Malibu Finds No Dry Humor in Water Line Break

You can imagine the jokes:

Malibu’s water supply dried up Sunday--the Perrier guys went on strike. Malibu residents faced a moral quandary this weekend: Should they use their last bottle of Evian to wash the BMW or Mercedes? No wonder Malibu-ites ran out of water--they kept soaking the rest of us to clean up after their disasters.

Very funny--unless, of course, you happen to live or work in Malibu.

In the latest blow to the city’s dignity, a broken water main shut down thousands of taps Sunday during the hottest hours of a holiday weekend. That meant no showers, no clean dishes. No sprinklers, no flushed toilets. And, when the ice was used up, no on-the-rocks summertime drinks.

County engineers repaired the leak by early evening, but expected water pressure to remain low for several hours for the 14,000 people affected.

So Lorraine Irving, the general manager of Malibu Beach Inn, had no firm answer when guests urgently inquired if they would have enough pressure to shave in the morning. The question struck her as a bit odd anyway, in that the folks asking it were supposed to be kicking back on a seaside vacation. “They just can’t relax, even if it’s a holiday,” she noted.

Indeed, many in Malibu had trouble relaxing on Sunday, holiday or no holiday. Reflecting city officials’ escalating concern, periodic bulletins warned residents at first to avoid wasting water, then to turn the taps sparingly . . . then to keep hands off the faucets altogether.

For 18-year-old Toby Emerson, those admonitions proved unnecessary. When he went to take his morning shower, “hardly anything was coming out,” Emerson complained. “I went outside to check our water main. I thought maybe our dog had turned it off.”

In fact, the mini-drought began when a section of concrete pipeline burst near Big Rock Drive and Pacific Coast Highway. Los Angeles County engineers had detected a crack Friday night, and fixed it, but moist earth kept shifting underground, jostling the 36-inch-wide pipe and causing another fissure--and finally the rupture--Saturday night.

“It couldn’t come at a worse time,” city spokeswoman Sarah Maurice said. “I can tell you that local merchants and restaurants were really looking forward to a profitable weekend. This just adds insult to injury.”

Ironically, Malibu’s water problem came on a gorgeous beach day, when the ocean, an inviting 67 degrees, curled in gentle two-feet swells. Alice’s Restaurant manager Bobby Fitzsimmons found the vast ocean a frustrating contrast to the kitchen taps, suggesting the old lament of the Ancient Mariner: “water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.”

“On top of everything else,” Fitzsimmons said glumly, “this is the last thing we need.”

At the posh restaurant Geoffrey’s, manager Amber Danielson fretted as well.

Normally, she would be thrilled to see sunburned throngs jamming the place to gorge on seafood and salad and sparkling views. On Sunday, however, all that eating and drinking inspired a nasty worry: clogged toilets.

“The bars are packed, people are everywhere,” she said. “Which makes me a little concerned. . . . “

But Geoffrey’s wound up keeping its water pressure all day, and even reaped a benefit from the small crisis, Danielson said--neighbors who were not so lucky stopped by for dinner rather than risk a pileup of dirty dishes.

The water shortage was not the day’s only inconvenience. As crews unearthed the cracked section of pipeline, their work snarled traffic and the gridlock put the brakes on business along Pacific Coast Highway.

There was one spot, however, where the holiday sizzled--on the beach. Lifeguards reported near gridlock there, as well, amid high spirits.

Lt. Steve Wood estimated the attendance at Malibu’s northern sands at Zuma Beach at 100,000, almost double a normal Sunday.