State orders Malibu out of Zuma Creek underpass Play

The State of California has ordered Malibu and L.A. County to get out of the Zuma Creek underpass. That may be the reason why all those new "underpass flooded" signs have gone up.

Last night, city manager Joe Irwin told the city council that it has lost the battle to try to reopen the road that goes through the flood control channel under PCH at the Zuma Beach creek bridge.

The order came down from the L.A. regional office of the state Water Board. All work in the underpass is to be suspended.

"The Regional Water Quality Control Board recently notified LA County Beaches and Harbors to suspend all work at the Zuma undercrossing, since the stream continues to actively flow," Irwin said. "This is obviously a disappointment, but we are working through the bureaucracy at the state level. And I can testify that all of our partners locally, including county supervisor Lindsay Horvath's office, and our staff, are pushing as hard as we can to get some progress and momentum moving forward."

But the state order should come as no surprise. Caltrans has been warning for years that it cannot continue to issue year-by-year permits to clear out that underpass, in violation of state and federal wetlands protection laws.

And some residents have been pointing out, for more than 15 years, that continued use of a flood control channel as a roadway was at best temporary — a way to get traffic across PCH and to eliminate three dangerous intersections.

Eleven years ago, the city council approved a PCH traffic safety study that called for connecting the Zuma Beach entrance and Westward Beach Road into the traffic light at PCH at Busch. That would provide a safe connection between PCH and the Zuma Beach entrance and Westward Beach Road, without driving through a federally protected, state protected wetland and watercourse.

Four city councils and four city managers have failed to take any steps to try to come up with a permanent solution.

And now the state water board says it will enforce the laws and prohibit cars in the underpass.