Dunes Group Visited by Love Canal Activist

Lois Gibbs, who gained national fame as a leader in the fight against the Love Canal toxic waste site in western New York, encouraged Oxnard Dunes residents Saturday to continue pursuing the cleanup of the oil sludge dump on which their homes were built.

Gibbs, who now heads the Washington-based Citizens Clearinghouse on Hazardous Wastes, lectured a group of 10 residents and 30 Ventura County environmental leaders on the basics of grass-roots organizing and how to take on industrial interests and government bureaucracies.

“Look for allies anywhere you can find them. Draw a map and look at schools, institutions and other communities. Look at wind patterns to see what people may be impacted,” Gibbs told her audience. “Make your groups democratic. The structure of your group is crucial to your success.”

Oxnard Dunes residents have been up in arms ever since a routine soil test by a Camarillo contractor in 1985 revealed that the 100-lot subdivision was developed on top of a dump for oil waste, cyanide and the carcinogenic chemicals benzene, xylene and toluene.

Fearing that their health was at risk, most Dunes homeowners moved out of the tract and renters moved in. In 1986, about 175 homeowners sued just about anybody who had been connected to the site, including the land’s previous owners, oil companies and landfill operators. Meanwhile, the landowners stopped making mortgage payments, and the banks refused to foreclose.

But state officials say Dunes residents are not at risk. An extensive battery of soil, air and water tests conducted at the site this year found that the pollutants are well below dangerous levels, said Rich Varenchik, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services.

However, he said, a final report on the tests will be made public in the next two months. “The report may recommend a cleanup or further testing, or that nothing more needs to be done,” he said.

Saturday’s daylong workshop was organized by Dunes Residents and Owners of Property, also known as DROP, a group of about 50 families who believe that the Dunes present a health hazard and should be cleaned up. Gibbs’ trip was paid for by a $2,000 grant from the Ruth Mott Foundation, a Michigan-based philanthropic organization.

DROP leader Linda Paxton said she was well-versed in grass-roots organizing but invited Gibbs in hopes that her fame would draw attention to the Dunes. “People not immediately affected by the Dunes do not recognize the big picture here. . . . We want to create enough difficulties in this area that people start saying we can’t have growth in Oxnard until we clean up the Dunes,” she said.

Gibbs, who spends most of her time traveling around the country speaking to community groups demanding toxic cleanups or fighting proposed incinerators and landfills in their vicinities, said she knew little about the Oxnard Dunes situation.

When she was told that the site had been used as a crude-oil dump, she said “that’s not a whole lot different than the Love Canal. The canal had a lot of oil-based chemicals.”

She said she came to Oxnard because her group’s Western region director, Penny Newman, said DROP deserved her support.

“A lot of people want to hear me speak because they want to start a movement, and they figure that Lois Gibbs is going to give them a lot of attention,” Gibbs said. “But I only address groups that are organized behind a goal and are willing to fight by themselves. These people have good instincts. They know what they want and how to get it.”