VENTURA : Test Drilling Halted After Artifacts Found

Test drilling for a desalination plant was suspended after a work crew discovered some Chumash Indian artifacts at Promenade Park in Ventura, officials said Tuesday.

Workers had just started drilling at Promenade Park on Monday when they found some shell fragments, fish bones and small pieces of tile, said Glenn McPherson, project manager of the desalination plant.

“It was just in the soil with bits of asphalt,” McPherson said.

The area around the park was once the site of a Chumash village, he said. Because of that, an archeologist was at the drilling scene in case any artifacts were found, McPherson said.

“It’s going to delay the drilling a couple of weeks and cost a couple thousand dollars,” McPherson said. “But the prudent and ethical thing to do is step back.”