Surfers Find Dredging to Be a Natural Turnoff

Surfers who think the water looks more black than blue these days have nothing to worry about, city officials say.

The dredged sand and silt being dumped into the surf and onto the beach in the Ventura Keys are safe, said Richard Parsons, manager of the city’s dredging program.

“It looks kind of unattractive, and sometimes it has a kind of odor,” Parsons said. “But it’s not hazardous.”

Since the dredging began in mid-February, surfers have been complaining about the color and smell of the water. Stacey Russell, 23, used to live in the Ventura Keys and still surfs at the beach known as “Dredge” just north of Ventura Harbor. She said she knows dredging is necessary, but she doesn’t like it.

“When the waves break, the foam is completely black,” she said. “The harbor gets pretty bad if they don’t dredge, but I don’t like what it does to the ocean.”

Dredging helps keep the channels deep enough for boats to get in and out. Without the routine operation, the two miles of man-made waterways would become clogged with sand and dirt, making it virtually impossible for boats to pass.

Dredging also helps replenish eroded areas of the beach.

Paul Jenkin, chairman of the Ventura Surfrider Foundation advocacy group, said he is concerned that the sediment being dredged from inside the harbor has higher levels of contaminants than sediment outside the harbor. He has received several complaints from surfers and residents, he said.

“It’s dirty, and people are wondering what’s going on,” Jenkin said. “The stuff that’s coming out of the pipe doesn’t look like beach sand.”

What the water does look like, surfers say, is oil.

It’s black because it contains organic matter from the bottom of the harbor, Parsons said. But according to environmental reports, it isn’t hazardous.

“It’s really fairly routine and benign,” Parsons said. “But when people see black stuff being pumped out of a pipe, the natural thought process is that if it’s black, it must be something bad.”

The Surfrider Foundation encourages surfers to stay away from the water while dredging is underway. And that is what surfer Steve Kimberly decided to do. Wednesday morning, he took a walk along “Dredge” beach but left his surfboard in his truck. He said he will wait for the water to clear.

That won’t take long, said Hans Weeren of Engineering Marine Inc., which is doing the dredging. Weeren said the sediment settles a few hours after dredging.

“Whenever you do anything on the bottom of the harbor, black stuff is going to come up,” he said. “It’s just the soil. It’s just the natural thing.”

The dredging will be completed by the end of this month.