Assembly Panel Backs Bill on Malibu Sewers

A bill designed to stop Los Angeles County from retaining control over sewers in Malibu if the coastal community becomes a city was approved by the Assembly Local Government Committee late Wednesday.

The bill, SB 389, authored by Sen. Gary Hart (D-Santa Barbara), says the Local Agency Formation Commission cannot approve a cityhood petition that includes a provision that the county retain jurisdiction over sewers.

Hart’s bill, which now heads to the full Assembly for a vote, will probably create confusion over which government body--LAFCO or the state Legislature--has final authority over incorporation petitions. LAFCO, the state panel that handles cityhood matters, is expected to vote on the county’s sewer request Aug. 10.

For the last two weeks, Supervisors Deane Dana and Pete Schabarum have lobbied fellow LAFCO commissioners, trying to persuade them that a “significant health hazard” exists in Malibu and that the county needs to place a regional sewer system there to offset the problem.

Lawsuits Feared

Unless the county is allowed jurisdiction over sewers, Dana wrote in a letter to LAFCO commissioners Wednesday, it will continue to face countless lawsuits over landslide areas in Malibu.

“The county has extraordinary potential exposure in existing and possible future land slippage in the Malibu area,” Dana wrote. “The financial security of the County General Fund may hang in the balance as to whether installation of a sewer system is commenced in a timely fashion.”

Schabarum has prepared a written motion that would allow the county to retain jurisdiction over sewers in Malibu for up to 10 years after Malibu incorporates. Malibu residents will probably vote on the cityhood measure in March.

However, Joe Caves, Hart’s aide, said that even if LAFCO approves the county’s request Wednesday before the Assembly votes on Hart’s bill, the LAFCO condition would be valid only until Jan. 1, 1989, when new laws take effect.

3-Month ‘Window’

“If LAFCO grants the county’s condition, then I suppose that the county could try and rush to put a sewer in place,” Caves said. “But if our bill becomes law, they’d only have a window of about three months in which to do something. Still, it’s likely to create a lot of confusion.”

Lucille Keller, a member of the Malibu Committee for Incorporation, said she hopes that the Assembly committee’s action might persuade LAFCO commissioners to reject the sewer condition. The Senate has already approved Hart’s bill.

For the last two decades, the county has fought to build a regional sewer system in Malibu that critics say will bring uncontrolled development to the area. After more than 1,000 angry Malibu residents showed up at a public hearing last October, supervisors delayed plans to build an $86-million sewer system along the coast and set up a “citizens committee” to study alternative waste-water systems in the area.

Members of that committee blasted the county at a meeting this week for proposing to place a sewer in Malibu without receiving input from the committee, which is studying three waste-water plans for the area.

Last month, LAFCO rejected the county’s sewer request, but supervisors retaliated by unveiling a preliminary report by the county Department of Health Services that says leaking septic systems are creating a health hazard in Malibu.