Malibu council to consider flood emergency declaration Monday Play

The Malibu City Council on Monday night is expected to adopt yet another declaration of emergency. This one is over the imminent flooding that's likely to happen if there's a heavy rain.

Malibu Creek at the Civic Center is the next area of immediate concern. That's where the creek bed has been piled high with rocks, gravel and other debris that washed out of the mountains in past floods after recent fires. This has clogged up the creek bed near the Malibu Cross Creek shopping area and the Serra Retreat subdivision on the other side of the creek.

Residents begged the city council two weeks ago to take immediate action to dredge out the creek. Jeff Fowler heads the Serra Canyon Property Owners Association, and he says the state project to remove Rindge Dam and to remove sediment from the creek bed in Malibu is not going to start until at least 2030.

"The purviewing would be a year at a minimum. Essentially the project would be brush removal with possible sediment dredging. The project on an early scheduling estimate would occur in 2029 or 2030. The issue is time and the urgency to act immediately, now, next month. Let's not look back and say we knew and wish we had. Thank you."

Other residents at that city council meeting were a bit emotive. Erin Fotos:

"We need your help. I'm here for Serra Retreat. Our sediment since the fire is eight to ten feet higher than it used to be. I live on the back side of the creek. I have neighbors in regular rains coming down going, hey, did you see my lounge chair five properties over? Hey, my propane tank's now raced across your yard and gone to the next yard. That's a regular rain. Are we scared about Super El Nino? Because I am."

Serra Canyon resident Nancy Sanders said the city needs to start getting bulldozers working on clearing the accumulated stuff out of the creek bed now.

"As you know, we've already had major flooding and destruction before. So now with the creek bed so much higher with this awful sediment from the fires, there's no telling what's in store for us. It's not just our backyards at stake now either. It's our homes, and not insignificantly, many of the businesses and storage equipment zones along Creek Road are at high risk. We need to avert a commercial and residential disaster. To be honest, I'm ready to get out there and start digging myself if that's what it takes to get some attention."

But the city may not be able to dredge the creek on its own. City, county, state and federal agencies all have some jurisdiction here, and the declaration may do nothing more than spur those outside agencies to hear the cries from Malibu.

The city council at this coming meeting will be given the choice of declaring a state of emergency only for Malibu Creek or for the entire city due to the potential for flooding. Similar states of emergency already exist in Malibu due to Palisades fire damage, landslides on PCH and the ocean crumbling down at La Chusa Beach.