Malibou Lake choked as fish die by the thousands

WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers WATERY GRAVE—Dead fish wash up to shore at Malibou Lake, killed by low water levels and lack of oxygen. The community says it couldn’t maintain the lake properly due to government red tape. Thousands of catfish, carp and bass have died recently in Malibou Lake, leaving residents with an expensive and messy cleanup.

Lack of a government permit to dredge the lake may have contributed to the fish kill.

Michael Hart, a member of the Malibou Lake Country Club Limited, a corporation similar to a homeowners association, said the dead fish that were found starting on Aug. 9 were the result of a severe water shortage caused by the drought and the lengthy state and federal permit process that is required to dredge the lake.

The private waterway becomes choked each year by the urban runoff from neighboring cities that flows into Triunfo and Medea creeks and into Malibou Lake. The sediment turns the lake bed into a marsh that requires expensive, yearly dredging to keep the water moving and the fish alive.

WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers CLEANUP—A truck hauls away bags full of dead fish that have died in Malibou Lake as a result of low oxygen levels. Making matters worse, the water levels are down because of the ongoing drought.

“Malibou Lake is quite shallow so it’s a perfect storm for algae and low dissolved oxygen,” Hart said.

Attempts to oxygenate the water to cut down on algae and save the fish were futile, Hart said.

Dredging permits were delayed in part by a requirement that the sediment be formally studied.

“The reason the fish are dying is because the lake is so shallow; the reason the lake is so shallow is because we haven’t been able to dredge,” said Julie Ringwood, a Malibou Lake resident. “We couldn’t dredge because it took two-and-a-half years to get the permit because (several) different agencies had to sign off.”

Between the Department of Fish and Game, the Army Corps of Engineers, the California Regional Water Quality Control Board and other agencies, the permit process was stalled long enough for thousands of fish to die due a lack of oxygen.

Ringwood said the permit lapsed due to errors and delays by the lake’s former operations manager.

“When there’s a fish die-off there’s rumors, and we try to blame people,” Hart said. “It’s called nature.”

While the lake is down because of drought conditions, the levels are also low because local fire departments dip in and use the water to quench wildfires.

“Last year, the fire department used 6 million gallons of water,” Ringwood said. But she added, “It belongs to everybody; it’s not our private water.”

The 135 Malibou Lake residents must pay for the annual dredging, the permits, and now the cleanup of dead fish.

Ringwood said dredging costs approximately $300,000 per year. The six-day cleanup cost about $4,800. She would like the neighboring cities of Agoura Hills and Westlake Village to help pay for the work, but the responsibility for cleanup falls on the homeowners, said Susan Nissman, chief deputy for Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.

The Lake Malibou association is applying for state and federal grants, and while the grants could help offset some of the costs, the lake is private and the county would not readily “hand off money willy-nilly,” Nissman said.

Local and state agencies, meanwhile, are requiring cities to install catch basins to stop trash from entering waterways. The sandy sediment that has been the culprit at Malibou Lake is the result of both natural runoff and upstream trash.

Water quality issues are complex and require many agencies to weigh in before a dredging permit is granted, Nissman said.

Hart said his “dream” is to collaborate with Los Angeles County and the beaches and harbor districts. The sediment that is dredged from the lake is sand, which could be exported to Broad Beach, an area where he said sand is needed. The process is expensive, but the end result would be “a win-win deal,” Hart said.