Garage Site Dig Uncovers a Mystery in Pool of Oil

VENTURA — City leaders have been hoping to strike retail gold with the new $4.6-million parking garage project on Santa Clara Street.

On Friday, they struck oil.

The petroleum pool--about a foot deep with the length and width of a small car--was discovered as crews continued grading work at the construction site.

The work had stopped when workers unearthed what city officials speculate to be the basement of the old Star-Free Press newspaper building, which once stood on the site.

As construction crews assessed how much of the building remained buried beneath the soil, they stumbled across the mysterious pool of oil, city officials said.

Although old pipes and machinery lie strewn just steps away from the jet-black pool of muck, Bill Hatcher, the project manager in the city’s Redevelopment Agency, said no hidden pipeline or oil tank was punctured--as far as workers can tell. “The speculation is that maybe this is remnants of the Star-Free Press printing area,” Hatcher said.

Tests taken Friday showed the gloppy pool was “heavy oil,” the kind used by heavy machinery, he said. But city-held blueprints do not even show a basement in the old Star-Free Press building.

Hatcher said the oil and any contaminated soil will be removed today, with destruction of the building’s underground walls scheduled for Monday.

City officials do not yet know how much it will cost for the delay and the extra work. The city is being billed based on equipment costs and how much time it takes crews to finish.

“We’re the property owners,” he said of the land that has been the site of a public parking lot since 1987. “The ultimate responsibility resides with us.”

A formal groundbreaking ceremony for the project will go on as scheduled at 10 a.m. Monday, he said.

Meanwhile, the pool of oil was the talk of the afternoon in the construction site area.

“There isn’t anywhere within a half mile of here that they couldn’t dig and come up with something,” said Brian Turner of Ventura, noting that many downtown Ventura building projects in recent years have unearthed archeological finds. “It’s amazing.”

“Come on,” said his friend William Kilmer. “Let’s go stake a claim.”