Malibu Creek

Malibu residents are fighting expansion of a sewage treatment plant that sends recycled San Fernando Valley sewage water down Malibu Creek and into their community. "We do not want your effluent," Leon Cooper, Malibu Township Council president, said Monday night at a hearing on the proposed 60% expansion of the Tapia Sewage Treatment Plant. "We in Malibu see no benefit to be associated with the current plant or its expansion."

Malibu residents are fighting expansion of a sewage treatment plant that sends recycled San Fernando Valley sewage water down Malibu Creek and into their community. "We do not want your effluent," Leon Cooper, Malibu Township Council president, said at a hearing Monday night on the proposed 60% expansion of the Tapia Sewage Treatment Plant. "We in Malibu see no benefit to be associated with the current plant or its expansion."

Her days are already littered with stray cigarette butts and cars spewing oil, and it's only going to get worse for Heather Lea Merenda, the keeper of the storm drains in Calabasas. Calabasas is hardly a haven for shifty-eyed litterbugs. But Merenda still finds plenty of paint, garbage and other gunk washing into drains meant only for rain. The contaminants flow into creeks that snake down through the mountains and into the sea.

Sandra McRea, a fifth-grade teacher from Northridge, was hiking in Malibu Creek State Park recently when a red-shouldered hawk streaked across the blue sky. She recognized it immediately. "That's our 'guard' hawk," she said, watching the bird until it disappeared into a large, gnarled oak. "He has three different perches and checks things out from those."

Sandra McRea, a fifth-grade teacher from Northridge, was hiking in Malibu Creek State Park recently when a red-shouldered hawk streaked across the blue sky. She recognized it immediately. "That's our 'guard' hawk," she said, watching the bird until it disappeared into a large, gnarled oak. "He has three different perches and checks things out from those."

The county Department of Public Works has recommended a creek discharge to dispose of treated effluent from a 300-room hotel and commercial project proposed in the hills above Malibu. The discharge proposal moved the controversial Rancho Malibu Mesa project one step closer to obtaining a conditional-use permit from the county Regional Planning Commission. The commission has been reluctant to approve the project until the developer, the Adamson Cos.

For a while, after a big rock at Big Rock closed Pacific Coast Highway, the pace of life in Malibu just seemed to change. It felt, some residents said, like a flashback to the '70s, before massive mansions and congestion came to town. "It's like the old days!" said Rich Davis, 72, a surfer and development consultant who has lived in Malibu for 44 years. "This keeps people out."

It's hard to get Malibu's resident celebrities to agree on anything. Just look at the controversy surrounding the issues of sewer systems, over-development and Martin Sheen. But 100 of them nevertheless managed to reach consensus Friday night: that La Scala's move to new quarters in the beach community was not just one small step for restaurateur Jean Leon, but also one giant leap for Malibu. And they even agreed to celebrate there at a benefit dinner for the Motion Picture and Television Fund that was underwritten entirely by Leon.

In the centuries-old scuffle over Malibu Creek State Park in the Santa Monica Mountains, stubborn outsiders like milk thistle and black mustard have racked up a long winning streak. Theoe nonnative plants have nearly conquered the northeast corner of the park, driving out the indigenous grasses that once carpeted valley floors. But park ecologist Suzanne Goode wants to even the score.

Malibu's crucial stretch of Pacific Coast Highway, the Malibu Lagoon Bridge, was opened to four lanes of traffic Thursday after the first phase of a $9.2-million reconstruction project was completed in five weeks--100 days ahead of schedule. The bridge was closed in January after unusually punishing storms buckled the structure, blocking all but foot access between the east and west ends of Malibu for a week.