Vandals Blamed for Sewage Spill; Ocean Alerts Posted

Vandals clogged a sewer line with debris, causing 5,500 gallons of raw, untreated effluent to flow into a storm drain that discharges to the ocean, authorities said.

As a result, health officials posted warnings Tuesday at Ventura Harbor. It was the second incident of its kind in recent months.

The vandalism was discovered early Tuesday at the maintenance yards for the Ventura Unified School District, near Buena High School in midtown Ventura.

Around 6 a.m., school district officials found raw sewage spilling from a manhole not far from the high school’s track. City crews were called to the scene and discovered that the manhole, which had not been welded shut, had been stuffed with debris, including two 8-foot posts from a chain-link fence.

The leak was controlled after about three hours, but officials said untreated waste water washed into the storm drain along California 126, and from there into the the Arundell Barranca. Recent rains probably then carried the raw sewage to Ventura Harbor, officials said.

“There is lots of water flowing everywhere,” said Don Davis, Ventura’s waste-water superintendent. “We don’t know, but it’s safer to assume it got to the harbor.”

County health officials have posted signs warning the public to avoid contact with the water at the harbor, the storm drain and the barranca until Friday morning.

The raw sewage apparently did not flow onto Buena High’s campus, Principal Mike Johnson said.

Tuesday’s backup follows a similar incident in October. At that time, a manhole in Camino Real Park in Ventura was filled with several hundred pounds of material, including a 15-pound cinder block.

That clogging caused 15,000 gallons of raw sewage to discharge into the harbor, also by way of the Arundell Barranca.

Davis estimated Tuesday’s cleanup costs at around $3,000 and October’s at $18,000.

While the costs are a cause for concern, Davis said, the bigger issue is that water has been contaminated and the public has been prevented from safely entering the ocean. “I don’t know how you can put a cost on that,” he said.

Ventura Police Lt. Gary McCaskill said police have no suspects and can offer no motive for such vandalism.

He said if the people responsible were apprehended and found guilty in court, the city would consider suing them for the costs of the cleanup if a fine were not imposed by a judge.