At Surfrider Beach, Water Is Not So Fine : Pollution: Despite warnings of unsafe conditions, the famous Malibu Lagoon State Beach remains popular. Who is to blame for the problem is the topic of a heated debate.

It is enough to set a surfer’s teeth on edge: Malibu’s Surfrider Beach, one of the world’s best, not to mention most famous, surfing beaches is being ruined by pollution.

Had it occurred 30 years ago, some say only half jokingly, Gidget would have never gone near the place, and Frankie Avalon might have never dropped a beach blanket there.

“I look at the waves and marvel, but I won’t surf there anymore,” said John Van Hamersveld, 48, who abandoned Surfrider Beach two years ago when, after a day in the surf, his nose became infected and his face broke out in a rash.

His is a common refrain directed at one of Southern California’s prettiest and most popular beaches.

The culprit, most experts agree, is the algae-laden water of Malibu Lagoon State Beach, the official name of the beach and nearby lagoon, which environmentalists say has become a receptacle for a wide array of pollutants flowing down from the Santa Monica Mountains via Malibu Creek. Just who is to blame for the pollution, and where, exactly, it is coming from, is the subject of heated debate.

For several years, surfers, swimmers, environmentalists and local residents have clashed over what to do about it. More recently, each group has pointed the finger at a municipal water district that serves the fast-growing west San Fernando Valley and whose reclamation plant next to the creek spews effluent that ends up in the coastal lagoon.

Critics say effluent from the Tapia Reclamation Plant five miles upstream from the beach has not only contributed to the demise of the lagoon but has also helped to swell the creek’s banks near expensive homes during heavy rains and has fostered occasional outbreaks of stinging black flies along the creek.

They were upset last month when, despite protests from environmentalists and others, the California Coastal Commission unanimously approved a plan to increase capacity of the plant from 10 million gallons a day to 16.1 million gallons.

Officials of the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, which serves about 80,000 residents, including Westlake Village, Agoura Hills and Hidden Hills, have said they hope to begin work on the $30-million expansion by the end of the year and finish by late 1992.

Water district officials have denied that effluent from the plant, which they say is suitable for body contact, has negatively affected the creek or the lagoon.

The creek, they say, collects drainage from 150 square miles, and they insist that the plant’s effluent is one of the few good things that goes into it.

But critics contend that whether or not the effluent is clean, it has contributed to increased bacteria and algae growth in the lagoon because, by increasing the creek’s flow, more water becomes trapped and stagnates in the lagoon.

Several experts, including a Malibu physician, have said that bacteria levels represent a health hazard for swimmers and surfers off the beach and the lagoon and that state and county health officials have not done enough to warn people of the potential danger.

“I have treated scores, if not hundreds, of patients whose infections are directly attributable to having come in contact with the water off that beach,” said Dr. Jeff Harris, who has practiced in Malibu for 15 years.

His patients have complained of stomach, ear, sinus and other infections after swimming or surfing near the lagoon and the half-mile stretch of beach revered by surfers for its consistently high-quality breakers.

Harris is among several experts scheduled to participate in a symposium on the matter Saturday at Pepperdine University. Sponsored by GeoSurf, a surfing and environmental group, the symposium’s organizers include Van Hamersveld, who is GeoSurf’s president, and Glenn R. Hening, founder of the nonprofit Surfrider Foundation.

“Up to now, the decision regarding the plant and the entire issue of what is happening at the lagoon has been confined to a relative handful of people,” Van Hamersveld said. “If nothing else, we hope to help focus the public’s attention on it.”

Newspaper ads for the event list representatives of the water district as among the participants. But an official of the district said that although someone from their ranks will likely attend, it will be only to observe.

Officials of the water district say its critics are misinformed about the reclamation plant, and they have privately expressed concern that Saturday’s event may turn into a “Tapia bashing.”

“We want to serve a constructive role in disseminating information,” said Jim Colbaugh, the water district’s director of planning and engineering. “It serves little purpose to present the facts where people are unwilling to listen.”

Water district officials say critics have exaggerated the plant’s role in raising the water level of the lagoon. They say that much of the lagoon’s water is from other sources, including percolation from septic tanks and irrigation uses, as well as sea water intrusion.

“If you look at Malibu Creek just above the lagoon this week, you will see that it is dry,” Colbaugh said. “Not a drop of Tapia effluent has been emptied into the creek in the last couple of weeks because we’ve been selling our reclaimed water to customers in the Valley. So where’s the water in the lagoon coming from? Not from us.”

However, others disagree.

“What they seem to forget is that at the bottom of the creek, you have a lagoon that acts as a reservoir,” Harris, the physician, said. “Just because they’ve not dumped water from the plant into the creek for two weeks doesn’t mean that there isn’t plenty of the plant’s effluent still there.

Malibu Lagoon State Beach, which includes a museum and picnic grounds, is spread out over 169 acres, although the lagoon itself covers only about 30 acres. The state operates the park, including a parking lot where beach-goers pay $4 to park, while Los Angeles County is responsible for providing lifeguard and other beach services.

To prevent septic tanks from overflowing at beachfront homes in nearby Malibu Colony, where many celebrities live, water must be let out of the lagoon about twice a month.

Each time, a state bulldozer cuts a swath through the sandy beach that separates the lagoon from the ocean. For several days, the brackish lagoon water pours into the sea, until waves push against the sand enough to once again close off the artificial storm drain.

The county health department, which has posted permanent signs warning beach-goers to avoid contact with the lagoon, also posts temporary signs, warning people that the ocean surf may also be hazardous, each time the drain is cut.

However, critics say that the warnings are inadequate.

“You’ve got somebody in a uniform taking your $4 to park, and a lifeguard station here, and people swimming and surfing, until a certain mentality sets in that says, ‘This beach must not be so bad,” said Mary Frampton, executive director of Save Our Coast, an environmental group. “Well, as we know, it is bad.”

Because of the pollution caused by the escaping lagoon water, the storm drain’s location has long pitted surfers against swimmers and area residents.

Bill and Fini Littlejohn, who live in the colony, are among a handful of swimmer advocates who for several years have accused state parks officials of yielding to pressure from surfers to have the storm drain cut at the west end of the beach, which is mostly used for swimming.

Their complaints may finally be about to pay off.

Dan Preece, district superintendent for the state Department of Parks and Recreation, said this week that, in the future, the storm drain will be cut several hundred feet to the east, in keeping with a 1984 agreement with swimmers, surfers and local residents.

After a recent review of the matter, he concluded that state workers have been cutting the berm in the wrong location for several years. He called it an inadvertent mistake.

The decision is almost certain to raise the ire of surfers, since it means that polluted lagoon water will now be dumped directly into an area of the beach they most favor.

“It could be war,” said Van Hamersveld. “A lot of surfers won’t be happy about this. It’s an example of how essential it is that we address what needs to be done to improve the quality of the beach.”