Finally, we know where the toxic ashes of the forest fires could end

Despite the warning several times that forest fire debris probably contains dangerous substances, civil servants are preparing to throw millions of tonnes of contaminated ash and Eaton rubble and palisades in the southern discharges of California that has not been designed to manage high concentrations of toxic chemicals.

For weeks, Los Angeles County leaders urged residents to avoid forest ashes. Public health officials said they suspected that the grouping debris of heavy metals damaging the brain and chemicals cancer of cancer of thousands of houses and cremated cars.

Usually, when these toxic chemicals are found at high levels in solid waste, they would be eliminated in discharge of hazardous waste – generally located far from the densely populated areas and specifically designed with environmental protections to avoid leaks that could affect the residents nearby.

However, each year, when disasters strike California, a series of emergency derogations and exemptions in the event of a disaster allow potentially contaminated debris – including forest ashes – to be treated as non -hazard and waste waste and Caught in discharges which generally only manage the garbage cans and construction debris.

In the aftermath of the most destructive forest fires in the history of the United States, government agencies have shared little where they plan to have the 4.5 million tonnes of charred debris of Eaton and palisades fires. For two weeks, the civil servants were dotted with questions about where the debris go, and they largely refused to answer.

During a press conference this week, the US Army Corps of Engineers announced that federal cleaning teams began to remove debris from several schools damaged by the late Eaton, transporting toxic ashes to the Sim Valley discharge in The county of Ventura and asbestos and concrete at Azusa Reclamation Terre Comté de Los Angeles.

But local, state and federal authorities have refused to appoint all discharges that should receive forest debris. Last week, the director of public works of the County of Los Angeles, Mark Pestrella, said that four landfills had been appointed to accept debris in the event of a disaster, but had not identified them. He brought these statements this week, claiming that the department had identified 17 installations in the County of Los Angeles and one in the neighboring county of Ventura which could accept this waste, while adding that the elimination sites would ultimately be decided by the Body of army engineers.

Houses in Atladena who were destroyed by the late Eaton.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

But, in addition to the Sim Valley discharge and the Azusa land restoration site, the Times learned that at least five other non -hazardous discharges have taken measures to accept this waste: Badlands sanitary discharge in the valley from Moreno; The discharge of Calabasas in Agoura; El Sobrante Landfill in Corona; The landfill of the lamb canyon in Beaumont; and the discharge of Sunshine Canyon in Sylmar.

Last month, Governor Gavin Newsom published a proclamation in the event of a disaster to accelerate the elimination of forest fire debris, allowing the environmental regulators of the State to temporarily suspend the rules for the elimination of solid waste and Allow these discharges to accept forest fire debris. In turn, these discharges – many of which accept municipal garbage – have requested emergency derogations to extend their tonnage of daily elimination, extend their hours of operation and accept potentially contaminated fire debris.

In the past, state environmental regulators have issued violations for the spill of hazardous waste, including soils contaminated by lead, in these discharges, citing the risk it poses in groundwater.

For their part, managers supervising cleaning say that it is in the interest of the public to identify ashes and dangerous debris of residential neighborhoods as soon as possible, and this includes the acceleration of the elimination process. Simi Valley and Calabasas discharges had already accepted the Disaster Debris of the Woolsey fire, which destroyed more than 1,600 buildings in 2018.

“The ashes and debris of forest fires are materials damaged by fire, which is different from regular household waste, but they do not respect the classification of hazardous waste ” under federal regulations,” said Susan Lee, army body spokesperson.

At least three occasions, the control of California Department of Toxic Substances hired consultants to assess heavy metal levels in the ashes of forest fires in burned houses. In the three reports (from 2003, 2007 and 2015), the state entrepreneur found that the ashes of the original sites contained enough heavy metals – including lead damage – like hazardous waste According to Californian standards.

The trucks line up on San Fernando Road in Sylmar while waiting to transform into a discharge from Sunshine Canyon in 2023.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Residents of southern California and environmental groups have expressed their concern about the safety of trucking this equipment through the community and the capacity of municipal discharges to properly manage toxic materials.

Erick Fefferman, who lives about a mile south of Sunshine Canyon, said he and his neighbors feared that dangerous ashes and soot could be stirred and drift in their neighborhood when forest debris are buried nearby, posing a risk that they can inhale dangerous dangerous hazardous metals.

Sunshine Canyon, the largest active discharge of the county, is perched above the districts of Granada Hills and Sylmar, in a mountain pass known for its strong winds which regularly blow rancid odors – due to the excessive emissions of Sulfur dioxide – and dust in communities below.

Last year, the South Coast Air Quality Management District quoted Sunshine Canyon for more than 60 violations for excessive air pollution and violations of the nuisance odors. Fefferman said that he had recently withdrawn his son from the Van Gogh primary school due to the stench and pollution, which sometimes became so unbearable that school officials canceled recess.

And although discharge operators regularly monitor potentially dangerous gases, such as methane or sulfur dioxide, they generally have no instruments that would detect toxic contaminants in forest fire ashes, such as lead or Asbestos.

“The discharge of Sunshine Canyon has been incapable of treating domestic waste that already goes to their establishment,” said Fefferman. “The addition of toxic debris of a forest fire with heavy metals and known contaminants defies all common sense. Let’s not compose a disaster and do not create another. »»

Community concerns have been reinforced by the accelerated pace of cleaning hazardous waste. Initially, the plan was that the Environmental Agency Protection of the United States spends three months on the project; But last week, President Trump signed a federal directive to shorten the cleaning time at 30 days.

“What happens when they jump or miss a lithium-ion battery, from a mobile phone battery, or part of a car battery-and it enters-then combustion? “” Asked Fepffeman, noting that the discharge of Chiquita Canyon recently closed near Santa Clarita faces burnt -up garbage underground from a chemical reaction.

EPA crews in white danger combination paint the ruins of houses burned in the fire of the palisades.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The army’s body says it has a plan. Cleaning workers will use water to remove any dust, said Colonel Eric Swenson, and wraps ashes in plastic bags and will transport them in trucks with plastic liners and tarpaulins. And Pêpella, the Director of Public Works of the Comté, said that the discharges that will accept forest ashes are equipped with a lining system which prevents contaminants from fleeing in groundwater.

But these precautions have not repressed the concerns of certain residents.

Wayde Hunter, president of the North Valley Coalition of Citizens, said Sunshine Canyon had long managed its operations in the Northern Valley of San Fernando. Now, he fears that the discharge becomes zero soil for a dangerous experience in which government representatives are blurring the boundaries between what constitutes a hazardous waste installation and a municipal discharge.

The decision to put unkinded but perhaps dangerous waste at Sunshine Canyon, said Hunter, does not consider the proximity of the discharge with the residences and the potential for contamination of groundwater in the event that the coating system of the discharge is damaged due to an earthquake.

“The reason they do discharge (non -hazard waste),” said Hunter, “it’s because they don’t want the type of equipment that they are now trying to push them.”

Although the rapid withdrawal of fire debris relieves the disaster disaster communities of Altadena and Pacific Palisades, Hunter hopes that public officials consider the potential benefits that may occur in its community and other potential elimination sites neighbors sprinkled in southern California.

“We feel for these people,” said Hunter, referring to damaged neighborhoods against forest fires. “But, from the same token, (cleaning and elimination) must be done correctly. We can’t just start emptying these tips at each discharge. »»