300 tons of hazardous waste removed in 28 days: EPA finishes first phase of Palisades, Eaton fire cleanup
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- A record-breaking number of people worked to meet the Feb. 25 debris clearance deadline set by the Trump administration after the January fires
- About one-third of properties damaged in the Eaton and Palisades fires were deferred to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and have not yet been cleared of hazardous debris
In a major milestone for Los Angeles’ fire recovery, officials said Wednesday that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has finished the first phase of debris removal in the Altadena and Pacific Palisades burn zones.
Hazardous household items, including propane tanks and lithium-ion batteries, have been removed from about two-thirds of the buildings destroyed in the fires, the EPA said. The 9,201 buildings cleared include 4,852 homes in the Eaton fire footprint and 4,349 in the Palisades fire burn zone.
The other 33% of buildings burned in January, or about 4,400 structures, were deferred to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for additional cleanup before the hazardous waste can be removed, officials said.
A record-breaking number of people worked to meet the Feb. 25 debris clearance deadline set by the Trump administration after the January fires, the EPA said. The EPA had 30 days and it finished in 28.
Cheree Peterson, the EPA’s acting regional administrator, said 1,700 people — including EPA employees and contractors, California state workers, and about 200 active-duty members of the military — had worked to remove about 300 tons of hazardous household debris, including more than a thousand lithium-ion batteries.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 5 to 0 Tuesday to allow Calabasas Landfill to accept potentially toxic wildfire debris outside its typical service area and increase the tonnage limits at two other Southern California landfills to accommodate the fire-related waste.
Crews searched properties by hand for more than a dozen types of household waste, including common household items like bleach, paint, drain cleaner, pesticides, weed killer and aerosol sprays, as well as lithium-ion batteries, propane tanks, ammunition and asbestos.
“This is the largest wildfire response that EPA has ever engaged in,” Peterson said.
The agency met its deadline despite the winter’s biggest storm, which prompted some mudflows and flash floods in the Eaton fire area and forced the closure of some parts of Pacific Coast Highway.
The milestone is a critical step toward rebuilding, because hazardous waste must be removed before crews can bring heavy machinery onto properties to begin clearing the wreckage.
The EPA opened four staging areas to sort and temporarily store hazardous waste before shipping it to specialized facilities for disposal. The sites prompted fierce protests from residents who did not want the waste near their homes or protected waterways.
The EPA will close its temporary sites at Lario Park in Irwindale and at Will Rogers State Beach in Malibu within three weeks, Peterson said. She said the agency has to conduct final soil testing at both sites to “make sure there’s absolutely nothing there.”
California officials say state data have shown that wildfire contamination can extend deeper than 6 inches, contradicting FEMA’s claims.
The processing sites at the Altadena Golf Course and the former Topanga Ranch Motel on Pacific Coast Highway will remain open to sort, store and ship out waste found during the Army Corps clearance, Peterson said.
The 4,400 or so remaining properties that were not cleared by the EPA mostly have structural issues that made it unsafe for crews to enter and search for hazardous waste by hand, Army Corps Col. Eric Swenson said.
He said some houses have deep basements that are inaccessible because the stairs burned, and others have walls that are still standing but are at the risk of collapse. He said the Army Corps will use heavy machinery to remove bowed walls and other hazards before starting the search for hazardous household items.
The Army Corps will use the same process as the EPA to find and remove hazardous waste, Swenson said. Crews will pick up items by hand, place them in sealed containers and drop them off at the EPA’s processing sites, he said. Lithium-ion batteries will be picked up by the EPA, he said.
Residents can check the status of their property using the EPA’s interactive map.
In a heated community meeting, furious residents assailed federal officials for trucking electric vehicle batteries and other hazardous materials from Altadena to their area for processing.
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