unconscionable it is that over the past three years, the school district has spent $13 million of tax payers money to avoid complying with federal law from the start to protect students, faculty and teachers. This is a life-saving win for all the kids, families, teachers and staff at the Malibu Schools.”

It's unclear if America Unites for Kids will appeal the ruling. The group has said its goal was not monetary gains but to force the district to the clean up the PCBs.

The fight over PCB has gotten the attention of the Malibu City Council. At a meeting last month, the council weighed using public nuisance ordinance to force the district into testing and removing all PCBs at all Malibu schools.

The council decided not to pursue the idea on the advice of the City Attorney's office.

DeNicola is running for one of the three eligible seats on the council in the November election.

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