Busch Drive tank flushed again as Malibu Park water deemed safe
Wind blew open an inspection hatch on the 80-year-old tank, prompting a boil-water order, drainage and superchlorination before service resumes Wednesday.
Residents of the Malibu Park neighborhood were surprised to see water gushing out of the Busch Drive water tank again yesterday.
Busch Drive was once again full of water, with some of it running all the way down to the flooded Zuma Creek underpass below Pacific Coast Highway.
County waterworks says they were flushing the 300,000-gallon tank out with superchlorinated water before putting it back into service on Wednesday.
And KBUU News has learned what the source of the contamination worries was in the first place. The strong winds of last week had blown open a wooden inspection hatch at the top of the tank, exposing the drinking water inside to possible bird poop or insects.
On Friday, the county drained the tank, capacity 300,000 gallons. On Saturday, residents of about 300 homes were told to boil their drinking water or use bottled water for drinking. On Sunday, the biological tests came back — the water that had come from the tank was clean and the boil water order was called off. On Monday, the county emptied the tank of the superchlorinated water that had been used to sanitize it.
By Wednesday, the 300,000-gallon water tank will be back in use.
About 300 houses in the Malibu Park area are served by this tank. About 200 of those houses burned in 2018's Woolsey Fire.
The 80-year-old tank was scheduled to be replaced 20 years ago. But objections from some Malibu residents over its size and setbacks from Busch Drive delayed that over and over again at the Malibu Planning Commission. One objection from the planning commission was that the first design included a bathroom for county employees who work there.
The Planning Department finally issued its approval two years ago — 18 years after the county identified the need to replace the decrepit tank.