Ventura : Complaint Alleging Pollution Filed

A Ventura Keys resident has filed a complaint against the city of Ventura, the state and several regional agencies, claiming they pollute and have failed to clean up the channels just north of Ventura harbor, which are surrounded by posh waterfront homes.

“The Keys have become Ventura’s dumping ground and something needs to be done to stop the ongoing pollution,” Donald M. Adams Jr., the Ventura attorney who filed the complaint, said Wednesday.

Adams filed the complaint Tuesday on behalf of Keys residents, seeking between $250,000 and $500,000 per home to compensate for losses in property values, plus undisclosed amounts for damages to boats and past and future medical expenses caused by the channels’ pollution.

The complaint filed by Adams is the first step toward filing a lawsuit. The city has 45 days to respond. Also named in the complaint are Ventura County, the Ventura Port District and “the various flood districts situated at, near or contiguous to the alluvial plains that are adjacent to the Keys area.”

The complaint was filed two days before a city-appointed committee of Keys residents was to hold a town meeting to decide whether to negotiate with the city and other agencies or initiate legal action.