Firms Accuse 3 Cities of Discharging Pollutants : Environment: Two companies that face suits over ocean dumping file claims against Ventura, Oxnard and Port Hueneme.

Two Los Angeles-area companies have filed claims against Oxnard, Ventura and Port Hueneme, accusing the municipalities of damaging marine wildlife by dumping hazardous chemicals into the ocean.

The two companies, the Potlatch Corp. and Simpson Paper Co., have themselves been sued in federal court in Los Angeles for allegedly dumping pesticides and other chemicals into the ocean and spoiling marine life between Long Beach and the Channel Islands.

Ventura City Atty. Pete Bulens called the claims ridiculous and accused Potlatch and Simpson of “trying to name as many others as possible to shift the blame and defuse the blame from themselves.”

Oxnard City Atty. Gary Gillig and Port Hueneme City Atty. Don Kirsher denied that their cities are guilty of wrongdoing but said they could not comment specifically since they had not seen the claims.

Filed Tuesday with the city clerks of the three cities, the claims allege that hazardous chemicals have been dumped into the ocean through municipal sewer systems.

An attorney for Potlatch, a manufacturer of milk cartons in Pomona, said the companies are filing such claims against about 100 coastal municipalities and private companies that discharge into the waters between Long Beach and the Channel Islands.

Potlatch and Simpson are among eight companies that were sued by the federal government on June 18 for allegedly releasing the pesticide DDT, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other pollutants into the Pacific.

The chemicals, which scientists say are highly toxic and cause genetic defects in birds and marine life, were discharged through municipal sewer systems off the Southern California coast from the 1940s through the early 1970s, the suit alleges.

The eight companies also include Montrose Chemical Corp. of California, Stauffer Management Co., ICI American Holdings, Westinghouse Electric, Chris-Craft Industries and Atkemix Thirty-seven Inc.

All eight companies operate, or once operated, in the Los Angeles Basin.

Ralph Davisson, general counsel for Potlatch, said the government’s suit makes it appear that the eight companies did all the damage to marine life off the coast.

He said coastal cities such as Oxnard, Ventura and Port Hueneme--which dump treated sewage into the ocean--should share the blame.

“We know that Ventura and Oxnard have discharged hazardous pollutants as well,” he said.

Davisson alleges that the cities have discharged such hazardous chemicals as the pesticide DDT.

Tim Nanson, Oxnard’s assistant public works director, said discharge from the city’s sewer system may contain some pollutants, such as DDT, but he said the amounts are regulated and tested routinely by the state Regional Water Quality Board.

“To my knowledge, DDT was not one of the elements that we exceeded” the limits on, he said.

The claims maintain that if the eight companies are found guilty, the cities and other agencies that dump discharge into the ocean are at least partially to blame for the marine damage.

“If hazardous chemicals were discharged, we were such a small player,” Davisson said. “We were minute compared to all of the hazardous discharges.”

The lead plaintiff in the suit is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Mark Eames, an agency spokesman, said he has not seen the claims and could not comment.

The government filed the suit in U.S. District Court under a little-used provision of the 1980 Superfund act that requires certain federal and state agencies to act as trustees in pursuing damages from companies that have been accused of spoiling publicly owned natural resources.

The government has said that tens of millions of dollars could be necessary to fund restoration efforts, including removing and treating underwater deposits of pollutants, restocking fish and creating artificial reefs.