Malibu Coastal Land Conservancy, Malibu Wetland Feasibility Study, Malibu, California

H&C, Inc. was retained to assess the feasibility of restoring wetlands in the Malibu Civic Center area under a contract with the Malibu Coastal Land Conservancy. The initial Scope of Work (SOW) for this project was comprised of two tasks: 1) prepare a water budget/balance to estimate the hydroperiod necessary for wetland restoration and/or the construction of treatment wetlands; and 2) based on the results of Task 1 as well as existing information, assess whether wetland restoration would be a feasible project within the Southern California Wetland Recovery Program using the California State Coastal Conservancy (CSCC) project science evaluation criteria. Since water quality is MCLC’s paramount concern, the feasibility of constructing treatment wetlands was studied. Nitrogen was chosen as the primary constituent for treatment to evaluate a potential concept and size of the wetland in the study, realizing that other constituents of concern like phosphorus and various potential pathogens would be considered during the design phase of the restoration project.

H&C answered the following questions:

    1) Will wetland restoration work?

    2) Can wetlands be constructed to treat water from Malibu Creek to improve water quality?

    3) Which sites will provide the most treatment potential?

    4) How much water from Malibu Creek, or other sources, can be treated effectively?