Celebrities Battling Malibu Sewage System
CELEBRITIES Olivia Newton-John (left) and Christie Brinkley display Save Our Coast T-shirts Thursday as they join fellow Malibu residents in opposition to construction of sewers in the coastal community at a public hearing before the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
LOS ANGELES (AP) Actress Ali McGraw, one of a parade of celebrities to speak against a proposed Malibu sewage system Thurs day, told officials not all Malibu residents are rich movie stars who can afford the $84 million project.
Miss McGraw, citing a 1980 report that stated the median annual in come of Malibu residents was $25, 000, told the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors most cannot afford the $12,000 to $28,000 per household the project is expected to cost.
Assemblyman Tom Hayden, D. Santa Monica, the former student radical who went on to a career in Democratic politics, urged the supervisors to consider alternatives to the 12-mile sewer line that would run from Latigo Canyon Shores to Topanga Canyon.
We have been told the best system to adopt is the largest one a recommendation that came from the firm that bid on the contract,
said Hayden, drawing laughter from the otherwise often unhappy crowd of more than 1,000 who jammed the supervisors boardroom.
Model Christie Brinkley and actor Rob Lowe also spoke out against the project, rebutting county officials allegations that Malibu's septic tank system has become a health hazard.
Miss Brinkley, wife of pop singer Billy Joel, said her parents have lived in Malibu for 30 years.
My folks house is in the contaminated area and we seem to have survived very well,
she said.
Miss Brinkley and singer Olivia Newton-John were among many who wore Save Our Coast
T-shirts to the hearings.
Lowe, who has lived in Malibu 11 years, said he would rather swim in the ocean there than anywhere else in the bay area.
It's the cleanest water on the Southern California coast,
he told the supervisors.
Malibu, about 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles, is famed as a celebrity playground and a surfer's paradise.
But it's also an area of landslides, brush fires and a surf that can turn treacherous and mercilessly batter multi-million dollar beachfront houses.
Residents testified that they are not anti-sewer, but contended the system is financially prohibitive and environmentally intrusive.
County Health Director Robert Gates and Public Works Director Thomas Tidemanson both testified that the system is needed.
They said the current, 40-year-old septic tank system presents a health risk and that flushing water aggravates landslides.
Tidemanson said residents of the Big Rock area have filed a $200 million lawsuit over landslides they claim resulted from the county's allowance of septic tanks.
Gates said complaints of sewage overflow in Malibu are 80 times greater than any other area of the county.
David Davenport, president of Pepperdine University, which sits on a hilltop overlooking the Pacific Ocean, also urged the county to look into alternative systems.
Malibu residents have rejected sewer bond issues three times since 1966. However, since the county has declared the situation a health hazard, the supervisors can approve the project without voter approval,
Malibu Township Council president Leon Cooper estimated that at least 65 percent of the property owners oppose the project.