LOS ANGELES — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday it has completed its Phase 1 removal of household hazardous materials from properties destroyed or heavily damaged by the Eaton and Palisades fires, in line with a 30-day timeline requested by local officials.
EPA Acting Regional Administrator Cheree Peterson made the announcement during a morning news briefing Wednesday at the county Hall of Administration in downtown Los Angeles.
The announcement means the wildfire debris-removal effort is now fully into Phase 2, during which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — or private contractors hired by individual property owners — will remove all other materials from fire-damaged properties, including ash, wood and other debris.
Phase 1 was initially anticipated to last for several months, but local and state authorities pushed the EPA to expedite its work and complete the process in 30 days, moving property owners closer to rebuilding.
Peterson noted, however, that EPA crews were unable to clear hazardous materials from several thousand properties that were deemed too dangerous to clear. Those properties were "deferred" to Phase 2 of the debris-removal program, meaning the Corps of Engineers will handle the removal of all hazardous and other wastes from those areas.
"EPA's ability to complete this essential first phase of the cleanup is due to the dedication and hard work of our EPA staff and contractors, our federal, state and local partners, and the support of the community," Tara Fitzgerald, EPA's incident commander, said in a statement.
"We recognize this is just the first step on the road to recovery and rebuilding, and we will continue to support our partner agencies as they move through this process," she added.
EPA crews safely disposed of more than 1,000 lithium-ion batteries from vehicles, homes and other battery powered products.
Gov. Gavin Newsom's office announced Tuesday that more than 4,400 properties had been deferred to Phase 2, while more than 9,000 others had been cleared by the EPA.
"Thanks to the hard work and dedication of hundreds of federal and state crews, the first phase of debris cleanup is coming to a close and we can turn our focus fully to structural debris removal," Newsom said. "Under the leadership of EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, crews cleaned hazardous waste from thousands of properties in less than 30 days, a record pace never seen before at this scale."
While the EPA is celebrating the milestone, some LA County residents in fire-impacted areas and nearby communities have protested the use of local landfills for fire debris.
The LA County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved increases in daily allowable dumping limits at the Lancaster Landfill and the Sunshine Canyon Landfill in Granada Hills.
Additionally, the board temporarily removed dumping restrictions at the Calabasas Landfill, allowing the site to accept fire debris.
Calabasas Mayor Peter Kraut and Mayor Pro Tem James Bozajian said the city opposed accepting fire debris at the Calabasas Landfill.
"We have little reason to believe hazardous and non-hazardous materials can be separated," Bozajian said.
County and federal officials insisted at the meeting that hazardous wastes removed from the fire zones by the EPA were not being taken to any of the landfills, but instead to other dumps that are capable of handling such debris. They also contended that fire debris such as ash and wood being removed from the fire areas by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, while potentially dangerous in an uncontrolled environment, is being packaged, delivered and stored at the dumps in such a way as not to present a danger to the community.
