BATTLE AT MALIBU

Lagoon restoration project creates conflict between surfers, environmentalists, local residents

By: Marcus Sanders


Reposted from Surfline.com:
http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/surf-and-the-malibu-lagoon-restoration-project_54876/

April 27, 2011

Malibu is one of the best summertime waves in Southern California and the birthplace of West Coast surf culture. Last October, it was designated as the country's first-ever World Surfing Reserve in a feel-good ceremony with smiling locals, a hand-holding paddle-out and a Chumash-inspired sage-smudging.
This summer's not shaping up to be so feel-good.

The Malibu Lagoon Restoration Project, slated to begin in June, has created a bitterly-divisive rift amongst surfers, other surfers, environmentalists, politicians, scientists, bird-watchers, wetland advocates, beachgoers and tourists.

In a nutshell, the project aims to drain, dredge and rebuild the western section of the Malibu Lagoon. Essentially a wetlands restoration project, it's also been called a fix-it to the 1983 project which cut out canals into the western part of the lagoon. Bulldozers will come in and excavate and grade close to 90,000 cubic yards of mud and wetland habitat, which will ideally serve to flush out nutrients and reduce pools of stagnant water.

This will also increase the amount of water in the lagoon (by 2 acre-feet, less than 5% of its total volume) and increase the salt marsh by four acres. The existing islands -- and the three wooden footbridges connecting them -- will all be destroyed, and the permanent path out along the edge of the wetland and behind the Colony houses will be maintained.

After over a decade of stakeholder-led meetings (including citizens), studies and environmental impact reports, the project was unanimously approved by the California Coastal Commission in October 2010. It was supported by myriad environmental organizations, including Heal the Bay, the Surfrider Foundation and Save the Waves, as well as the local surfing club, the Malibu Surfing Association.

But many local surfers (and some wetlands activists) aren't entirely stoked on the idea, thinking the project will affect the sand-flow and wave-shape at Surfrider Beach -- which has arguably gotten worse since the 1983 dredging project, as the creek outlet has drifted further east, pushing sand down towards the pier and away from the top of the point.

Longtime local ripper Andy Lyon has been the most vocal opponent, going as far as getting himself forcibly removed from a Malibu City Council meeting earlier this month for yelling that the plan would make the surf "Worse than it is now!" Lyon went on to yell, "I don't care if I'm off the record. I'm not going for City Council. I'm going to surf. Not you!"

"No scientific studies have been done to see what effect it's gonna have on the wave." --Malibu local, Andy Lyon

Lyon was removed from that meeting, but continues to push for a stop to the project. "This is like Trestles," he told Surfline, referring to the proposed 241 Toll Road Expansion that was successfully fought by surfers a couple years ago. "This is changing the face of Malibu forever. They haven't taken the wave into account; they're gonna change something and they don't know what they're doing."

Some surfers have argued that less water in the lagoon is better than more water. After the first rain of the year, when water comes rushing down Malibu creek into the lagoon, if the water levels are low, the water flow will be more focused, and will be propelled with explosive force through the sand berm, allowing sand and sediment from the lagoon to escape into the lineup and create a tight sandbar. If there is more water in the lagoon, they argue, the first rains won't have as explosive an impact and the water might just trickle over the berm, not bringing any sediment or sand. "If they make it bigger, there'll be more water," continues Lyon. "And when it goes out, it could take all the sand out to the end of the pier."

But not everyone's convinced the wave will be ruined. "We've looked at the EIR on the project and nothing we've seen would indicate any adverse effect on the break," explains Save the Waves' Executive Director Dean LaTourette. "In speaking to the locals, we know that there's an existing issue with where the Lagoon currently breaches into the ocean each season -- specifically down the point versus at the top. But this project wasn't ever designed to address that issue, nor do we see any evidence that it will affect that one way or the other."

But, as Lyon points out, "no scientific studies have been done to see what effect it's gonna have on the wave. And Surfrider was created right here!"

Indeed, the Surfrider Foundation was founded on issues surrounding Malibu back in 1984. And while this particular project was never really intended to address the wave here -- it's a wetlands/water quality project -- it's clear that some believe that wave quality should have been a part of the process all along. Chad Nelson, Surfrider's Environmental Director echoes LaTourette's point: "Will this wetland project impede the wetland's ability to breach to the west and screw up the wave? I'm not convinced that's the case -- nor is anyone else I can find. But we're digging deeper more closely right now." Nelson goes out to add that having the lagoon breach further west -- at the top of the point as it did pre-1983 -- does not seem to have any negative biological effects.

Surfrider just hired Dave Revell (geologist, surfer) and Bob Batallio (coastal engineer, surfer) from environmental consulting firm ESA & PWA to "take a closer look at how the Malibu Restoration Project may affect how the inlet breaches and the surf," Nelson says. "And to see if there's a solution that could help both protect the Adamson House and improve the surf by controlling where the breach occurs."

Longtime Malibu local Allen Sarlo agrees. "They need to make sure it stays open up top," he says. "That would solve so many problems."

Of course this is the 11th hour -- the project is slated to start in just over a month. Even if Surfrider finds it financially and environmentally beneficial to breach the lagoon at the top of the point, it's not clear that anything could be done. "They didn't seem adverse to doing that," says Nelson. "It's just a matter of compelling them to do it."

Sarlo -- who spent last Saturday protesting the lagoon on PCH with dozens of other surfers and wetland activists -- adds, "We're just asking that they wait till December to start the project. Then it wouldn't affect businesses, traffic -- and they'd get a chance to talk to local surfers who have years of experience here, like Andy Lyon and myself, about what we want and what's best for the wave. Let's try to make it better -- it would be great to see Third Point come back."

And while surfers have been vocal about this, it's the wetlands activists that have been most successful in their fight. They feel the bulldozers are unnecessary and will destroy an ecosystem that's just getting back to its feet. They have years of professional, science-based activism experience at their disposal as well, and recently filed an injunction against the California Coastal Commission which will be heard in San Francisco on May 9th. Barring an order from the governor, this day in court is the last chance for opponents to stop -- or slow down -- this project.