Recently, the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) provided notice that over 15,000 tons of toxic soil was excavated from the Ventura SoCalGas gas compressor site and trucked through communities – without environmental review and despite significant concerns from the community. This is part of SoCalGas’s attempt to expand the Ventura gas compressor, a polluting fossil gas facility located across the street from E.P. Foster Elementary in West Ventura. 

This is 500% more toxic soil than SoCalGas and DTSC told the community there would be – and doesn’t account for the unknown amount of contaminated soil left behind.

“Despite years of myself and my neighbors and fellow advocates calling out SoCalGas’s plans to expand this gas compressor site and the potential environmental and health impacts – we have been ignored,” said Tomás Rebecchi, Central Coast Organizing Manager with Food & Water Watch. “In fact, the more we’ve learned about this expansion, the more questions have arisen. Until a real, robust environmental review of this project is done, we can’t know threats to our communities.”

As a result of leaky underground fuel storage tanks at the site, this soil was contaminated with: 

• Carcinogenic PHAs, chemicals that are linked to causing cancer. 
• Total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), pollutants linked to chronic health effects and potential organ damage.
• Arsenic, a cancer-causing chemical that can also lead to skin lesions and cardiovascular disease. 
• Lead, a chemical affecting the brain and nervous system, especially in children. 

“Despite SoCalGas’s wishes and attempts to push it through, the expansion of this polluting facility has not been approved by the state. The fact that thousands of tons of toxic soil was dug up and trucked through our community, with no environmental review, as an act of wishful thinking by the company in their plans for expansion is unacceptable,” said Haley Ehlers, Executive Director at Climate First: Replacing Oil & Gas (CFROG), who lives within a mile of the compressor. “The only appropriate next step for the site is full clean up, including the unknown amount of toxic soil left behind, and relocation of the dangerous facility away from our homes and school.”

Background: 

In 2021 SoCalGas announced plans, without the proper permits and without informing the community, to expand a gas compressor station right across the street from E.P. Foster Elementary School and many Westside residents, mostly people of color and children. Despite the clear risk to residents, SoCalGas planned on doubling the size of the compressor station. Further, to pay for the expansion, SoCalGas planned on increasing rates for gas in people’s homes.   

Venturans opposed to this reckless expansion soon came together to form The Westside Clean Air Coalition – ultimately pushing the CPUC to order SoCalGas to pause any plans to expand the facility until community demands for transparency were met.

However, in August of 2023, the CPUC allowed SoCalGas to submit a new application to expand the facility. Not only does this new application fail to address the concerns of impacted community members, but it also includes more than $500 million in new costs – which will largely come from increased rates for consumers in Ventura and elsewhere. 

Scoping meetings were held earlier this year and a Draft Environmental Impact Review is expected in the first half of 2026.