Despite Malibu Outcry : County Keeps Sewer Plan Alive

Los Angeles County supervisors might still go ahead with plans for a huge $86-million sewer system in Malibu if a vast majority of residents don’t rally behind the less-costly alternative system recommended to the board by a citizens committee last month.

Harry Stone, deputy director of the county’s Department of Public Works, told the committee Tuesday night that the board was keeping the much-criticized regional sewer system proposal alive in case the community doesn’t support the alternative $34-million waste-water disposal system that would allow a majority of residents in Malibu to continue using septic tanks.

First Disclosure

Although Stone said that county staff planned to recommend approval for the scaled-down system, his comments were the first public disclosure that the supervisors still would consider the $86-million system that fueled widespread public outcry in Malibu and forced supervisors to back away from the proposal last year.

“It’s like a sword hanging over us,” said committee member John Sibert. “I think it shows bad faith on the part of the county.”

Despite recent remarks by supervisors that they were pleased with the committee’s recommendation for a small-scale sewer system, county officials reported last month that a “significant” health hazard exists along a 13-mile stretch of Malibu’s coastline because of the use of septic tanks. The finding is the same as in a 1985 declaration by the county that allows supervisors to construct a sewer system in Malibu and assess fees to residents without a vote of the community.

Stone said the environmental impact reports on both sewer systems will be presented to supervisors in mid-January and that the board can then vote for one of the systems or opt for neither. He said the board members were pushing county public works and health services officials “to get moving ahead on this thing,” presumably in order to begin construction of a sewer system before Malibu residents can vote on incorporation.

“When the board told us to go out and get some alternatives, they didn’t tell us to stop work on the (large-scale sewer) report,” Stone said. “So it’s still a pending item before the board.”

Resisted Efforts

Los Angeles County has tried for more than 20 years to build a regional sewer system in Malibu, but a majority of residents have resisted those efforts, saying it would generate unwanted and haphazard development along the coast. The resistence also has spurred the most recent effort by Malibu residents to incorporate.

A vote on Malibu cityhood was delayed until at least June 6 when a Superior Court judge ruled last week that incorporation backers must prepare a limited environmental impact report on sewage and traffic problems that might be created by a new coastal city.

The ruling was the latest blow in a yearlong fight between the county and Malibu over cityhood and sewers.

More than 1,000 angry residents packed a supervisors’ hearing last year to voice opposition to the proposed $86-million system proposed by James M. Montgomery Consulting Engineers Inc. That system, which many analysts said would likely exceed $100 million in construction costs, would cost each homeowner in Malibu more than $12,000 per lot, and the assessment for large landholders would exceed $1 million. The assessment for Pepperdine University alone was more than $8 million.

If supervisors opt for the scaled-down, $34-million system, the board must decide how to finance it. According to the engineering studies done by private consultants for the committee, residents who decide to maintain an on-site disposal system could face payments between $2,000 and $73,000, depending on the condition of their septic tanks.

Waste-Water System

The smaller sewer plan calls for the construction of a waste-water system in Malibu’s Civic Center area and a septic tank effluent pumping system that would carry waste water from homes in troubled landslide areas, such as Big Rock Mesa, to a central disposal plant near the Civic Center.

Although the committee members were highly critical of the county’s plan to keep the $86-million system alive, they voted down a motion to ask supervisors to reject the Montgomery proposal outright, saying it would serve no purpose.

Stone said it could be inferred that the county was trying to pressure Malibu residents to accept the small-scale sewer system, adding that the county had serious concerns that any system it adopts would face lawsuits from community activists. He added that the county’s timetable would call for construction on either sewer system to begin early in 1989 and to be completed by 1991 at the earliest.

“It does seem as if it’s a cloud hanging over this (alternative recommendation),” Stone said. “But there is concern among the board members that even if we give final approval to the committee’s recommendation that the community won’t support the alternative plan.

Committee member Leon Cooper said he was outraged that the county would attempt to undermine the committee’s efforts to present a viable alternative sewer plan.

“I’m personally very upset and I regard it as a disservice to the community and to this committee,” he said. “That the Montgomery plan is still even being considered is an insult to everybody.”