Sewer Along PCH Coast Would Cost $125 Million, But Installing New On-site Treatment Would Be $278 Million, City Estimates

What is the price tag for putting in a sewer along Pacific Coast Highway… In the Malibu fire zone… to allow for the reconstruction of houses???

125 million dollars … according to an estimate just released by the City of Malibu.

That will enable the owners of beachfront lots to avoid replacing the leaky and now-illegal septic tanks with new small wastewater treatment plants at each lot. 

Those plants would each require cement walls to protect them from ocean waves, and the thinking is that a centralized sewer along the highway might be cheaper.

The city estimates that … if every oceanfront house were to be rebuilt … the cumulative cost would be about approximately $278.7 million.  Much of that would be to construct seawalls along the coast … to protect the onsite wastewater treatment systems at each lot from waves.

Acting city manager, Rob DuBoux has already won approval from the City of Los Angeles to connect in to a city of LA sewer line under PCH at the Getty Museum.  

It would pump effluent from Malibu … joining sewage from Pacific Palisades and Santa Monica down the big pipe to the City of LA’s giant sewage treatment plant just next to LAX.

Beachfront landowners would pay their proportional share of the sewer.

The state has a revolving fund that would lend Malibu the construction costs up front.

Construction of the PCH sewer would require tearing up the road between Carbon Canyon and PCH at Coastline Drive … the same section that is being torn up now. 

After Southern California Edison is done undergrounding its power lines now .. the idea is for Caltrans to repave the entire highway.

The new pavement … however. … would have to be cut up to install the sewer line.

Residents along PCH have generally supported the sewer line… as it will save them considerable construction costs and headaches.

In fact, some of them are planning to put it in individual wastewater treatment systems to use until they can switch over to the city sewer.

All this goes for discussion to the Malibu city Council next week.

Pepper Spray Used To Break Up Riot At Malibu Mountains Juvenile Center For Girls

A riot broke out at the prison camp for juvenile girls in the mountains above Malibu last month.

One guard used pepper spray on the detained girls and women … which is strictly against county rules.

The guard has been placed on administrative leave pending an internal affairs investigation.

A brawl broke … classified as a “major disturbance” … at Campus Kirkpatrick ….

That is the juvenile prison camp on Encinal Canyon Road at Mulholland Highway … in the mountains just off Kanan-Dume road.

Seven girls and women rushed from one classroom inside Campus Kilpatrick to another and began “attacking and assaulting seven youth inside.” 

All available officers responded to the classroom … as one probation officer was struck in her face “approximately three times causing injury,”.

This is according to a notification sent to county officials … and revealed by a report in the LA Daily News newspaper. 

The county probation department runs the juvenile detention camp … where females accused of minor to serious crimes are detained for schooling and rehabilitation. 

A county spokeswoman told the Daily News that “department policy is clear that irritant spray is not to be issued to line staff assigned to Campus Kilpatrick.

She said the staff is committed to the Board of Supervisors’ policy that bans guard from carrying … much less using … OC spray at that facility.

maintaining accountability, and ensuring the safety and well-being of everyone who lives and works in our juvenile facilities.”

An initial report sent to the county Probation Oversight Commission made no mention of the use of pepper spray. 

But a separate report provided to the board weeks later stated that six youths were injured at the time.

It also revealed that the probation guards did not follow the department’s decontamination policy … to clear the aerosol from the jail facility interior after it was deployed. 

All five county supervisors … including local county Supervisor Lindsay Horvath … oppose the use of pepper spray in county juvenile centers. 

The Los Angeles County Daily News reports that the county has unsuccessfully attempted to phase out the use of pepper spray inside its juvenile facilities for nearly seven years.

But the pepper gas it is still deployed in the facilities for men and boys  almost daily on average.

Until very recently, Campus Kilpatrick near Malibu housed a small number of boys in a camp-like setting.

But the county has been hard pressed to reduce the population at the prisons for males … which led to a repurposing of the campus in the Santa Monica Mountains to hold all of the girls and gender expansive youth in county custody.

The Supervising Deputy Probation Officers Union blamed the rapid expansion of Kilpatrick for the incident, saying the department had failed to “adequately account for critical safety, classification and operational considerations.”

The union says Campus Kilpatrick was designed to function as a “residential treatment-style, home-like environment,” not as a juvenile hall or Secure Youth Treatment Facility.

This story is based on reporting in the Los Angeles Daily News.

SMMUSD Board To Consider Tightening Visitor Rules

Santa Monica school board members will vote this week on tightening rules for visitors or outsiders on school property. 

The new rules will make it illegal to take video or stills on school property … and there is no exemption for journalists. 

It will require permission from a principal or school official to step on any campus. 

It will require that everyone but staff and students to register upon arrival.

And it will authorize principals to to issue a “stay away letter” if a visitor has ever willfully disrupted the orderly operation of a school.

The matter will be discussed at Thursday’s board meeting… in Santa Monica. 

SMMUSD Board To Vote On $1.6 Million For Malibu Middle School Solar Panels

Also on the agenda this week … beginning the next phase of electrical improvements to the four Malibu school campuses. 

And like anyone who has ever hired an electrical contractor knows … major electrical equals a major cost.

Putting in quick connect systems at the four Malibu schools has been a requirement since Southern California Edison began routinely turning off the electricity in even mild wind events.

The local schools are going to spend $288,000 to install quick connect systems… That will allow portable generators to be patched in to provide emergency power.

The next step will be a $1.6 million project to install solar panels and batteries at Malibu middle school … to power both the middle and high school campuses.

The school board is also getting ready to tear down antiquated classrooms at Malibu high to make way for the new middle school hub and gymnasium.

That will also include the initial phases of the aquatics center… The new Olympic size pool that will be installed between the football field and the tennis courts.

A 117 thousand dollar contract for scientists to monitor the removal of asbestos … PCB contamination and lead from some of the buildings to be demolished also goes before the board Thursday night. 

SM Plan To Relocate Homeless Housing Out Of Downtown Raises Objections

Santa Monica is trying to relocate homeless people out off its downtown area.

The city has proposed leasing two properties in the eastern part of the city … to provide transitional housing for homeless or mentally ill.
But people in those neighborhoods say …“no fair.”

And this affects Malibu … because homeless persons being relocated from Malibu … by the City of Malibu … are housed in shelters in downtown Sata Monica.

Residents of the Pico and Sunset Park neighborhoods are most unhappy.

The Santa Monica Lookout newspaper reports that leaders from the Pico Neighborhood say they are being dumped on … because they have Santa Monica’s highest concentration of working class and minority residents.

The Pico neighborhood already has 377 beds.

The City’s upscale neighborhoods north of Wilshire Boulevard have a total of 21 units reserved for homeless individuals.

The Ocean Park Neighborhood has none.

Malibu sends relatively few people to the Santa Monica shelters … but that topic might be a hot potato down there.