In Altadena and in the Pacific Palisades district, reconstruction began despite the fact that the soil on the affected properties was not tested for toxic substances.
The controversial decision of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to give up soil tests in burnt communities in the Eaton and Palisades forest fires sparked a decline on Wednesday while California legislators wondered if the practice will prevent residents from knowing if there are toxic substances on the ground before the start of reconstruction.
The federally hired cleaning teams eliminated ashes and debris, in addition to a 6 -inch layer of topsoil, buildings burned by forest fires. But, asked last month by the Times, the FEMA and the body of American army engineers confirmed that they will not test the ground in these properties after having finished cleaning, breaking with a long -standing practice which was intended to ensure that houses and schools still do not contain excessive levels of harmful chemicals after environmental disasters like a forest fire.
Directed by the American representative Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), a contingent of eight federal legislators of California opposed the decision of the FEMA to give up soil tests in a letter to Cameron Hamilton, the acting administrator of the agency. The legislators pressed Hamilton to explain the change of strategy. A key question was how fema could guarantee that the elimination of 6 inches of soil would be sufficient to rid the properties of toxic substances.
“Residents of the Grand Los Angeles should be informed of any potential toxin in the ground when they sail in the complicated recovery process,” said the letter. “Forest fire survivors deserve to return to safe properties without toxin.”
Forest fires Eaton and Palisades – among the most destructive in California history – have damaged or destroyed more than 13,500 properties in the County of Los Angeles. The resulting public health risks are too great to skimp on environmental tests, said Friedman.
“FEMA’s refusal to test toxins in the ground after cleaning forest fires in the County of Los Angeles is unacceptable,” Friedman said in a statement. “Families deserve to know that their homes are safe and free from dangerous chemicals. This is a decades of decades of precedents from FEMA – and this may expose whole communities to long -term threats to health. ”
The letter comes as reconstruction efforts progress quickly. Until now, federal cleaning teams have released ashes and rubble of more than 860 properties, according to the US Army Corps of Engineers. About 200 reconstruction permits have been deposited with local agencies – and some have already been approved, although it is not clear how much at this stage.
Los Angeles City and Comté officials say they will not need floor tests before delivering most reconstruction permits. Without soil tests, many residents fear that new buildings can be built on contaminated land, increasing the probability that residents and workers can be exposed to toxic chemicals by inhaling airborne dust. Environment and health officials have warned that the ashes of forest fires in burnt buildings may contain dangerous substances, including arsenic and the beginning of the brain. Experts warn that the rate of reconstruction should not exceed the necessary security precautions.
“The nation is captivated by the way and the moment when it will rebound,” said Mohamed Sharif, co -president of the local working group of the working group on the response to catastrophe networks of the American Institute of Architects. “We know that fire is not the only source of disaster and disaster in California. We have a multiplex of things, whether seismic events or landslides or rain events. But the fire really lit how fragile we are as a company. ”
Floor tests following previous forest fires revealed that a large part of the properties still had excessive levels of heavy metals even after the cleaning teams eliminated a layer of 3 to 6 inches. In these cases – like the 2018 camp fire in northern California and Woolsey fire near Malibu the same year – for the properties where contaminants have exceeded California standards, cleaning teams returned to eliminate another layer of earth and additional soil tests were carried out.
But now, officials of FEMA insist that for 6 inches of earth from properties is sufficient to eliminate fire -related contamination. Everything that is deeper, they argue, is likely to be preexisting in contamination, which goes beyond the agency’s competence.
FEMA has encouraged state officials and premises to pay for soil tests, if they believe it is necessary.
Until now, no state or land test premises have been revealed.
“You will have to show me final tests which show that the equipment of less than 6 inches is allocated to the fire or the debris caused by the fire,” said regional administrator of FEMA, Robert Fenton, in Times in a recent interview. “I haven’t found this yet.”
But FEMA’s decision to skip the soil sampling has left many uncertain owners on the next one. Abigail Graydanus, her husband and their one year old son evacuated their house Altadena shortly after Eaton’s fire broke out. When a neighbor returned to check his home, the property was unrecognizable.
“It was a bunch of ash flowing,” said Graydanus. “You could always see the shell of the oven, the weight support that my husband had in the garage. But everything else was just melted or destroyed. ”
The couple signed up for the debris elimination program of the army body. But even after the crews have erased the rubble and debris from their property, they are wary of rebuilding without confirming whether persistent pollutants can always be in the ground.
“No one wants to go back to a house if it will not be sure, if their children are (exposed) at the top of playing in the backyard,” said Graydanus.
Instead of the floor tests led by the government, the owners and the school districts may have to pay the soil sampling if they want answers. Certain research institutions are part of the breach, including the USC, which provides free lead tests, and a coalition of researchers from UCLA, Loyola Marymount and Purdue Universities, which offer a complete panel of soil tests for those of affected areas.
Meanwhile, some school officials in these areas are already hiring businesses – and paying their pockets – to test toxic chemicals.
Three unified school district schools in Los Angeles have been damaged or destroyed in the Fire palisades: Marquez Charter Elementary, Palisades Charter Elementary and Palisades Charter High School. The Army Corps of Engineers supervised the cleaning of these campuses earlier this month.
A spokesperson for Lausd said that the school district “will carry out a complete environmental assessment throughout the campus – including the sampling of existing landscaping soil as well as areas to be discovered which will be part of the construction of the interim campus.” They hired environmental consultants to assess the soil in elementary schools.
Since Charter Palisades secondary school is a school with an independent charter, Lausd has returned requests for comments to its administration; A high school representative did not respond to a request for comments.
The unified school district of Pasadena has also experienced numerous damage caused by fire in several of its campuses, notably public schools and in a charter: Franklin Elementary, Eliot Arts Magnet Middle School, Odyssey Charter School, Pasadena Rosebud Academy, Oak Knoll Montessori School and Aveson School of Leaders. Officials of the school district would not confirm if the district would carry out soil tests on its properties.
“Pasadena Unified actively works at all levels of government to examine more if there are remaining risks,” said a spokesperson. “The discussions are underway. Our commitment is to keep our school community safe and informed throughout this process. ”
Under state law, California Department of Toxic Substances Control is necessary to supervise the soil sampling in newly built schools or extensions on the campus to ensure that they comply with state standards. But when they were asked how this would tackle the reconstruction of schools in Altadena and Pacific Palisades, the state agency was not engaged.
“The sampling plans are required by law in limited circumstances, as when new properties are purchased to build a school with public funds,” a representative of the DTSC in Times told Times. “For schools of the communities of Altadena and Pacific Palisades, the DTSC will provide technical assistance to school districts on request, which includes caregivers to prepare sampling plans and examine the results of the samples they collect.” The agency would not say if the tests would be necessary before schools begin to rebuild.
Meanwhile, even if government regulators are not involved, owners may have trouble hiring entrepreneurs to reconstruct.
“Any professional geotechnical engineer will not test the strength of the Foundation unless they know that the site is free from toxins,” said Sharif, of the American Institute of Architects.
The reconstruction is complex, he noted, involving many economic, environmental and security considerations. It is unlikely to leave the decision to thousands of individual owners.
After all, contamination on a property can affect neighboring houses.
“I shiver to think of what the owners of the lots next to a hypothetical owner do not do,” said Sharif. “This means that even if the majority of damage are on private land, it is crazy to entrust individuals in public health.”
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