Treatment Plant Begins Releasing Lagoon Water

Treated water from the Malibu Lagoon began pouring out of a discharge pipe and into the waves at Surfrider Beach Monday, as part of an $8 million restoration project led by California State Parks.

Surfers and swimmers still went into the water. Except for some yellow caution tape, no signs informed beach goers that treated water from the lagoon was being discharged into the ocean.

One woman, Robin Bellew of Pomona, said she brought her stepdaughter to Surfrider Beach because she had been looking forward to a swim in the ocean.

"She wanted to come here so badly," Bellew said, nodding toward her daughter, who was waist deep in the surf.

She said she was concerned about the discharge pipe down the beach.

"It sort of bothered me a little. That's why I'm sort of hesitating to go into the water," Bellew said.

According to Mark Abramson, a senior watershed advisor at the Santa Monica Bay Foundation, the treatment plant, which is chlorinating, filtering and de-chlorinating the water from the lagoon, was discharging at a rate of 600 gallons per minute. The plant began pumping out the treated water at 11:30 a.m., he said.

On Monday afternoon, the water was shooting out of the discharge pipe, hitting a wodden barrier and river rocks before draining into the surf.

It will likely take up to five days, running day and night, to get the water level in the lagoon low enough to begin excavating with bulldozers, Abramson said. He added that the contractor had to tweak the setup to make sure the beach was not being erroded.

The plant was constructed nearly a month ago. The dewatering process, which is the pumping and treating of the water from the lagoon, was expected to start last week, but was held up because of outstanding water test results.

Wendy Werner, who opposes the project, said she is concerned that there are no signs at the beach warning swimmers about the discharged water.

"We want to know the test results everyday," Werner said.

The "Call to the Wall" longboard surfing contest is set for July 28-29 at Surfrider Beach, and Werner said she expects surfers to begin arriving in the coming days.

She said she believes the city requested more monitoring of the water quality for a reason. They because the monitoring is not sufficient, Werner said.

"I think people are going to get sick," Werner said.

Malibu City Manager Jim Thorsen said at Monday night's council meeting that he has requested that State Parks cease discharging for the surfing event. He said he also asked for the preliminary test results so they can be posted on the city of Malibu's website.

Councilman Skylar Peak, who plans to take part in the surfing event, said that he plans on asking Los Angeles County to post signs about the discharging of the water.