As crews clean up from LA wildfires, some residents are furious over hazardous wastestar-news.press/wp

Duarte, California – Not far from where Ceci Carroll lives, the mining-mining company was polluted by the air of dust over the San Gabriel Valley, she said.

Now, such as crews clean carboets from Wildfire from Los Angeles, it takes care of a new potential source of contamination: a place to process dangerous debris from fire Eaton.

“I am concerned about the community, and the school district here, where we have children,” Carroll said, Duarte resident of 23 years and a former local school board member.

“We deal with a foreign with chemicals and dangerous materials,” she said. “Parents are absolutely worried.”

Carroll is among the inhabitants from Duarte, Azus and cities nearby, which oppose the environment for environmental protection in Irwindale as a temporary separation, package and transported potentially dangerous materials from fire Eaton.

In ordinary times, people picnic, bicycle or horses ride on equestrian trails in the country of federal ownership. They are now taking care of hazardous waste that could pollute the air or to live in groundwater.

Blazy who started on 7. January bite thousands of buildings, cars and electronics across the Los Angeles area. The EPA has begun a huge task of removing potentially hundreds of dangerous substances from Fire Eaton and Palisades. This includes colors, pesticides, solvents, compressed gas cylinders, ammunition and Lithium-ion batteries of electric cars that might turn around toxic when it was burned.

“The removal of these materials should not occur at the cost of creating a toxic community environment, but disproportionately influenced by pollution,” said the Los Angeles Hilda Solis District Supervisor in the statement.

Mostly Latino communities near the place are exposed to higher levels of ozone pollution and particles from other areas, according to data From the California Office for Environmental Hazard Assessment.

Experts acknowledge the concerns, but they say that hazardous waste is not necessarily harmful until security measures are in place, and waste is not stored on the spot for years.

In the City Hall on Wednesday, California Senator Susan Rubio and Local Mayors opposing the place State and Federal Grilled officials: How is the page selected? Why didn’t we consult or informed? Why a truck toxic waste 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the burn zone and the risk contaminated by our communities? What testing will be done after it is closed?

Hundreds of inhabitants were suffocated in the middle of the detailed arts and spilled into the hallway. They shouted “Shut up!” and sing “Leave him in Altadeni!”

The EPA Tara Fitzgerald coordinator said the audience that the area of ​​Eaton Burn is used for emergency fire surgery, including a bowl of rose and Santa Anita Park in Pasadena. They chose Lario Park location because it corresponded to their needs and was available.

She emphasized that EPA has done this work for years across the state.

“We made the exact same thing” for Woolsey, Santa Rosa and Napa Fires, said Fitzgerald and “We did not have an impact in the community throughout the process.”

But Fires Eaton and Palisades are unprecedented. Together they set on fire the largest urban area on the records in California, according to an Analysis of the associated pressAnd more than double the urban surface consumed by Woolwey Fire in 2018. years.

The EPA said that it will regularly monitor the air, soil sampling, use water trucks to control dust and transport waste from the area per day.

AGENCY LINE OF AREAS WITH PLASTIC WHERE MATERIALS BE MADE AND USE VATLES, Earthy Berms and other spill control items. Waste will be transported on surface streets, not highways, so trucks can travel more slowly and safer speed, EPA’s Celeste McCoy told the Supervisor County Committee. She said the location would probably use less than six months, and more areas are considered.

With these protective measures, the risks of underground water pollution, which lasts long, are low, Sanjay Mohanty said, an associate professor who studied on the wildfire of water and soil.

“There are several soil feet that the polluter must pass, and that also requires a lot of water to till the system,” Mohanty said. “Even if there is a catch, we wouldn’t migrate far into the ground in a short time.”

Larger risks are soil and air pollution from possible dust emissions, he added, but they can also be alleviated.

Resident Duarte Laura Jasso did not leave the meeting convinced and remained upset due to lack of transparency from state and federal officials.

“It’s hard to have confidence when they really did that behind our back,” she said.

Although the crews continue, residents should be awake on what happens in the site and ask how the materials are resolved, trucks and truck schedule, a professor and director of UCLA professional and environmental health.

“The community has the right to know that information from the EPA and the Army Corps,” Jones said.

Jaso said that her community is dedicated to holding the EPA responsible for security security.

“Finally, we don’t want him here, and we’ll continue to fight that we don’t have it here,” she said for a place. “But the fact is that he is currently here. And so we must only recognize the safety of our students, concerns of our families.”

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Associated Writer Christopher Weber contributed to this report.

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