Duarte, California – Not far from where Ceci Carroll lives, a rock mining company has contaminated the air with dust throughout the San Gabriel Valley, he said.
Now, as the equipment cleans the carbonized fires of Los Angeles, it is concerned about a new potential contamination source: a site to process hazardous waste of Eaton’s fire.
“I am concerned about the community and also for the school districts here, where we have children,” said Carroll, a resident of Duarte, 23 years old and former member of the Local School Board.
“We are dealing with the site with chemicals and hazardous materials,” he said. “Parents are absolutely concerned.”
Carroll is among the residents of Duarte, Azusa and the nearby cities that oppose the use of the Lario Park Environmental Protection Agency in Irwindale as a temporary site to separate, pack and transport potentially dangerous materials of the Eaton fire.
In ordinary times, picnic people, bicycle or riding on equestrian trails in the Federal Property Land. Now they care about hazardous waste that could contaminate the air or leak in groundwater.
The flames that began on January 7 charred thousands of buildings, cars and electronics throughout the Los Angeles area. The EPA has begun the enormous task of potentially eliminating hundreds of tons of hazardous materials of Eaton and Palisades fires. That includes paintings, pesticides, solvents, compressed gas cylinders, ammunition and Lithium ion batteries of electric cars that could turn toxic When it burns.
“The elimination of these materials should not have the cost of creating a toxic environment for communities already disproportionately affected by pollution,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis, in a statement.
The mostly Latin communities adjacent to the site are exposed to higher levels of ozone pollution and particles than other areas, according to data from the Office of Environmental Health Dangers of California.
Experts recognize residents’ concerns, but they say that hazardous waste is not necessarily harmful whenever security measures are in place and waste is not stored on the site for years.
In a town hall on Wednesday, the Senator of California Susan Rubio and the local mayors opposing the site State and federal officials on the grill: How was the site chosen? Why weren’t we consulted or notified? Why toxic 15 miles (24 kilometers) truck waste from the burning zone and the risk of polluting our communities? What tests will be carried out after it is closed?
Hundreds of residents got into the scenic arts center and spilled in the hall. They shouted “Shut up!” And he sang “Leave it in Altadena!”
The EPA coordinator, Tara Fitzgerald, told the audience that the sites closest to the Eaton Burn area were being used for emergency fire operations, including Rose Bowl and Santa Anita Park in Pasadena. They chose the site of Lario Park because it adapted to their needs and was available.
She emphasized that the EPA has done this work for years throughout the state.
“We did exactly the same” for the fires of Woolsey, Santa Rosa and Napa, said Fitzgerald, and “we had no impact on the community throughout the process.”
But Eaton and Palisades fires are not preceded. Together, they set fire to the largest urban area in California, according to a Associated Press analysisand more than double the urban surface consumed by the Fire Woolsey 2018.
The EPA said that it would regularly monitor the air, it shows earth, using water trucks to control dust and transport waste outside the area daily.
The line agency with plastic where the materials are processed and uses leances, earth berms and other items to control spills. The waste will be transported in surface streets, not on the highways, so that trucks can travel at a slower and more safe speed, Celeste McCoy de la EPA said to the Board of County Supervisors. She said the site would probably be used less than six months, and more areas are being considered.
With these protection measures, the risks of underground water pollution, which takes a long time, are low, said Sanjay Mohanty, an associate professor of UCLA who has studied the effects of forest fires on water and soil.
“There are several feet of land that the pollutant has to pass, and that also requires a lot of water for blood of the system,” Mohanty said. “And even if there are leeches, they would not migrate far on the ground in a short time.”
The greatest risks are soil and air pollution of possible dust emissions, he added, but they can also be mitigated.
The resident of Duarte, Laura Jasso, did not leave the meeting reassured and remained annoyed by the lack of transparency of state and federal officials.
“It’s hard to have confidence when they really did this behind us,” he said.
While the teams continue their work, residents must be attentive to what is happening in the site and ask how the materials are being handled, about emergency response plans and truck routes and schedules, Rachael Jones said, teacher and teacher and Director of the UCLA center for the UCLA for the occupant and environmental environment. Health.
“The community has the right to know that information from the EPA and the body of the army,” Jones said.
Jasso said his community is committed to responsible for EPA to guarantee security.
“Ultimately, we don’t want it here, and we will continue fighting so as not to have it here,” he said about the site. “But the fact is that it is here right now. And then we have to recognize the safety of our students, the concerns of our families. “
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Associated Press Christopher Weber’s writer contributed to this report.
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