Malibu Officials and Activists Challenge Procedures at First Hearing on OceanWay LNG Proposal

• Congressional Representative for Project Area Says Terminal Would Be a Prime Terrorist Target •

BY HANS LAETZ

Polite anger was simmering at a Wednesday night hearing on a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal 21 miles off Malibu, when a City of Los Angeles official refused to disclose information about how L.A. City Hall will make its decision on the controversial proposal.

Two Malibu City Council members started the session by publicly criticizing an L.A. City Department of Public Works official for not telling anyone in Malibu about the unexpectedly scheduled hearing, and for not holding one in Malibu, the closest city to the offshore project.

The Los Angeles procedure is of key importance, as that city holds veto power over “OceanWay,” a proposed LNG terminal 21 miles south of Point Dume. Woodside Natural Gas wants to park a pair of ships at the site and use a regasification process to reheat LNG and push it through pipes ashore across 29 miles of ocean bottom, Dockweiler Beach, City of L.A. streets and Los Angeles International Airport property.

Controversy continued throughout the four-hour session attended by more than 200 people from as far away as Ventura, Orange County and San Fernando who offered suggestions on which environmental issues should be considered as the proposal is evaluated.

Although critics of the project dominated the hearing by a 4-1 margin, three neighborhood activists from the LAX area, where the gas pipeline will come ashore, endorsed it. Union officials representing pipefitters, ironworkers, maritime workers and sea captains also spoke on behalf of Woodside’s proposed OceanWay LNG terminal.

KEY CONCERNS

A field representative for Rep. Jane Harmon, D-Redondo Beach, blasted the proposed LNG import terminal, which would sit next to LAX, as “an attractive target to terrorists.” Harmon chairs the House Subcommittee on Intelligence and Terrorism Risk Assessment, and represents the LAX area in Congress.

“In my view,” she wrote in comments read into the record, “locating a complex network of LNG pipelines under parts of LAX would be tantamount to adding lighter fluid to a barbeque, at what experts agree is the top terrorist target in California.”

Malibu LNG activist Natalie Soloway noted that, unlike BHP’s Cabrillo Port, the Woodside “OceanWay" project is an open port. “Woodside can bring gas in from Indonesia, Malaysia, or from Russia, where there are very few environmental standards.”

Soloway noted that gas from those nations “burns hotter than our domestic gas and is much more corrosive to the pipelines. It will create problems with the infrastructure all the way down to the individuals’ gas gauges.”

Other objections to the proposed port in 3000 feet of water include environmentalists’ concerns about LNG ships fatally striking whales, and worries that crude oil tankers from a nearby Chevron deepwater port might again drag their anchor and collide with an LNG ship.

A large contingent of Oxnard and Ventura residents attended the meeting, and said the lessons from the four-year battle over BHP Billiton’s Malibu terminal are not forgotten. “I feel like we are talking to drug dealers, we are addicted to imported oil and these people all have nice smiling faces and they want to sell us more,” said Oxnard resident Jim Hensley.

“I am proud of my fellow residents from Ventura County,” said Alan Sanders of Port Hueneme. “We learned that LNG was wrong in our backyard, and it is wrong here.”

Favoring the project was Mike Arias, president of the Westchester-Playa Del Rey neighborhood council. “The impact to us as consumers will be positive,” he said, “as consumers can take advantage of additional sources of natural gas.”

“The ability to have clean fuel delivered to us via pipeline from 28 miles off our shore—that’s real progress,” enthused Art Pulaski from the California Labor Federation. “And it will provide jobs for the people who create prosperity in this state.”

CITY STONEWALLING

The Los Angeles City project manager, Linda Moore, startled the Coast Guard official moderating the meeting when she said, “I would prefer not to [explain just how the city will handle its decision-making process].”

“I can’t give you an answer to that question, it’s just too complex to describe,” she told a clutch of Malibu and Oxnard residents after the hearing. “I am not in a position to discuss every step of the project.”

Malibu residents, however, continued to press Moore about who at the City of Los Angeles will make the final determinations on the LNG project, which is six miles closer to Malibu than to L.A. “I would recommend that you ask that question in a letter to the docket,” she said, referring to the federal computerized list of public documents.

One Malibuite replied that the docket is basically an electronic file cabinet incapable of responding to inquiries and that questions about how the City of Los Angeles functions should be answered at what was billed as an informational meeting. But Moore said nothing.

Left unclear is who at the City of L.A. will decide on whether to allow Woodside to bring its proposed natural gas pipeline ashore across city-owned beaches, airport property and streets. The L.A. City charter grants wide powers to semi-autonomous boards like the Board of Public Works, but Moore would not say whether that board or the city council would have final say on any or all of the proposal’s numerous aspects.

Earlier in the session, Malibu Mayor Pro Tem Pamela Conley Ulich angrily told Moore that L.A. was “making this process so cumbersome and difficult.” Conley Ulich noted that Moore had refused to make the City of Malibu’s comments a part of the official docket, even though L.A. is obligated to do so under the federal Deepwater Ports Act.

“What’s going on here, what are you afraid of?” Conley Ulich asked Moore.

Again, the L.A. official did not answer.

“I long for the BHP Billiton days, when at least we had the courtesy and respect to have local hearings,” said Councilmember Andy Stern. “We deserve another public hearing, and we deserve it in Malibu.”

Malibu city officials complained that the meeting was not advertised locally, that the city was not formally notified even though it is the closest land to the project, and that they did not know about it until a Malibu Surfside News reporter asked them if they were planning to attend.

Coast Guard officials stressed during the meeting that public comments can be made in writing, either by U.S. Mail, or by filling out a form on the docket website. But officials also noted that the docket is about to be taken offline for major retooling, and therefore extended the electronic filing deadline to Oct. 15.

Activists noted that the public is expected to comment on a 5721-page application that was released without notice eight days ago. Environmental activist Marcia Hanscom asked that the comment period be expanded to 90 days but received no response.

One surprise came near the end of the meeting, when Keith Lesnick, the director of deepwater ports for the federal Maritime Administration, revealed that the BHP Billiton project off Malibu would have faced a federal veto had the state of California not killed it last April.

“I can tell you now, that if the BHP process had ever gotten to the Maritime Administrator, it would have been denied,” Lesnick said at the Wednesday hearing.

Summer Ends on Wintry Note As Fall Makes Springlike Entry

• Record Breaking Storm Brings Much-Needed Relief to Malibu Area

BY ANNE SOBLE

A Canadian cold front followed meteorological projections to the letter when it continued on its projected path to the Southland last Friday, bringing with it record setting rainfall for late September and ushering in an autumn unlike any in recent memory.

Following almost six months of rain-free weather, which may be a travel agent’s dream but was a nightmare for human, animal and plant life in terms of diminished water resources and dangerously high wildfire danger, the rain was universally welcomed.

Although the rain’s relief may not have provided cause for long-term jubilation, since a few strong Santa Ana winds could quickly undo its benefits, it still marked the first break in the 2006-2007 dry spell for the area.

A winter storm on the last day of summer was also a wordsmith’s delight. Oxymorons and puns abounded.

The first heavy downpour fell late Friday afternoon, with major surges again Friday night, and, depending on the location, three to four more on Saturday morning and afternoon.

Local sheriff’s department and California Highway Patrol offices reported no major accidents attributable to the storm. City and county road crews quickly jumped into action, clearing soil sloughing and errant rocks almost as soon as they appeared.

The storm was the textbook variety with cold temperatures (as much as 20 degrees below normal), thunder and black clouds the size of football fields. Unofficial rain gauges throughout the community recorded from .25 to .62 inches of precipitation.

The first rain of the season, often referred to as the “first flush” by water quality experts, affected beaches to the south more than those in western Malibu. A lifeguard event on Saturday that was scheduled for Santa Monica Beach was moved to Zuma because of water quality concerns.

The rain saturated many of area’s dry creek beds, but this flow has already been absorbed in many of them. None of the berms of creek outlets into the ocean were breached, including the ones at Malibu Lagoon and Zuma Beach.

Public announcements started as soon as rain began falling concerning the recommendation by Los Angeles County lifeguards and health personnel, as well as Heal The Bay, which issues weekly water quality report cards, that ocean users should wait three days after a storm before going into the water.

In addition, the rainfall was enough to fill, for a while, watering holes for wildlife in the Santa Monica Mountains. Deer and coyote have been increasingly visible as their water resources have dried up and they have been forced into residential areas.

With deer come increased concerns about mountain lion interface. The big cats follow their primary food source and must find water despite their natural aversion to human contact.

Temporary respite for vegetation also improves the environment for every other four-footed or winged species, all of which have experienced unusual stress because of the parched terrain.

Planning Commission Takes Action on Key View Preservation Issues

BY BILL KOENEKER

Two closely watched view preservation issues before the City of Malibu Planning Commission last week had similar outcomes for those seeking to maintain their ocean views even though they were reached by very different approaches.

By unanimous vote, the planning panel declined to remove a condition that had been volunteered by applicant Bill Lawrence who then sought to waive the requirement, to restore his neighbors’ viewshed by cutting down his pine trees or replacing them with trees that would not grow above 20 feet. The voluntary condition was part of Lawrence’s application for a Cliffside Drive remodeling project. The trees were being cut down as The News went to press.

A second item on the agenda for another makeover, also on Cliffside Drive, was praised by commissioners because the neighbors had already worked out a unique view preserving agreement that allowed the applicant to redo an existing residence, go above 18 feet in places, but still preserve the ocean views of his across-the-street neighbors by controlling the height of the vegetation in perpetuity.

On the Lawrence issue, commissioners heard from his attorney, Alan Block, who said the request was prompted by an arborist’s report that the trees would die if they were topped at 20 feet—the original condition accepted for approval of the building request.

“We made an offer during a contentious hearing. It has blown up in our faces. I didn’t want the 50-year-old trees to die,” said Bill Lawrence, the owner and applicant.

Christa Miller Lawrence said, “It has been one heartbreak after another. I didn’t want to kill the trees. We have been hounded by the neighbors.”

However, the across-the-street neighbors, who also brokered the deal for the view preserving agreement of the other building project, told commissioners a different story and chided the Lawrences for their current predicament.

“It is like a child murdering his parents and then throwing himself on the mercy of the court, saying he is an orphan,” said neighbor Sam Hall Kaplan, who told commissioners the trees were compromised when the Lawrences had them cut.

Later, the Lawrences’ arborist, who was closely queried by commissioners, explained that he had been called in after the trees were uplimbed.

Peggy Hall Kaplan also told the planning panelists she believed the trees were purposely uplimbed and that the bluffside house was little used by the Lawrences but maintained mostly as a perk for their production company. Lawrence is the executive producer of the television show “Scrubs.” She said the uplimbing had compromised the trees and already destroyed the Lawrences’ privacy.

However, it might have been former planning commissioner Pete Anthony’s testimony to the planning panelists that helped sway them. “You accepted the generosity of the applicant. It broke a logjam. He did it with his attorney present. Without the condition, this is a different project. You should be able to take a planning commission decision to the bank. This was volunteered. It was not extorted. The commissioners should stick to their guns,” he said.

Commissioner Joan House, who said the neighbors being at odds was “very sad,” said she is a strong advocate for protecting neighbor and public views. “The applicant did make an agreement. Top the trees and see what happens. They are not specimen trees,” she said.

Commissioner John Sibert observed that there are no rules that can be set up that someone cannot find a loophole. He also talked about how panelists should not be adjudicating neighborhood disputes.

“By pruning the bottom out they made it really difficult to top out. Even their own arborist said that. [The applicant] voluntarily agreed to it,” he added, saying the commissioners should hold the applicant to the original agreement.

“I am inclined to agree with Commissioner Sibert,” said Commissioner Les Moss. “There is a lot of speculation if they will die. We don’t know that. If they do, they can be replaced. It was not our condition. We did not impose this.”

Chair Regan Schaar agreed, “We saw a lot of smoke and mirrors tonight. The Lawrences were trying to avoid an appeal. We need to move on and put this to bed. You did make a deal to avoid an appeal. A deal is a deal.”

By contrast, the commissioners had nothing but praise on the other agenda item involving applicant Bruce Martin, the Hall Kaplans and staff planner Stephanie Edmonson, who helped facilitate a meeting between Martin and the Hall Kaplans to reach a private maintenance agreement for the trees on Martin’s property.

The onsite trees within the Hall Kaplans’ line-of-sight will be maintained at the roofline of the proposed addition and remodel so as to shield the Kaplans’ from the structure while maintaining a view across the site. The project also includes a public view corridor to be maintained near the Cliffside Drive and Grasswood Avenue intersection.

“It is so much better when the neighbors take care of it. I am almost excited,” said Sibert.

“It is nice to see cooperation,” added Moss.

“I complement you on the view corridor,” said House.

Planning Manager CJ Amstrup told commissioners that Edmonson put a lot of time and effort into finding a solution.

Martin agreed, “It truly would not have come to fruition if not for Stephanie.”

Local Fluoridation Foes Vow to Fight Tooth and Nail

• Commission Approves $20 Million Oral Health Plan that Would Include Malibu and Topanga

BY ANNE SOBLE

A $20 million Oral Health Community Development Project developed by the Los Angeles County First 5 Commission that will allow communities to fluoridate their water supply to ostensibly prevent tooth decay, especially in young children during their first five years, has just been approved.

But critics of the plan question the science on which it’s based and say they will fight the forced imposition of additional use of the chemical in the local water supply.

A campaign against the increased fluoridation of local water has picked up speed after a flurry of letters to the editor expressed concern about the First 5 package.

The OHCD funds will supplement existing fluoridation efforts of the Metropolitan Water District in areas throughout Los Angeles County, including Malibu and Topanga. Project opponents from both communities are joining forces to ask local Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who spearheaded the project, to reverse his action.

Critics are currently creating an umbrella group to address ways to convince Yaroslavsky and other county officials that the plan is not only unpopular but raises serious issues related to public health and scientific validity.

Some of these Malibu and Topanga groups and individuals have sent a letter to Yaroslavsky, described in detail on page 4, that they hope will begin a dialogue.

The case for increased fluoridation comes mainly from the federal Center for Disease Control, which contends “dental caries is still the most common preventable chronic disease in the U.S., and tooth decay is the number one reason that children miss school.”

Yaroslavsky said, “Today’s commission approval of my oral health initiative means that thousands of kids in Los Angeles County will grow up with healthier, stronger teeth. In addition, their families will avoid the inconvenience of unnecessary trips to the dentist for fillings, extractions and other painful and entirely avoidable procedures.”

“First 5 L.A.’s Commission believes oral health to be a critical part of the overall healthy growth and development of a child,” said Jonathan Fielding, Director of the Department of Public Health and Health Officer for Los Angeles County. “We are excited about this project, which is such an important investment in the well-being of our children,” he added.

The OHCD funding will be available to interested cities over the course of three years.

Eligible applicants have to demonstrate their capacity to execute and maintain fluoridation in their communities. First 5 L.A. monies will fund the infrastructure needed for water to be fluoridated.

First 5 L.A. is a child advocacy organization created by California voters that “invests tobacco tax revenues in programs that improve the lives of children prenatal to 5 in Los Angeles County. First 5 L.A. champions health, education and safety issues benefiting young children and their families.”

Major Changes Slated for the Malibu High School Campus

• Four-Decades Old Classrooms to Be Demolished

BY HANS LAETZ

Demolition of two 40-year-old sections of Malibu High School and construction of major new classroom and library wings will likely begin in about two years, school officials said Monday.

Rough schedules penciled in by Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District officials envision bids going out in mid-2009 for a whole new front entrance to the school, encompassing a new high-tech library/community center and plaza facing Morning View Drive.

District facilities director Wally Berryman will meet with educators at the Malibu school this week, and with board members Tuesday, to review the $27 million package of projects for the school that opened as a junior high in 1968 and has not had a major makeover since.

The construction is part of the deal approved by Malibu and Santa Monica voters with passage of Proposition BB in 2006. That measure will generate about $268 million in bond funds for the 10 public school campuses in the two cities—about one fourth of the total estimated to be needed for construction at the schools over the next 20 years.

After two years of community hearings, the SMMUSD board has directed that top priority be given to projects that can be completed without undergoing time-consuming major environmental studies. A new synthetic athletics field, new tennis courts, correction of ventilation problems in the new gymnasium’s locker rooms and expansion of the school’s outdoor amphitheater are expected to be tackled first, Berryman said.

And for subsequent large construction to proceed, some major preparatory work must be completed, Berryman said, including building a new parking lot on the campus’s southeast corner, on vacant land between the football stadium and Morning View Drive.

“That parking lot was added as a direct response to requests from the community when we held meetings out there last year,” noted Virginia Hyatt, who oversees the district’s ambitious building efforts as its purchasing director.

Heavy construction is tentatively slated to begin in Fall 2009 with demolition of the office buildings along Morning View between the auditorium and existing library.

They would be replaced by a two-story, high-tech library and computer center and an outdoor plaza that would connect the auditorium, food services area and library, and serve as a grand entrance to the school.

That design concept stems directly from suggestions made by Malibu students, and endorsed by parents and educators, during planning sessions two years ago.

School board president Kathy Wisnicki has asked district officials to work closely with Santa Monica College and City of Malibu officials, who have funding for library and college classroom facilities. “There are multiple levels of opportunity here,” Wisnicki said at an August board meeting. “The city is interested and the college board is interested.”

Under current plans, in two years a dozen middle school classrooms will be relocated to 12 temporary portable rooms parked on the paved basketball courts above the amphitheater, while the single-story classroom wing at the school’s eastern end is demolished, Berryman said.

“There’s nothing wrong with that building, but we need larger classrooms and we need more classrooms,” he said. Tentative plans would place 24 larger classrooms in a two-story structure that would occupy about the same footprint as the existing single-floor building, built in 1967.

Eventually, the school’s offices will be moved into the building now housing the school’s existing, cramped library.

School board member Kelly Pye noted at last month’s meeting that unclean, unsightly bathrooms were the number one priority cited by parents district-wide, a complaint certainly voiced by Malibu High parents.

Berryman said existing deferred maintenance funds are being used to replace toilets and partitions in district bathrooms now, rather than waiting for bond funds to become available.

A new gym and classroom wing was built at Malibu High five years ago, but teachers and students have complained bitterly that both of those new buildings are crippled by design flaws such as tiny classrooms and showers and bathroom areas that are not ventilated. District officials have set up a citizens oversight committee to prevent repeat blunders.

The high school projects dwarf all of the district’s plans for the three Malibu elementary schools, where remodeling projects will be comparatively minor. Major work is also proposed for the district’s aging Santa Monica High School, where extensive new classroom wings will be built.

The City of Santa Monica is also investigating building a parking garage underneath Samohi’s football fields and tennis courts, for public parking for new commercial and residential developments planned near McClure Tunnel, district officials said.

The board will go over the construction timetable and layout concepts at a joint workshop with its Proposition BB Advisory Committee at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 2, at district headquarters, 1651 16th Street, Santa Monica.

Coast Residents Have Eight Days to Address Early LNG Concerns

• Lone Pre-Hearing Set on One of the Proposals within the Greater Malibu Area

BY HANS LAETZ

LNG ALERT
OceanWay Hearing

The project’s application can be found on the Internet at http://dms.dot.gov/search/searchResultsSimple.cfm?
numberValue=26844&searchType=docket
Comments may be submitted at that location, or by mail by Oct. 12 to
Docket Management Facility, US Department of Transportation,
1200 New Jersey Ave SE, West Building, Room
W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.

Wednesday’s open house with exhibits and informal Q-and-A conversations will start at 4:30 p.m., and the public may speak from 6:30-8:30 at the LAX Marriott, 5855 W. Century Blvd., Los Angeles. Federal officials will validate parking.

Malibu Mayor Pro Tem Pamela Conley Ulich said she is “shocked, and very disappointed” that the City of Los Angeles forgot to tell Malibu that it unexpectedly scheduled a public hearing on a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal that would sit in the ocean six miles closer to Malibu than to the City of Angels.

The City of L.A.’s project manager for the Woodside Natural Gas evaluation effort on Tuesday rejected Malibu’s request to schedule a public meeting here, Conley Ulich said.

The sudden action by the Los Angeles City Department of Public Works sent coastal activists along the entire coast scrambling to prepare for a public hearing next week over a proposed LNG terminal 21 miles offshore of Point Dume. The L.A. official reportedly apologized to Conley Ulich for forgetting to include the City of Malibu on the notification list.

Virtually no one in Malibu knew about next Wednesday’s meeting until the Malibu Surfside News discovered it on an obscure federal announcements web site Monday, and began asking city officials and environmentalists if they planned to attend. Officials at one group, Heal The Bay, said they had been notified, but four other ocean groups were not.

Local officials also expressed outrage that the only public meeting on the environmental criteria by which the project will be judged was scheduled to take place near Los Angeles Airport.

“It is a disgrace that the only hearing is scheduled on short notice and so far away from Malibu,” said Malibu City Councilmember Andy Stern. “Certainly if there is a genuine desire for input, a closer location for the meeting is required.”

Spokespersons for several environmental groups learned about the looming meeting from The News Monday.

“I’m rather stunned to learn that they’re already having a hearing,” said Marcia Hanscom, director of the Coastal Law Enforcement Action Network. “We’re not prepared for it.”

The meeting announcement for Woodside’s proposal—marketed as “OceanWay”—was quietly released by the U.S. Coast Guard and City of Los Angeles late last week. The hearing is called a “scoping session,” and gives the public a chance to learn about the project and tell independent scientific analysts what aspects of the proposed LNG terminal should be examined.

Coastal advocates and residents were given eight business days to find and digest the project’s 5721-page application, which was also released on the difficult-to-navigate government Internet site last week. The hearing will be held at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott, 33 rush-hour miles from Point Dume, the nearest point of land to the proposed OceanWay LNG terminal.

The City of Los Angeles’ project manager said the decision to have just one distant meeting on brief notice was final. Linda Moore said she had no response to protests from Malibu residents complaining there is no hearing here, or needing time to digest an LNG application that fills an entire crate of loose-leaf binders.

Moore said Wednesday’s meeting is not a hearing, but rather “an informational session for people to learn about the project and for us to listen.”

Rory Cox, who coordinates LNG campaigns for Environment California, said he was surprised and would scramble to study the massive, just-released Woodside proposal “so someone can make proper comments at the session.”

Hanscom said the impact of the Woodside plant in Santa Monica Bay would be much different than what the BHP Billiton plant would have been 30 miles away. “There’s a very different geology and a very different biology, and while I know they are touting this as the greatest green project ever, there are a lot of other issues we have to learn about,” she said.

Heal The Bay scientist Sara Abramson said her group learned of the meeting late last week. “I’m not sure if all the people active in this really know what the project really means yet.”

The Woodside Natural Gas project is substantially different from the ill-fated BHP Billiton request at Malibu, in that no permanent floating factory ship would be used. In addition, Woodside’s project would emit less smog, and would be almost twice as far offshore as the BHP LNG ship.

Woodside plans to use a pair of regasification ships that would circle out to offshore waters, take LNG on board from transoceanic carriers, and then transport it back to a pair of buoys between Point Dume and Catalina Island. There, one ship at a time would warm the LNG into natural gas using ambient air, and pipe the gas ashore across the seabed and past the airport to a receiving station near the 405 Freeway in Inglewood.

Since the undersea gas lines would come ashore on City of Los Angeles beaches and airport property, L.A.’s Public Works Department is handling the environmental hearings in cooperation with the federal lead agency, the Coast Guard.

CLEARWATER PORT PROTESTED

Several dozen demonstrators rallied on a dock in Ventura Harbor last week to protest plans by NorthernStar Natural Gas to convert a 28-year-old oil platform 12.6 miles off Oxnard into an LNG facility.

NorthernStar had invited about 30 guests to take a whale-watching cruise out to Platform Grace Thursday, and hear the company’s plans to convert the top of the rig into an LNG regasification processing plant.

Members of several Oxnard groups quietly held banners and told reporters that the proposal is unsafe, unsightly and unwanted.

Several persons boarding the NorthernStar-chartered boat said they supported LNG, but others expressed skepticism and said they wanted to hear what both company officials and environmentalists had to say before taking sides.

Lois Glab, a member of the Ventura County Republican Woman’s Club, said she had taken no position on the old BHP Billiton proposal and “I want to listen, to see what [NorthernStar has] to say” about the new LNG proposal.

Ventura attorney Bruce Paller boarded the boat after professing that he had opposed the air pollution exemptions sought in the BHP proposal, which was shot down by state agencies last April. “I want to see what other third parties have to say—like environmentalists and the government.” Paller said. “I want to confirm that this port will not emit too much air pollution and be good for the environment, like they promise.”

The NorthernStar LNG proposal, 35 miles northwest of Malibu, will have its environmental hearings Oct. 3 in Oxnard and Oct. 4 in Santa Clarita, where new gas transmission lines would be installed.

SB 412 SHELVED

For the second year in a row, a proposed state law to require an assessment of whether LNG terminals are even needed in California was shelved. Environmentalists said it was killed by Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, who was responding to heavy lobbying from union interests that would benefit from jobs created by LNG projects.

Senate Bill 412, authored by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, was strongly supported by Susan Jordan’s California Coastal Protection Network. It was also supported by Woodside and NorthernStar, but opposed by lobbyists for the Mitsubishi-Shell LNG terminal proposed for the Long Beach harbor.

Supporters said they will try to bring the measure to the floor when the Legislature reconvenes in January.

Board Set to Hear Proposed LCP

• County’s Planning Panel Previously Gave OK

BY BILL KOENEKER

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to hear the county’s proposed Local Coastal Program for unincorporated areas of Malibu and the rest of the Santa Monica Mountains at its meeting on Oct. 23.

The county’s regional planning commission had previously recommended approval of the LCP.

The county had adopted the Malibu Land Use Plan for the Santa Monica Mountains, which was certified by the California Coastal Commission in 1986. However, an implementation program was never adopted and the coastal agency continues to take responsibility for issuing coastal permits. To achieve a complete LCP, a revised document was drafted, which, if approved by the board and certified by the Coastal Commission, will transfer coastal development permitting authority from the coastal agency to the county.

The plan has had several airings during workshops and hearings with the county’s planning commission. Several redline versions have been reiterated and the document in its draft form was approved by the planning commission in March.

The board will hold its own hearing or hearings and take additional testimony. The board may direct the planning staff to make minor changes to the LCP, or, if the board decides that substantial changes concerning issues that were not considered by the planning commission are needed, it would be returned to the planning panel for further discussion, according to county officials.

When the board adopts the LCP, it will be submitted to the Coastal Commission for its review. The coastal panel will hold public hearings and also accept additional testimony. If the Coastal Commission recommends modifications to the LCP, the board will decide whether and how it should be amended to incorporate the coastal panel’s recommendations. If the board makes the changes recommended by the coastal agency, the LCP will be certified and the county will then take on the permitting authority.

The LCP will affect a resident’s ability to keep horses and other animals, impact the ability of homeowners to grow crops on their property, establish development standards for ridgelines and establish a new rural-coastal zone.

• The Publisher’s Notebook •

Malibuites Rely on Noteworthy Notice

BY ANNE SOBLE

Timely notification of public meetings and deadlines for other forms of participation are critical if government operations are to be open and accessible and meet the barest minimum of requirements to be labeled “responsive” and “democratic.” That is supposed to be the logic behind all the current state and local requirements for the posting and publishing of public notices. While it is true that there was a time when the public notice process was a patronage game with financial benefits predicated on governments working hand-in-hand with publications, that relationship is now more often an adversarial one with public notices serving as one way to force government to publicize major policy changes before they can be implemented. When the public is not aware of a pending action on an important issue, its opportunity to voice an opinion is impeded. Notices are supposed to be published where those affected can see them. This is not always done. A case in point is the lack of local notice on the sole scoping session on one of the two new liquefied natural gas projects that are wending their way through the approval process. Even though these projects are not in Malibu’s line of sight, Malibuites should be just as concerned about spotlighting the same environmental and safety issues that took the BHP Billiton project down. And there is still no evidence that an LNG plant is even needed on the South Coast. That these companies also want to play the security and proprietary cards and keep information that may not reflect well on their proposals under wraps does not bode well. City of Los Angeles staffers who set up next week’s meeting know the map of the area and, no doubt, are aware of the concerns that Malibuites have expressed about LNG. No one wants to think that outspoken community members were deliberately excluded from the hearing process..

Intentional exclusion may not have been the goal, but it could become the practice if all public notices take the form of one printed on page 11 of this week’s issue. It was submitted by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for the public hearing on the proposed Santa Monica Mountains Local Coastal Program that covers all of the unincorporated areas of the county, including unincorporated Malibu. To say that a notice in such small type is illegible for many people states the obvious. Notices that meet the letter of the law, while ignoring its spirit, reinforce the view of cynics that government really doesn’t want the public to take part in what it does.

Jail Time Mounts for Malibu Ferrari Crash Passenger: 240 Days So Far

• Irish National Who Snuck Back into the United States Makes Multiple Court Appearances

BY ANNE SOBLE

The passenger in the rare red Enzo Ferrari that crashed on Pacific Coast Highway in February 2006 and achieved instant international media notoriety has not only had his day in court, but several of them where he has so far racked up 240 days in jail time and three years’ probation on an array of charges.

Trevor Karney, 27, allegedly crossed the Mexican border illegally during the summer and quickly found himself in the long arm of the law. A lengthy roster of misdemeanor charges has kept him in county jail since his arrest Aug. 8 in a Marina del Rey apartment.

Karney, who is now being held in the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, is facing five separate sentences: 180 days, 30 days and three consecutive ones at 10-days each, on charges ranging from giving false information to sheriff’s deputies at the crash scene, driving under the influence, driving with a suspended license, failure to appear in court and driving without plates.

Karney pled no contest on the sole charge related to the Ferrari crash—providing false information to law enforcement officers at the accident scene west of Trancas Canyon Road— which was prosecuted by the county district attorney before Judge Amy Hogue.

As extensive police and fire response converged on the remains of the crumpled Enzo on the morning of Feb. 21, last year, Karney corroborated a story by the man subsequently determined to be the Ferrari’s driver, Bo Stefan Eriksson, that the man at the wheel when the car crashed, a fictitious “Dietrich,” had fled the accident scene.

The false information sent sheriff’s deputies on a proverbial wild goose chase through adjacent areas. The arrival of men with identification alleging ties to federal homeland security operations created even more confusion and an ostensibly inebriated Eriksson was released without booking, a feat that major local entertainment celebrities have not been able to accomplish.

In addition to the determination that Eriksson was driving the Ferrari, he was charged with being under the influence. He is currently serving a three-year jail sentence for fraud related to the Enzo and three other high performance cars he brought into the United States from England.

According to Lt. Mike Siebert, public information officer at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo, Eriksson was signed out of that facility and sent to the Los Angeles County Jail to await a court appearance, but an L.A. County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson said the specifics of his status are not in the LASD database.

Karney’s five court appearances on the remainder of the charges brought by the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office were consolidated before Judge Melissa Widdifield, who added 180 days to his total jail time. He also faces at least 36 months probation.

According to Frank Mateljan in the City Attorney’s office, Karney was represented by a public defender and pled no contest on these charges. A second public defender handled the county case.

The City Attorney’s charges date back to 2005. When Karney was arrested last month, the list of warrants seemed to grow. That he had returned to Marina del Rey was not surprising, as he had given his address to deputies at the crash scene as a yacht docked at the marina that was registered to Carl Freer, a partner of Eriksson’s in the now-defunct Gizmondo electronic game company.

These court appearances are not the last of Karney’s legal woes, as Orange County has placed a hold on bail for 2005 citations for speeding, not having insurance, refusing DUI tests and driving on a suspended license. Active warrants for his arrest are in the OC automatic warrant system.

Why Karney was in Orange County at that time raised other red flags, as a gun reportedly given by OC Sheriff Michael Carona to a member of his advisory council was found in Eriksson’s Bel Air mansion at the time of his arrest, along with police badges and other trappings from a private police/homeland security force that is under separate investigation.

Karney is also expected to undergo scrutiny by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency for his alleged illegal entry into the United States through Tijuana.

After serving jail time, Karney may face the same fate that awaits Eriksson, a Swedish national who entered the country without reporting a prior felony conviction: deportation.

As for the supposed private homeland security operation packaged as a shuttle service for the elderly, the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority, and based in a Monrovia auto repair shop, its head, Yosuf Maiwandi, 39, is slated for a court hearing on Oct. 1 to set a trial date on charges of improper use of a badge.

The investigation of the crash’s cast of players has still shed little light on what two men in a $1.5 million Enzo Ferrari, one of only 400 built, were up to when the slick supercar reached speeds of more than 160 miles per hour and careened into history.

Malibu Motorists Are Unwilling Participants in Local Wedding

• Caltrans OK’d Permit to Shut Down Lane Of PCH for Hours

BY HANS LAETZ

Did you get your invitation?

Thousands of Malibu residents and beach visitors were unwitting, unwilling participants at a huge wedding that closed one lane on Pacific Coast Highway and snarled traffic for hours on Saturday.

California Department of Transportation officials defend the lane closure as being far safer than allowing hundreds of wedding guests to park on the roadside or wander across the road.

But members of the Malibu City Council said Monday night that the closure was a bad idea, and they want clarification of Caltrans policies for privatization of the city’s main street—a road with no alternate route.

The closure began at 4 p.m. and lasted to nearly midnight, blocking a southbound lane from Zumirez Drive east past Winding Way. During the afternoon and evening, traffic backed up nearly a mile as cars inched single-file past the wedding site, a blufftop mansion east of Paradise Cove.

Aggravating the lane closure, private security guards repeatedly stopped cars to allow shuttle vans to stop in the one available eastbound lane. Vans, catering trucks and other vehicles were given immediate priority over cars that had waited 25 minutes to get to the head of the line.

“Are you kidding?” asked Zuma Canyon resident Mandy Robinson, when told why she was idling on the highway. “I think...it’s a travesty.”

“We’re on our way to a wedding, a different wedding, and they wouldn’t do this for us,” said Christine Hays, a Malibu West resident stuck in a 25-minute delay with her family.

Other motorists interviewed in car-to-car conversations used considerably less polite language. None could be found with kind thoughts towards the state essentially closing California Highway 1 to unimpeded travel.

Malibu Mayor Pro Tem Pamela Conley Ulich saw the back-up while taking her daughter home from ballet class in the opposite direction.

“I was surprised that they would let a private entity take over the highway like that,” she said. “I think it says a lack of sensitivity for issues in Malibu surrounding traffic.”

Caltrans spokeswoman Judy Gish said the road closure was allowed because it came after the Caltrans moratorium on summer road closures that ends on Labor Day. She said heavy beach traffic on PCH on a summer weekend day in September “would not necessarily be predictable, would it?”

Gish said Caltrans managers decided to close one lane and ban valet parking at the site, so guests would park off-site and be ferried to the wedding by shuttles. “Instead of allowing valet parking on the highway and having a constant flurry of people stopping to turn right, this was considered much more effective,” she said Monday.

“The guests arrived via shuttles and our permits office says the backup was cleared by 6 p.m.,” she said.

But both of those assessments from the Caltrans permit office are at odds with what some observers say happened on the road. Valet parking was clearly being conducted on the highway, and a reporter timed the delay at 6:30 p.m. at 25 minutes.

Gish dismissed those direct observations as “anecdotal evidence” and said “it is our contention that the situation would have been much worse without the closure.”

Malibu’s mayor pro tem said she would ask the city manager, “What, if any, influence the city can have on closures of Pacific Coast Highway. I think we can make suggestions, but we don’t have any authority [on the state highway],” Conley Ulich said.

The road closure permit was obtained on behalf of David Saperstein, a broadcasting industry magnate, for the marriage of his daughter, deputies said.

Signs warning of “road work ahead,” a blinking trailer flashing the infamous “< < <” message, and sheriff’s deputies—paid for by Saperstein as a requirement of his official permits—were stationed on Highway 1.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and other politicians were on the guest list, deputies working the front gate said.

Ironically, the father of the bride made his fortune by founding Metro Networks, a company that offers traffic reports and lane closure information to radio stations across the nation.

City Council Approves Contract with High-Priced Lobbyists

• Majority of Members Reject Colleague’s Efforts to Seek a Reduction in Fees

BY BILL KOENEKER

The Malibu City Council, on a 4-1 vote with Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich dissenting, approved a $150,000 per year contract this week for its Sacramento-based lobbyist.

The agreement authorizing the two-year extension is between the city and California Strategies, LLC, a government relations consultant and advocacy firm.

Conley Ulich said she thought the city was paying too much for the services the lobbying firm would take up, since several issues have been resolved.

“I think they did an excellent job, but the contract is still for $12,500 per month and we have taken two large items off their plate. I think we should go back and negotiate a little bit better,” she said.

However, she could get no other votes for her motion to do so. Other council members praised the lobbyists, indicated there were other issues the firm would be taking up and hinted the consultants would go no lower in pay.

“They wanted $20,000. That [$12,500] is as low as they will go,” said Councilmember Sharon Barovsky, who noted they have been assigned the task of working with state officials to secure more funding for the improvements sought for Legacy Park.

Councilmember Ken Kearsley said he intended to offer a motion, at a later meeting, to have the lobbyists work on two Malibu issues—obtaining more local oversight of drug rehabilitation facilities and regulating the flights of banner planes.

“There has been some movement in the [state] Assembly and Senate on the drug rehab issue and also the Federal Aviation Administration with banner planes,” he added.

California Strategies includes some big names representing a who’s who of political consultants, politicians and career bureaucrats within state government.

Bob White, the company’s chair, headed up Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s campaign as chief of staff/campaign manager and had partnered with former California Governor Pete Wilson from 1968 to 1997. White served as Wilson’s chief of staff during Wilson’s entire political career.

Another partner is Jim Brulte, who served in the state legislature for 14 years. His most recent employment was as Senate Republican leader, before joining the offices of California Strategies. Brulte has been called one of the most powerful individuals in Southern California and Schwarzenegger described him as “arguably the most powerful elected Republican in California.” He was elected to the State Assembly in 1990 and served as the Assembly Republican leader from 1992 to 1995.

Another partner whose name may be familiar to Malibuites because of his recent oversight of the State Parks agency and membership on the California Coastal Commission is Rusty Areias, who was appointed as Director of the State Department of Parks and Recreation from 1998-2001. He also served on the Coastal Commission for four years and chaired the panel for two years. Areias had previously served 12 years in the State Assembly representing Bay Area counties.

According to its website, California Strategies describes itself as a strategic consulting firm whose expertise is “navigating the public policy and government decision making processes.” Their clients include corporations, governing bodies, industry associations, real estate developers and not-for-profit organizations in the state, across the country and around the world.

“We have written, secured approval for, and implemented legislation and regulations. We have fashioned strategies for policy initiatives passed with the support of millions of California voters,” a statement on its website boasts. The company has offices in the state capitol, Orange County, Los Angeles, Inland Empire and San Diego.

Three years ago, Malibu hired the lobbying firm and the current agreement extends the contract.

In the past year, California Strategies has worked with the city on several projects, including consulting with the state legislature and governor’s office in opposition to the proposed LNG port and coordinating key meetings with decision-makers in Sacramento regarding support for Legacy Park and other projects.

Councilmember Andy Stern insisted they were instrumental in helping secure the defeat of the Cabrillo LNG port. “I would not suggest paying them one penny less,” he added.

In a memo to council members, City Manager Jim Thorsen told members as the need for intergovernmental support is expected to increase, especially as the city seeks funding support for Legacy Park and other projects, the need for the lobbying firm is just as critical.

• The Publisher’s Notebook •

Closure of PCH Has Malibuites Fuming

BY ANNE SOBLE

Malibuites are an entertaining lot, not just because we provide a disproportionate amount of subject matter for the media, but because our homes are centers for family and business social events that can involve crowds—large crowds. My neighbors and I have thrown our share of mega ranch shindigs, replete with barbecues on an eight-foot diameter fire pit, country fiddlers and other Western trappings, but we ensure that others are not impacted by our festivities. Perhaps that was what a local resident thought he was doing when he obtained an encroachment permit from the California Department of Transportation to shut down part of a lane on Pacific Coast Highway to facilitate guest arrival for a private function. Caltrans granted the permit four days before the event—more than enough time to issue a press release or inform the City of Malibu that a closure was planned for a weekend day during what is traditionally one of the warmest months of the year and mere days after a record-setting, triple-digit heat wave engulfed the Southland. However, the agency didn’t think that notice was warranted. The agency was wrong.

From the irate members of the Malibu City Council at Monday night’s meeting to the equally vocal stream of motorists on the slow-moving highway who were late for family functions and myriad other Saturday happenings, notice was certainly in order. As a result, the whole notion of private co-opting of public right-of-way is now under fire. The mayor said, “It is just amazing that Caltrans would do this.” More amazing is that the same Caltrans personnel who issue an alert every time crews adjust a traffic signal don’t appear to understand the fuss. These same personnel are also scrambling to explain what the agency does when someone obtains a permit and disregards its terms, further compounding congestion on the community’s overtaxed traffic lifeline.

Is this going to be yet another bureaucratic bungle that gets shrugged off in the hope that the public will quickly forget? And time will tell whether council members follow through on their concerns. In the interim, Malibuites should be alerted that there will be lane closures in the Zuma Beach area on Sunday, from 4 a.m. or so until the competitions conclude in the 21st Annual Malibu Triathlon. This isn’t somebody’s private indulgence, it’s a public event to raise money for good causes. Signs are starting to go up, and areas are being posted. The Caltrans permit people should come on out and see how it’s done.

LNG Watch: Clock Starts on Clearwater Port Environmental Review

• Company Attempts to Block Access to Documentation Related to Platform Safety Issues

BY HANS LAETZ

An application for a liquefied natural gas terminal 12.6 miles off the Oxnard coast is starting a lengthy environmental impact and licensing process that already has some coastal residents gearing up for another fight, and secrecy about parts of the project is looming as a key issue.

Data about the 28-year-old oil rig in the Pacific Ocean selected for reuse as an LNG terminal is being withheld from public eyes, prompting questions from coastal advocates who contend that Platform Grace is nearing the end of its original design life.

The rig, standing in 310 feet of salt water, has some minor structural problems, the company acknowledged in its application, and suffered underwater damage in two mishaps decades ago. But the applicant, NorthernStar Natural Gas, said Monday the rig is in excellent shape, will be inspected repeatedly and thoroughly, and the small amount of damage that exists can be effectively and easily repaired.

Although this project would not be visible from Malibu, it is 35 miles upwind of the city and the Malibu City Council is on record opposing it.

NorthernStar officials say they can build an LNG terminal that is cleaner and more coast-friendly than the proposal by BHP Billiton for an LNG terminal off Malibu that was rejected due to pollution, technical and safety deficiencies last spring.

But coastal environmentalists plan to kick off their opposition campaign with a picket line Thursday, when NorthernStar officials take Ventura County leaders on a whale-watching tour to hear about the new proposal.

Federal officials started a 330-day countdown clock to a decision deadline when they determined that the company’s 3141-page application is complete enough to begin analysis and review on Aug. 28. But state officials, who also must sign off on the request, have asked the company for clarification on numerous points.

The project could have its clock stopped if significant additional studies are needed. The BHP LNG terminal’s clock was halted twice, for a total of three years, while more than 120 major “data gaps” in its application were filled.

A preliminary review of the “Clearwater Port” documents by the Malibu Surfside News shows that several key reports, including structural analysis of the 28-year-old saltwater tower, are marked “proprietary” and are being withheld from public scrutiny.

NorthernStar wants to remove oil drilling equipment and build new decks on top of Platform Grace to regasify LNG. No ships will ever attach themselves to the oil rig, rather, they will attach to nearby buoys and unload LNG into flexible hoses that reach the ocean floor before heading back up the rig legs.

In its application, the company says it has extensively tested the platform’s 12 legs, and says the legs provide “substantial system redundancy, which is an important attribute in terms of resistance to extreme earthquake loading.” Quakes up to 6.5 magnitude are predicted to occur in the area within the next 50 years by the federal government.

The company disclosed last week that the oil platform suffered structural damage in a construction mishap when it was built in 1979, and that an unexpected natural gas boil-up in the sandy ocean floor beneath the platform supports carved out a 40-foot deep crater 50-75 feet in diameter between the platform legs in 1982.

That undersea crater was filled in with sand, but two subsequent safety studies more than 10 years later did not specifically address those repairs, the company said in the application. Those studies found that “generally the platform is in good condition.”

Answering a reporter’s question about that, the company said in a statement Monday that the crater “was a result of drilling an (oil) well. The new use as a terminal will remove all oil and gas drilling permanently, and the potential for similar gas releases from ‘significant depths’ below the ocean floor will not exist.”

The application notes that the overall weight of the oil rig will be decreased by 30 percent when it is converted to LNG duty, but does not provide any data to show that the oil rig—which it says needs at least 17 structural repairs—is sufficient to hold its place in the ocean currents.

NorthernStar said structural analysis “has demonstrated that Platform Grace will comply with the federal requirements for the reuse as an LNG regasification platform, based on the loads (mass and distribution) currently proposed. Analysis to date has incorporated a high degree of conservatism.”

NorthernStar says federal laws leave it to the government to decide which data is proprietary and “may” be withheld from public scrutiny during the decision-making process. But the law quoted by the company Monday does not prohibit the company itself from deciding to release information.

“It is up to the company to decide what it wants to release,” asserted attorney Linda Krop at the Environmental Defense Center. “Knowing how concerned the public is about this project, it would be appropriate for the company to provide the information [about structural safety].”

Also being kept secret are details filed by NorthernStar relating to the proposed LNG plant’s pipelines through the City of Oxnard, or its findings in sections labeled “LNG Unloading,” “Hazards Report” and “Pipeline Safety.” The project includes major new high-pressure gas lines within yards of residences and businesses in Oxnard. Although such data is often kept secret due to terrorism concerns, the already well-organized residents in the area are expected to demand answers to their public safety concerns.

One proposed path for the high-pressure, 36-inch natural gas line would pass along the floodplain of the Santa Clara River, near major subdivisions being built on Oxnard’s north side. The alternative passes several schools and the city’s hospital.

The company stressed Monday that structural integrity, pipeline safety and other aspects of the project that cannot be released to the public are tightly regulated and will be double-checked by independent experts before the permit can be issued.

“Clearwater Port supports transparency and openness wherever possible in the review of our application to construct and operate an LNG receiving terminal,” it said in the statement. “All aspects of the project will be exhaustively examined by agency staff and decision-making authorities during the environmental review process.”

But coastal advocates point out that many of the law violations and other problems with the BHP Billiton Cabrillo Port project were not uncovered by agency staff, but were exposed by critics of the project who analyzed public data and found errors, omissions and other problems that proved fatal to the terminal.

“Right out of the gate, they are making the same mistakes that BHP did,” said Environment Pacific’s Rory Cox. “They are acting as if the public’s trust is to be taken for granted, and the public’s safety is to be dealt with in a secretive manner.”

In the other project on the local LNG front, no documents have been released yet for the Woodside “OceanWay” LNG project proposed for 22 miles off Point Dume.

That project’s application was accepted as complete on Sept. 4, starting its 330-day countdown to approval or rejection.

Photo credit,

REUSE—NorthernStar wants to transform a 28-year-old oil rig, Platform Grace, into an LNG facility despite questions about its structural soundness. In 2004, a Malibu city official suggested in the context of another LNG project that Grace, not used since 1995, be sunk and turned into a “natural reef.”

Visitors Came to Malibu by the Thousands to Escape the Heat

• Lifeguards Labored into the Dark to Keep Beaches Safe

BY HANS LAETZ

“They just wouldn’t go home.”

Los Angeles County lifeguards say the crowd that swelled Malibu’s population by as many as 215,000 beachgoers on Labor Day alone was unusual not only for its huge size, but also its reluctance to head home to baking inland cities as the sun went down.

“Sunday night we were doing rescues in the pitch black of night,” said Northern Section Capt. Dan Akins. “In the twilight, we could see little shadows out there, and there were hundreds of people in the water in the dark.”

And who could blame them? Woodland Hills was still above 100 degrees at 8 p.m. Sunday and Monday, and highways leading out of Malibu were jammed.

A combination of near record-setting heat inland, a three-day weekend with school just going into session, and perfect beach weather drew more than 650,000 people to the public beaches over the three-day weekend. Add to this the Friday night crowds, people at the pier and the annual Chili Cook-Off, and Malibu could easily have hosted around 900,000 people during the four days.

The casualty toll was amazingly light: no serious injury accidents on the beaches or roads were reported by officials, and no reports of serious crime were noted.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies said the weekend started off badly Friday night, when a traffic accident at Pacific Coast Highway and Big Rock Drive snarled the Malibu-bound commute. Some residents reported a 90-minute ordeal to get from Santa Monica to Trancas.

Five crashes occurred on Malibu roads Friday, and four on Saturday, including a crash between two sheriff’s deputies’ motorcycles (see separate article). But only one wreck was reported Sunday, and none on Monday.

Sheriff’s officials said none of those accidents caused serious injury. “When it’s that crowded, people don’t go too fast, people don’t get hurt,” noted sheriff’s Traffic Sgt. Phillip Brooks.

City of Los Angeles Police reported one major collision on PCH near Sunset Boulevard Saturday afternoon, when a pickup truck and van collided, blocking one westbound lane and backing up traffic to the 405 freeway.

The story was at the beaches. “We had people parking where they’ve never parked before,” said lifeguard Chuck Moore. “I came down from Ventura Sunday, and every single legal place to park all the way to Zuma had a car in it.”

Zuma-bound traffic was at a standstill at midday Monday all the way back to the southern tunnels on Kanan-Dume Road.

Zuma Beach parking lots were full by 12:30, and motorists hoping to get in anyway were backed up a half mile. Cars were parked in nearly every available spot on many residential streets on Point Dume and in Malibu Park.

Back at the beach, the sand was so crowded that “you could walk from the main tower to the water on umbrellas,” Moore said.

“The guards spent the entire day out of their towers and walking on the berm, because they couldn’t see the beach,” Akins said.

Building south swells on Sunday and Monday, and a lack of wind, caused set after set of perfect curls to form, some of them six-feet-high in chest-deep water. Most of the crowds stayed close to shore, but 457 people needed rescuers’ help out of the water Sunday and Monday, as the large swells generated sporadic strong outgoing currents.

“Usually by this late in the year the waves have pushed the sand in and we get a shore break,” Akins said. “But this year the bottom is so flat that the waves are really forming, and currents carrying people way out.

“Most of our rescues this week were a good 150 yards out,” he said.

One fin-wearing boogie-board rider at Zuma Tower 1, near Point Dume, was struck by a large wave Sunday and found face down in the foam. “We performed CPR on him, and he was talking by the time he was loaded on the helicopter,” Akins said.

Another swimming accident just a few minutes earlier required lifeguards to strap the victim to a special device to keep the spine immobilized. That person also was air evacuated.

The hot, bedraggled inland dwellers kept arriving at Zuma until late in the day. “We got a whole second wave of people at 3 p.m., and we had people out there in the dark because they didn’t want to go home to the heat.

“We were out there on the P. A., announcing ‘the beach is closed, please go home,’ and they wouldn’t,” Akins said. “At 8:05, we still had lifeguards in the water bringing people out of rips, and that was something I’ve never seen.”

Consultants Say Legacy Park Plans Are Technically Feasible

• Problems of Stormwater and Wastewater Dispersal Appear to Be Resolved

BY BILL KOENEKER

A consultant working on the design plans for the proposed Legacy Park told a joint meeting of the Malibu City Council and the city’s planning commission last week that the ambitious goals set out for the park can be met.

“We can achieve the stormwater and wastewater goals, provide habitat restoration and provide passive recreational and meet educational goals,” said RMC engineering consultant Steve Clary, who said the doubts about accomplishing all the tasks that were expressed at the last workshop meeting “were amplified by the press.”

“We have been worried for months about the problem of dispersing all of the treated wastewater flows,” added Clary, who said the good news is the most recent technical findings demonstrate “the wastewater element is technically feasible. We can dispose of all of the flows not reused.”

The park’s function, besides the landscaping and restoration elements, is for utilizing the almost 15-acre vacant site for storing and processing stormwater runoff and designing landscape irrigation for reuse of treated effluent.

“There is no dispersal of [treated] wastewater on Legacy Park. But in terms of irrigation there is reuse potential at Legacy Park,” he noted.

That was a far cry from the previous workshop, when Clary indicated the “numbers did not pencil out,” and there was concern that there was not enough useable land for the stated goals of both treating, storing and dispersing stormwater runoff and reusing and dispersing wastewater from a proposed treatment plant.

The key, according to Clary, is land along Stuart Ranch Road where treated wastewater dispersal can take place and other areas off-site of Legacy Park. “If we are able to site five acres, we can do it,” he said.

The plans, according to the consultant, call for creating a stormwater basin at Legacy Park for storing stormwater runoff that will be treated by the city’s stormwater treatment facility currently online. The basin would be vegetated, much like the wetlands at Egret Pond. Water would be stored at the basin during the wet season for future treatment. The treated runoff would be dispersed on the Legacy Park grounds.

Consultants also talked about what kind of collection system would be used for the sewer system, either utilizing a gravity flow via pump stations to get effluent to the treatment plant proposed for the Wave property, or by pumps placed at each individual home, a pressure system or some kind hybrid system.

In a pressure system, the pump stations disappear and every single house has its own grinder pump in a sump which is no bigger than a septic tank. Every property pumps to the treatment plant.

The hybrid system calls for every house to have its own pump, but the effluent is first sent to a pump station.

The sizing of the system does not include Serra Retreat and different service areas would be included as the system was expanded.

The total build out planned for a total of four service areas would provide for a system that could handle 381,600 gallons per day.

A centralized plant would be built behind the Civic Center government complex. The biosolids could be handled off site, which would increase truck traffic. “There is still a need to identify and negotiate the off-site process including maybe talking to Tapia [for biosolid disposal],” said Clary.

The joint panel was also informed about the preliminary plans for how the park would be landscaped and what habitat restoration plans were being proposed. “This is a relatively small area, but is it a great opportunity to recreate habitat in the West LA area,” said the consultant’s ecologist. He said the emphasis on habitat restoration would be focused on a regional approach rather than locally, hence plans called for creating a prairie, vernal pools, small riparian habitat and a wetlands area in the stormwater storage basin.

The ecologist said the biggest impact on biodiversity would be recreating a prairie, though he acknowledged that Malibu never had such a habitat. The vernal pools are small depressions in the soil that fill with rainwater during the winter and spring. He said that 99 percent of the vernal pools in the state have disappeared and the installation of such a feature would serve both restoration and educational goals. “As the water evaporates, there are different species of plants that bloom,” he noted.

Some council members expressed concern about such a feature. Mayor Jeff Jennings said he was not interested in “creating a habitat for the West Nile virus,” because of the potential for creating breeding grounds for mosquitoes in such pools.

Panelists also urged designers to keep the entrance to the park somewhere near the library and the Civic Center government complex instead of on the corner of Webb Way and Civic Center Way.

Two alternatives for how the park would be laid out were shown. Consultants emphasized the difference of the alternatives is “subtle,” and both variations offered the same components with slight differences.

Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich said what was missing from the plans are any references to the artistic and cultural aspects of the community.

She suggested a committee be formed to handle such a chore. City Manager Jim Thorsen said they would take it under advisement.

An administrative Draft Environment Impact Report should be available for review by December. It was agreed to have the consultants make a presentation to the city’s Wastewater Advisory Committee.

SuperScoopers Arrive to Help Bolster Southland Firefighting Arsenal

• Planes Are Immediately Drafted into Action on Brushfire in Northern Part of the County

BY ANNE SOBLE

The two Canadair CL-415 SuperScooper firefighting aircraft that are leased annually by the County of Los Angeles from the government of Quebec didn’t even have time for the formal welcome and press conference set for Tuesday, they were sent right into the flames of the Acton fire.

The craft’s arrival at Van Nuys Airport Monday coincided with the doubling in size of the fire in the northern county that was possibly started by a lightning strike in rugged areas not dissimilar from the Santa Monica Mountains.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky announced that “due to historic dry fuel conditions and fire weather, the Los Angeles County Fire Department has requested that these aircraft begin service one month earlier than usual.”

Yaroslavsky said, “These aircraft repeatedly have proven their value to Los Angeles County. At a time when all fire officials agree that conditions this year are very hazardous, we are pleased to be able to bring the SuperScoopers in early to provide a greater margin of protection for our residents and property owners.”

Despite one of the worst fire histories on record, officials still talk about wildfire as a seasonal occurrence, even as citizen groups lobby to have the planes kept in the county year-round.

The CL-415s are widely used throughout the world and recognized as the most advanced fire-fighting aircraft available.

The SuperScoopers can scoop and drop more than 1600 gallons of water and foam at a time. The planes are provided under a five- year lease program with the province of Quebec.

Los Angeles County traditionally marks the craft’s annual arrival with a media open house to show off the photogenic red and yellow craft that includes county fire officials, elected representatives and homeowner and business groups. But while there are flames roaring out of control, the close-ups will have to wait.

• The Publisher’s Notebook •

Send LNG Bill SB 412 to the Assembly Floor

BY ANNE SOBLE

The first alert went out to the environmental community last Thursday. The drums sounded the message that SB 412, State Senator Joe Simitian’s LNG Market Assessment Act, is in trouble. The measure’s being “held” in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. What this means to non-politicos is the bill is dead unless it is released from the committee and sent to the Assembly for a floor vote. SB 412 would require the state to do a “Liquefied Natural Gas Needs Assessment” before approving an LNG terminal in California. It also clarifies that the California Environmental Quality Act requires a strong alternative technology analysis so that if there is approval of an LNG facility for the state, it will be “the safest design with the fewest impacts.” SB 412 has the support of more than two dozen major environmental organizations, is a top priority of the state’s green movement, and even has the support of Woodside and NorthernStar, two companies with active applications to build LNG projects in California. After BHP Billiton Cabrillo Port’s resounding defeat, the pair climbed on the 412 bandwagon, however reluctantly.

Simitian told The News by phone on Tuesday that “the bill is dead for this year...and goes back to square one, if it doesn’t get voted on,” which would mean the LNG projects now on the horizon would be free-standing competitors in a who-can-get-a-project-OK-first race that ignores public needs and comparative merits. The measure is expected to pass if it goes to the full Assembly for a vote. So what’s wrong with this picture? Why is SB 412 being stymied by Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, a Democrat, as is Simitian, and a self-professed environmentalist? Some possible suspicions are the influence of contributions from energy firms who don’t want to compete on comparative merits, pressure from unions who buy into the fallacy of more jobs for their ranks (including those they expected from a project that has been effectively killed by the City of Long Beach) and fossil fuel energistas who benefit from holding the state’s policies hostage. Simitian said the public has until Sept. 11 to convince Núñez to send the measure to a floor vote. The Speaker can be telephoned at 213-620-4646, or 916-319-2046. His email address is: assemblymember.nunez@asm.ca. gov. It’s not just polemics when the senator says, “If SB 412 is not passed this year, it means chaos off the coast on this issue for the next decade.” The two active LNG projects, and others that may be on the drawing board, make action imperative now.

Send LNG Bill SB 412 to the Assembly Floor

• The Publisher’s Notebook •

BY ANNE SOBLE

The first alert went out to the environmental community last Thursday. The drums sounded the message that SB 412, State Senator Joe Simitian’s LNG Market Assessment Act, is in trouble. The measure’s being “held” in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. What this means to non-politicos is the bill is dead unless it is released from the committee and sent to the Assembly for a floor vote. SB 412 would require the state to do a “Liquefied Natural Gas Needs Assessment” before approving an LNG terminal in California. It also clarifies that the California Environmental Quality Act requires a strong alternative technology analysis so that if there is approval of an LNG facility for the state, it will be “the safest design with the fewest impacts.” SB 412 has the support of more than two dozen major environmental organizations, is a top priority of the state’s green movement, and even has the support of Woodside and NorthernStar, two companies with active applications to build LNG projects in California. After BHP Billiton Cabrillo Port’s resounding defeat, the pair climbed on the 412 bandwagon, however reluctantly.

Simitian told The News by phone on Tuesday that “the bill is dead for this year...and goes back to square one, if it doesn’t get voted on,” which would mean the LNG projects now on the horizon would be free-standing competitors in a who-can-get-a-project-OK-first race that ignores public needs and comparative merits. The measure is expected to pass if it goes to the full Assembly for a vote. So what’s wrong with this picture? Why is SB 412 being stymied by Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, a Democrat, as is Simitian, and a self-professed environmentalist? Some possible suspicions are the influence of contributions from energy firms who don’t want to compete on comparative merits, pressure from unions who buy into the fallacy of more jobs for their ranks (including those they expected from a project that has been effectively killed by the City of Long Beach) and fossil fuel energistas who benefit from holding the state’s policies hostage. Simitian said the public has until Sept. 11 to convince Núñez to send the measure to a floor vote. The Speaker can be telephoned at 213-620-4646, or 916-319-2046. His email address is: assemblymember.nunez@asm.ca. gov. It’s not just polemics when the senator says, “If SB 412 is not passed this year, it means chaos off the coast on this issue for the next decade.” The two active LNG projects, and others that may be on the drawing board, make action imperative now.