City Workers Investigated in Sludge Dumping

City of Ventura employees are being investigated for allegedly dumping a sewage-treatment compound on land near the Ventura Harbor last month, Ventura County prosecutors said Tuesday.

A substance used to treat sewage at the city’s waste water treatment plant was dumped near the plant on Spinnaker Drive, authorities said.

Prosecutors declined to say how much of the substance was dumped or whether it was toxic or contained bacteria.

According to complaints forwarded to the district attorney’s office by the county Department of Environmental Health, “Some of the city’s personnel apparently cleaned out a tank of polymer sludge material and deposited it on the ground in an area of Ventura County,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Toy White.

“We’re interviewing any employees who may have had contact with it, who may have done the actual dumping,” she said.

It has not been decided whether charges would be filed for violation of environmental laws, Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregory Brose said.

Daniel E. Rayburn, director of the Ventura treatment plant, would not comment on whether he or any of his employees had been interviewed by the district attorney’s investigators.

Rayburn said the compound spilled was a gelatinous substance used to treat sewage before filtration.

The district attorney’s Consumer and Environmental Protection Division has heard conflicting reports on how much of the polymer was spilled, Brose said.

Brose said samples of the polymer are being tested for chemical toxicity and flammability. Authorities declined to say whether the polymer had been cleaned up.