On a recent Sunday, Tracy Quinn drove on the Pacific Coast Highway to assess the damage caused to the coastline from the Palisade fire.
The water supply was darkened by the ash. The burnt debris of washer and dryer and metal appliances were scattered around the coastline. Sludge carpeted the edge of the water. The waves of tide were wrapped in a scorched house, pulling debris and potentially toxic ashes into the ocean.
“It was just heartbreaking,” said Quinn, president and CEO of Environmental Group. The team reported ashes and debris about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of the Pallisard Burn area west of Los Angeles.
As crews work to remove potentially hundreds of thousands of tons of hazardous material from the Los Angeles wildfire, researchers and officials understand how land fires have affected the oceans. You’re about to do so. Pallisard and Eaton burned thousands of homes, businesses, cars and electronics, turning everyday items into dangerous ashes made from pesticides, asbestos, plastic, lead and heavy metals.
Many of them could end in the Pacific Ocean, so there are concerns and many unknowns about how fires will affect life under the ocean.
“We don’t see a concentration of houses and buildings burning near the water,” Quinn said.
Fire debris and potentially toxic ash make water unsafe for surfers and swimmers, especially after rainfall that can transport chemicals, trash and other hazards to the sea. In the long run, scientists are worried about how burnt urban pollutants will affect food supply.
The atmospheric rivers and landslides that disturbed the Los Angeles area last week exacerbated some of those horrors.
When the fire broke out in January, one of Maladias’ first concerns was seawater pollution. The water quality manager at the Surfrider Foundation, an environmental nonprofit, said strong winds were flaring well beyond flames and ash.
Marine ecologist Julie Dinask said that during the fire, the scientist who detected 100 miles (161 kilometers) of ash and water ash and waste was found in San Diego, University of California. He said it was the Scripps Institute. Something like twigs and shards. They described the smell as burning electronics, and she recalled, “it’s not like a nice campfire.”
Rain spills are also a major concern. Rainfall picks up contaminants and trash as it flushes through drains and river networks towards the ocean. The spill contains “there are, after all, a lot of nutrients, nitrogen and phosphates in the ashes of burn substances that can enter the water,” and Diaz and “heavy metals, what is called PAH. Various kinds It burns fuel for.
Landslides and debris flows in the Palisade Fire Zone allow more dangerous waste to be dumped into the ocean. After a fire, the soil with the scars of the burn cannot absorb rainfall and can develop a layer that repels water from the ruins of the organic material that has been smashed. Less organic material keeps soil in place increases the risk of landslides and debris flow.
With the help of other agencies, officials in Los Angeles County set up thousands of feet of concrete barriers, dirt bags, silt socks and more to prevent debris from reaching the beach. The LA County Board of Supervisors recently passed a motion seeking state and federal assistance to clean beaches, prepare for storm spills, and test ocean waters such as potential toxins and chemicals.
Beyond regular samples, state water officials and others are testing total dissolved metals, such as arsenic, lead, aluminum and volatile organic compounds.
It has also been shown to cause cancer to be sampled with microplastics, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs that are harmful to humans and aquatic organisms, or to cause cancer to occur in animals and other serious health benefits. This is a group of artificial chemicals. It was currently prohibited from being manufactured and used in products such as pigments, paints, and electrical equipment.
County public health officials said last month’s chemical testing of water samples had downgraded the closure of one beach in the seawater advisory because it raised no health concerns. Beach fans were still encouraged to stay away from the water.
Dynasuke and his colleagues understand how much potentially toxic ashes and debris are potentially dispersed in the ocean, how deep and how much they sink, and how long they will end over time. I’m working.
Forest fires can deposit important nutrients such as iron and nitrogen into marine ecosystems, boost phytoplankton growth and create a positive cascade effect across the ecosystem. But potentially toxic ashes from urban coastal fires can have dire consequences, Dinasuke said.
“The report already shows that there were a lot of leads and asbestos in the ashes,” she added. “This is really bad for people, so it’s probably very bad for marine life too.”
A major concern is whether toxic contaminants from fires will enter the food chain. Researchers plan to ingest tissue fragments from fish due to signs of heavy metals and contaminants. But they say it takes time to understand how large urban fires affect the larger ecosystem and our food supply.
Diaz noted that the ocean has been taken away from the land for a long time by pollution, but fires and other disasters have made “everything worse, and the situation is even more disastrous.”
___
The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for water and environmental policy coverage. AP is solely responsible for all content. For all AP environmental coverage, visit apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.
Source link
