Construction Dust Angers Residents : Camarillo: Some say nothing is being done. But officials say it can’t be determined if the dirt is from the Spanish Hills project.

For the past two years, Camarillo resident Irven Thomas has had to wash the dirt off his skylight every week and worries every time he opens a window that filth will ruin his white carpet.

Last summer, he said, his emphysema and his wife’s asthma worsened.

The problem, as Thomas sees it, is dust generated from construction of the Spanish Hills Golf & Country Club, the largest construction project in Camarillo history.

His complaints to city officials about the Spanish Hills Development Corp. have produced no results, he said. He and his wife, Janet, say they are angry. And they don’t expect their mood to improve.

As the dust continues to fly from the 430-acre site, Thomas said he believes that city officials are not doing enough to control the grimy construction fallout.

“It just makes me mad that they allowed it in the first place,” Thomas said from his pristine living room. And the neighborhood maids are complaining “because the windows are so dirty,” he added.

The development is being built on a hill that overlooks farmland to the west, but is surrounded by homes in Las Posas Estates to the east. Thomas lives further east of the Estates.

Although most residents of the area have not lodged any official complaints against the project, Spanish Hills officials say there have been other accusations from about 20 area residents.

Vice Mayor Charlotte Craven and Engineering Services Director Daniel Greeley have told Thomas that he cannot prove that the dirt on his car, windowsills and skylight stems from the Spanish Hills project.

Camarillo is home to many farmers who are not required to control the amount of dust they put into the air, they said.

“My answer is I don’t believe it’s from Spanish Hills, totally,” Craven said. “It’s from a combination of things. . . . I believe the dust has always been here.”

Greeley added that the city has required Spanish Hills to use sufficient erosion control measures, and the developer has complied.

“They’ve done an excellent job,” Greeley said.

The Spanish Hills bulldozers are close to finishing two years of grading a large hill three miles from the Thomas house. The clubhouse is nearing completion, and most of the grassy carpet for a world-class golf course has been laid out.

But building will continue for years to come. The project calls for construction of 114 golf villas that has yet to begin.

Thomas also fears that 150 vacant lots whose selling prices range from $395,000 to $1.4 million--only one of which has been sold so far after a year on the market--will continue to be a source of wind-blown dirt in their neighborhood, especially whenever Santa Ana winds blow.

Spanish Hills officials say the problem--if it exists at all--will get better. The major portion of the grading work will be finished in mid-November, and the officials said they plan to cover vacant lots with chemical crusts or rye grass to keep the surface from taking to the wind.

Project Manager Pat Osthoff said that in the past two years workers have taken every precaution. As they moved 13 million to 16 million cubic yards of earth around on the site, they doused the area being graded with 1 million gallons of water each day.

Osthoff said most of the complaints have come from people opposed to the project since its inception.

“It’s an ongoing thing, but it’s never gotten out of hand,” Osthoff said of the griping. “It’s usually from the same people who have opposed the thing from the onset.”

Dr. Lewis Kanter, a Camarillo physician who specializes in allergies, said he has been busier in recent months than ever before.

Kanter said that he saw 30% more patients during September than he did in September, 1991. Between 5% and 10% of those new patients blamed their problems on local construction projects.

Contributing factors, he said, could include more smog, damp weather which can cause molds to grow, and more particulate matter in the air.

“It’s hard to evaluate which is causing it,” Kanter said. Regardless, he added, “This has been a very, very busy year.”