In 2021, the Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) was approved to remove contaminated soil from the Ventura Compressor Station site without an environmental review. This process involves public comment, which is required to ensure compliance with laws like the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Because of this, residents began raising concerns about the facility’s environmental impact, which compresses natural gas and ensures a reliable supply for customers along the Central Coast.
The Ventura Compressor Station, located at 1555 N. Olive Street on Ventura’s West End, sits near residential neighborhoods, the West Ventura Boys & Girls Club and E.P. Foster Elementary School, placing sensitive populations close to an industrial facility that compresses and distributes natural gas along California’s Central Coast.
In Dec. 2020, a soil report was conducted on the Ventura Compressor Station site. The soil was found to contain petroleum hydrocarbons, lead, arsenic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), pollutants linked to historic operations when the property functioned as a manufactured gas plant decades before SoCalGas took ownership.
Concerns intensified in 2023, when the Ventura Compressor Station Remediation Project, a soil excavation conducted between May and August, revealed contamination far more extensive than originally anticipated. According to the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), the cleanup was initially projected to remove approximately 2,500 tons of polluted soil. Instead, workers ultimately excavated about 17,500 tons, seven times the expected amount…