Ventura residents demand answers after 'do not use water' order, emergency communication issues

VENTURA, Calif. (KABC) -- Officials with the city of Ventura faced angry residents of the Pierpont neighborhood to answer their questions about its water testing and emergency communications following a "do not use water" order that was issued just days before Thanksgiving.

At a town hall meeting at Pierpont Elementary School Wednesday evening, many residents voiced their frustrations.

"The transparency from the city to the residents in our neighborhood is atrocious," one man said.

City leaders faced the community to explain what caused the false water contamination alarm. It blames a carryover error from a completely unrelated agency's high-petroleum sample, contaminating the testing equipment and making Ventura's water look like it contained gasoline.

That bad result prompted the state to issue a "do not use water" notice on Nov. 25.

"The state and the city wanted to make sure that no one was in harm's way," said Gia Dorrington with Ventura Water.

Residents who attended the town hall demanded accountability from the lab for the mistake.

"You got to purge the equipment before you continue testing further. This seems like a really big error," one man said.

Before it was deemed a false positive, an emergency alert was sent out through the city's communication channels, including VC Alerts, social media and the city's website.

However, officials realized that not everyone in the affected area got that notice.

Police say a box in their system "didn't get checked" so the alert only went out to landlines - about 1,600 people - leaving most of the neighborhood without any warning.

"On behalf of the Ventura Police Department and the city of Ventura, I am sorry. We missed this one," said Police Chief David Dickey told the crowd.

Officials also reminded residents why they're testing weekly, saying it started after last year's Sinclair gas leak, which contaminated local groundwater.

Many neighbors said that's why they want Sinclair shut down.

"Sinclair should not be open right now," one woman said.