Martinez Lashed on Sewer Issue

Al Martinez, who makes a living bashing Malibu, is at it again (Times, Nov. 20). His subject is sewage (always good for a few laughs) and the L.A. County supervisors’ plan to force on Malibu a sewage collection system which we don’t want, don’t need, can’t afford and which will turn Malibu into the kind of place in which we won’t want to live.

After stating that he doesn’t know where he stands on the issue, Al comes down on the side of the supervisors. He doesn’t like septic tanks, he says, because his own doesn’t work. (Since the county health department is supposed to board up the houses where owners refuse to put their septic systems in working order, this is a pretty gutsy statement on the part of Al.)

Malibu, he continues, should have a sewage collection system because they are currently polluting the ocean, which is a public resource. His documentation on this is somewhat shaky, since surveys by marine biologists show the water at Malibu Beach to be the cleanest in the entire Santa Monica Bay. It seems doubtful that a sewage plant with an ocean outfall at Malibu (proposed by the supervisors) would enhance the purity of the water.

The final bit of helpful advice by our friend with the constipated toilet is that we in Malibu should welcome the county’s sewer system and then fight the battle against over-development which would accompany the system. Terrific, except that once the sewers go in the battle is irretrievably lost. To quote Tom Hayden, who represents Malibu in the California Assembly: “The issue is not sewers. It’s development . . . and it stinks.”

RICHARD M. POWELL

Malibu