Malibu City Council Considers Legal Action Against School District Over PCB

MALIBU, CA — The City of Malibu was mulling taking legal actions against the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District over concerns about polychlorinated biphenyls at two Malibu schools.

The issue was brought up at the Tuesday city council meeting at the urging of Jennifer deNicola during the June city council meeting. DeNicola is the president of America Unites for Kids, the group that is suing the school district to push it to remove PCBs from all schools in Malibu.

She wants the council to pursue the matter as a public nuisance issue. City staff were directed to study the issue and bring its recommendation to Tuesday's meeting. Malibu's City Attorney Christi Hogin said public nuisance would not apply in this case because it is typically used for buildings with safety concerns, such as hoarding, or fire concerns.

Using it against another public agency to force it to remove a toxic substance would complicate things, she said. An attorney who is advocating for the removal of PCBs disagreed, saying it's not uncommon for two lawyers to have different interpretations of the law.

"That's why we have courts," Kevin Shenkman said.

The school district admits there are PCBs at Malibu High School and Juan Cabrillo Elementary School but said it was following the Environmental Protection Agency's guidelines for removing the toxic chemical. It has, however, resisted testing other schools in Malibu for PCBs.

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

To date, the district has spent nearly $1.5 million in defending the lawsuit against it by America Unites, according to the group. This has raised the ire of city councilman John Sibert.

“What’s frustrating to me is the amount of money — and I don’t know how much it is, because I’ve heard a lot of rumors — that’s been spent on defending, not doing anything,” Sibert said at the meeting. “It just seems unconscionable that the testing wasn’t done to know what’s there.”

Ultimately, the city council voted not to pursue the public nuisance option. Hogin, however, advised the city to contact Cal Strategies and the EPA in the next few weeks before taking any other actions.

Patch file photo