Cleanup of Keys Sought in Suit : Ventura: Owners of the waterfront homes ask $15 million in damages and a permanent maintenance agreement.

The owners of 82 homes in the Ventura Keys subdivision of Ventura sued the city, county, state and two other agencies Wednesday, blaming them for the silt and pollution clogging the waterway around their homes.

The suit, filed in Ventura County Superior Court, seeks at least $15 million in damages, including compensation for lowered property values. It also requests a permanent injunction to require the defendants to clean and maintain the waterway.

In response, City Atty. Peter D. Bulens said, “We are contesting the allegations that we are responsible for the situation.”

Frank O. Sieh, an attorney in the county counsel’s office, gave a similar reply to the suit’s allegation that a barranca built by the Ventura County Flood Control District has polluted the waterway. He said the barranca serves a large area, including the city of Ventura, and that neither the county nor the district is responsible for everything entering it.

The Ventura Keys, a neighborhood of 300 waterfront houses north of the Ventura Harbor, was developed in the early 1960s. A channel provides access from the man-made waterway around the homes to the harbor and from there to the Pacific Ocean.

The city accepted responsibility for maintenance of the waterway, the suit says. But over the years, “defendants have been using the Keys waterway as a public dumping ground,” denying the residents the full enjoyment of their property, the suit says.

A major culprit in the pollution, according to the suit, is the county-owned Arundell Barranca. About the same time as the Keys subdivision was developed, the county diverted the barranca so that it drained into the harbor instead of the Santa Clara River.

Over the years, the suit says, the defendants allowed many new developments to use the barranca without assessing the effect on the Keys waterway, according to the suit.

In addition, the suit says, the city of Ventura has allowed 28 surface drains to carry storm runoff and pollution into the waterway, fouling it with mud, silt, debris and contaminants.

Health warnings have been posted at two public beaches on the waterway because of high counts of fecal coliform. Recent tests have measured the fecal coliform levels at 24 times the limit permitted by state health regulations, the suit says.

The buildup of silt and debris has sometimes prevented boats from getting through the waterway, the suit says, adding that the port district and the city have neglected obligations to keep the channel navigable.

The suit seeks a court order requiring the defendants to dredge the channel and asks the court to declare that the defendants are obligated to maintain it in the future.

The suit comes after years of often acrimonious debate between Keys homeowners and city officials as to who bears responsibility for maintenance of the waterway. Donald M. Adams Jr., an attorney and Keys homeowner, filed a similar suit in November that is still pending.

City officials have agreed to pay for a onetime dredging, estimated to cost between $1 million and $3 million, as soon as they can obtain permits. But they have balked at accepting responsibility for continued maintenance.

They say a special assessment district should be formed to levy the costs of maintenance on Keys homeowners. Such a district paid for dredging between 1964 and 1978. The district had to be dismantled after passage of Proposition 13, the landmark tax-cutting measure.