The great Malibu sewer saga
Sewage pipes on the Malibu campus with nowhere to go after county officials rejected Pepperdine's plan for a temporary sewer system. The Graphic, 5/4/72, p. 1 (Pepperdine University Archives)
The opening of the Malibu campus was nearly delayed because administrators couldn't seem to decide what to do with all the sewage.
At first, they had plans to build a water treatment facility to be shared with a neighboring housing development. When that fell through, they tried to get permits for a system of septic tanks as a temporary solution. But they couldn't get the county to allow septic tanks, so for a time it looked like they would have to truck the sewage to an offsite facility. That plan proved so impractical that it didn't last long.
Finally, they decided to rush construction of a pipeline to a water treatment facility through Malibu Canyon. When the campus opened, it had only just been connected to the new system.
Click through the timeline below for the all the details.
