Malibu : Sewage Treatment Proposal

Los Angeles County officials plan to recommend a six-acre parcel next to Pepperdine University as the site of a sewer treatment facility to serve the county’s long-sought regional sewer system in Malibu.

The proposal, announced Tuesday at a meeting of a citizens advisory group, drew immediate criticism from residents whose luxury homes are a short distance away from the proposed site.

“They could put it any number of places away from people, and yet they want to put the plant next to a residential area,” said Marilynn Santman, president of the Malibu Country Estates Homeowners Assn.

Residents of the subdivision have expressed concern that odor from the plant, as well as water discharges and noise from trucks, could decrease their property values.

Harry Stone, the county’s deputy director of public works, said that the site, which is next to an existing waste-water treatment plant that serves Pepperdine and Malibu Country Estates, is being proposed because “it offers the least social and environmental impact” of 10 sites considered in the Malibu area.

County officials have said that the Adamson Cos., the development firm that owns the property, has indicated it may be willing to donate the land to the county. Adamson wants to build a $60-million hotel nearby, but cannot proceed until the sewer system is in place.

The proposed site must be approved by the Board of Supervisors and the state Coastal Commission.