The toxic legacy we might leave behind
February 21, 2025
It’s been 3 weeks since the Eaton and Palisades fires were fully contained. While many are still grieving and reeling from the destruction, you’ve likely already seen a lot written and discussed about how to rebuild. And rightfully so: this is a unique opportunity to be intentional and thoughtful about how, when, and where we rebuild to make safer, more climate-resilient, more affordable communities.
But sometimes this can gloss over the transition period we’re currently in, which will play a big role in determining how safe it is to rebuild. Much of this will come down to how we approach the clean up process.
And there is a lot of clean up that needs to happen. When we talk about the 10,000s of homes that burned, we may mostly think about the debris from the structures themselves. But the most hazardous and toxic-producing materials are the many other items that burn: cars that turn into heavy metals like lead and copper; plastics and electronics that give off noxious chemicals; propane tanks; pool chemicals; paint and insulation with asbestos. All of these are reduced to toxic ash and debris that needs to be cleaned up. All told, the Army Corps of Engineers estimates 4,250,000 tons of structural ash and debris need to be removed after the LA fires, and one EPA official has estimated this is the largest lithium-ion battery cleanup in history.
It is no surprise that cleaning up and removing all of this comes with many challenges. Some of these are inherent to the tension between speed and deliberation, others between cost and effectiveness, and others of our own making.
Challenge #1: we need to clean up quickly. This is not just because we want to speed up the rebuilding process and let people return to their homes. The longer we wait to remove debris, the longer it remains uncontained. Wind and rain can carry bits of toxic material into other areas. Recent rains have brought ash and other runoff into the Santa Monica bay, threatening marine life and water safety.
To their credit, the Newsom administration has been touting the speed of cleanup operations, noting that it took half the time to begin the debris removal process as it did after the 2018 Woolsey fire. The EPA has planned to clean up hazardous materials in just a month, though that timeline seems ambitious (for comparison, it took the EPA more than three months to remove hazardous materials from just 1,448 properties that burned in the Maui fires in 2023).
But speed can come with its own consequences if it comes at the sacrifice of caution and safety. It also leads to…
Challenge #2: where does it go? There are multiple steps and concerns with this. And frankly, no easy solutions.
The first part requires creating ‘staging areas’ — this Storymap does a really great job illustrating what these are, and where they are. In essence, staging areas are used to temporarily process, sort, and package all of the hazardous debris and materials that are removed from burned sites. They are built with a number of protections to try to mitigate against unintended consequences of concentrating toxic material all in one place. But as you can imagine, people living near these sites are not too pleased. And not without legitimate concern: residents near a site in Malibu have noted how close it is to two elementary schools. Others have raised the alarm about the staging area at Topanga Beach, a sensitive coastal wetland right next to the ocean.
But in some ways, the staging areas are the easy part. Although it’s certainly a concern to have all of this hazardous material put into one place, these staging areas are temporary. The bigger concern is the permanent places where all of the material will end up. The way things are supposed to work is for non-hazardous waste to be transported to local landfills. But many worry that the urgency for a speedy cleanup (see Challenge #1) is blurring the lines between safe and unsafe.
Over the past week, protests and demonstrations have broken out at many of the local landfill sites, with residents justifiably worried that toxic waste is being dumped in their backyard. Federal officials claim that the debris can be disposed safely at the local landfills, and that trucking it to far away hazardous waste dumps would require longer truck trips that would delay the cleanup. Although the waste is supposed to be safe, wildfire debris has been taken to landfills before any testing has been performed. The LA Times recently reported on a number of nonhazardous landfills that were accepting debris from the cleanup.
You’ll never guess one of the motivations for this: money. The landfills, many of which are privately owned, stand to make a significant profit by accepting this waste.
Protestors gathered Monday at the Calabasas Landfill, which has signs posted outside with their policy that they don’t accept electronics or hazardous waste.
“You legally cannot bring a battery or a can of spray paint into this landfill,” said Dallas Lawrence, an Agoura Hills resident and president of the Las Virgenes School Board in Calabasas. “But now they’re allowing hundreds of thousands of tons of burnt batteries, paint chips and other things in this community. It’s incomprehensible.”
Another site, the Sunshine Canyon Landfill, is located in a mountain pass that experiences high winds — leading to concerns that toxic ash and dust will be blown down to the community below.
These sacrifice zones are very familiar to environmental justice groups. And while there may not be easy answers, it seems fairly obvious that we are cutting corners to save time and money (or make money, if you’re a private landfill). This theme continues with…
Challenge #3: leaving contamination behind. Last week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said they won’t test the soil at damaged properties after they have been cleaned by private federal contractors. This week, the Governor’s chief disaster office urged FEMA to reconsider its decision to forego post-cleanup soil testing, and was swiftly rejected.
This breaks from the long-standing practice to ensure that contaminants are not left behind, a standard procedure for nearly every major wildfire in California for the past two decades.
Instead, private contractors will remove the ash and rubble, as well as the standard six inches of topsoil, and call it good. This flies in the face of previous analyses that show dangerous levels of chemicals even after the federal cleanup workers clear a layer of topsoil, which is why post-cleanup soil testing has become standard in the first place. After the Camp fire in 2018, analysis found about a third of properties still had toxic chemicals after the cleanup crews had removed the six inches of topsoil. This included toxics like lead and arsenic, which are known to cause brain damage and cancer.
The reasons for this high-stakes reversal are not exactly clear, but we can guess: money and time. The burden will shift to homeowners, schools, and businesses to pay for testing — if they choose to do so. And otherwise, the burden will fall on the families and communities that live on toxic land after rebuilding is done.
This is admittedly a grim newsletter this week, and I know that might not be the thing you want to read amidst the swirling chaos and sadness of this political moment. But these moments of transition are when so many decisions are made that affect environmental justice, health, and housing in the years that follow. The history of the environmental justice movement is about challenging the legacy of racist, politically expedient, and cost-cutting decisions that put polluting sites, hazardous waste, freeways, and extraction zones next to poor communities. This is happening in real time before our eyes, and it’s not the time to look away. I know many groups in LA and around the state are working tirelessly to organize, protest, pressure politicians, and keep each other safe. They need our support in whatever ways we can give it, not just in the immediate aftermath, but through all of the small steps along the way that will ultimately shape this recovery.
Federal cleanup crews near home in Altadena destroyed by the Eaton fire. Source: LA Times
In case you missed it, I also wanted to highlight the campaign kickoff call this coming Monday, Feb 24 from 4-5pm for our campaign to end renovictions in California. If you have read these newsletters for awhile, you will know how this is a necessary precondition for residential decarbonization, ensuring we are not worsening the housing crisis in the name of climate action. You can RSVP here to join.
WHAT WE’RE READING
FEMA rejects call by Newsom’s office to test soil in fire areas for toxic contaminants (LA Times)
‘An unprecedented situation’: EPA plan for LA wildfire cleanup stirs protests over toxic dangers (The Guardian)
Imperial Beach tenants demand stronger action against ‘renoviction’ loopholes (Fox 5 San Diego) — very relevant to our campaign!
LA may get wildfire eviction protections countywide. Here’s what we know (LAist) — a bit of good news! More on this in a future newsletter
Feel free to reply any time! I always enjoy hearing from people and getting any feedback/questions/additional thoughts.
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