State Says Dunes Dump Not Hazardous : Oxnard: Residents believe that the test results will not damage their lawsuit’s chances of success.

Concluding almost five years of testing, state health officials announced Tuesday that an oil waste dump buried beneath a subdivision in the Oxnard Dunes neighborhood poses no health risk to the residents.

“We have found no dangerous levels of contaminants in the soil, water or air,” said Richard Varenchik, spokesman for the state Department of Health Services.

He said he is recommending in a report to state legislators that no further tests be conducted and that the neighborhood be removed from a list of hazardous waste dump sites designated for the state’s cleanup program.

However, Oxnard Dunes residents who filed a lawsuit in 1986 against almost everybody connected to the land--including previous landowners, oil companies, landfill operators and the city of Oxnard--said they believe that the state findings will not damage the suit’s chances of success.

“The most important issue is, we were never informed that there was a dump site under our property,” said Lynda Paxton, who heads a group of 175 plaintiffs called Dunes Residents and Owners of Property.

Glen M. Reiser, an attorney representing the McGrath family, a pioneer farming family that previously owned land in the neighborhood, disagreed.

He said the state results are a serious setback for the plaintiffs, who will now have a hard time proving that they suffered health damage by living over the dump site. Reiser guessed that the Dunes residents will now try to dispute the state’s test results.

Paul Dolan, a spokesman for the residents in the suit, said he believes that state officials are playing down the health risks to bring an end to the matter, which he believes has become a politically hot issue in recent years.

City Atty. Gary Gillig said the test results will help the city fight the suit, “but it’s not enough to end our case.”

“The results are certainly favorable to the city’s position and we are delighted . . . but they are not a jury, they are not a judge,” he said.

Varenchik said the soil under the 100-lot subdivision was contaminated by oil waste and oil sludge dumped into sumps during the late 1950s and early 1960s.

In 1962, the sump materials were excavated, spread and mixed with native soil and returned to the sumps, where they were compacted and covered with a layer of clean soil, he said.

In 1985, Dunes residents learned of the dump after a routine soil test by a contractor revealed high levels of petroleum in the soil. The following year, the 175 residents filed their complex lawsuit.The tests on the soil, ground water and air revealed that “the risk to human health posed by the remaining waste material does not constitute any additional risk and is well within recommended EPA standards,” according to a summary of the final report.

Varenchik said the oil waste byproducts did not seep into the ground water.

Although hazardous chemicals such as chrysene--a carcinogen--and barium were detected, the state tests found that the chemicals were in such a small amount that they posed no health risk, he said.

The tests calculated the assessed risk based on a worst-case level of daily exposure to the contaminants over a period of 70 years, Varenchik said.

The matter has divided the sunny beachside community, turning neighbor against neighbor. Paxton was recently cited by the city of Oxnard for painting protest signs on the side of her house and fence. She faces arraignment on the matter today.

Tempers flared when a homeowners association hired a contractor to paint over one of Paxton’s signs and demolish a billboard constructed by another resident.