VENTURA : Indian Artifacts at Center of Project’s Delay

Construction of a test well for Ventura’s planned $55-million desalination plant will be delayed for at least one more week as project managers negotiate with local Chumash Indians on how to protect Indian artifacts found at the site.

While project manager Glenn McPherson from Boyle Engineering was optimistic that the project would start again in a week, A-lul’ Koy Lotah, the Chumash Indian consultant on the project, indicated that was unlikely.

“Everything has to stop until we negotiate and sort through this material,” Lotah said. “This is not going to be a very nice one. They want their wells, but we have intact material and that’s enough right there to stop this thing. We have good laws for this.”

Drilling was stopped almost immediately after it began Sept. 27 when workers brought up an Indian grinding stone called a metate embedded among shells and fish bones thought to be part of an Indian shell midden.

A team of archeologists and Lotah went to the site Monday to inspect core samples taken from the well. The inspection confirmed that extensive artifacts from a Chumash village remain at the site.

“This was not unexpected,” said Mary Valentine-Makl, an archeologist for Fugro-McClelland, which is drilling the wells and conducting the archeology on the project. “We knew there was potential for finding artifacts. We knew we were in the Chumash village of Shshi-o-lop. We just didn’t know if we would find intact site deposits, which we did.”

The material found Monday in three separate core samples included an arrowhead embedded in mud and debris. The samples were taken from widely dispersed spots in the area, confirming that the artifacts are scattered over a large area. Valentine-Makl is considering carbon dating the organic material found at the site to determine the age of the artifacts.

According to McPherson the test well will consist of just five small holes--one for the actual well and four others that will be used for monitors. Members of the archeological teams said there is some confusion about what would happen next, but that the artifacts will be protected.

“The Native American monitors’ concerns will be addressed before the continuation of the project,” Valentine-Makl said.