VENTURA : Hearing Planned on Waterways Dredging
A proposal to dredge the Ventura Keys waterways to make them navigable is scheduled to go to a public hearing today before the California Coastal Commission in Eureka.
The one-time dredging, estimated to cost up to $2.7 million, will remove 125,000 cubic yards of silt and storm-drain debris from the man-made channels, said James Johnson, regional office manager of the Coastal Commission.
Most of the material was deposited there during the February and March storms, he said.
The debris would be moved by pipeline several thousand yards to unused city-owned land next to the Olivas Park Golf Course before the end of the year and dumped into a plastic-lined pit, Ventura City Manager John Baker said.
The City Council is scheduled to choose a dredging contractor Sept. 23 and decide how the cost will be divided among the city and Ventura Keys residents, Baker said.
However, the project will not resolve the Keys residents’ longstanding dispute with the city over who should pay for ongoing dredging and maintenance of the waterways, which were made when the houses were built in the mid-1960s.
Keys residents have filed at least three lawsuits in state and federal courts demanding that the city take responsibility for the waterways.
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