On Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s chief disaster officer urged the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency to reconsider its decision to refrain from soil testing after cleanup of a wildfire in Los Angeles County.
Requests pulled a quick response from FEMA: No
Federal contractors are removing wildfire debris and a layer of six-inch topsoil from facilities burned in the Eton and Palisade fires. However, FEMA said last week it would not order soil testing. This is a long-standing approach to meeting California’s safety standards for toxic chemicals
The decision warned California’s elected officials and residents, fearing that the fire abolition properties could contain dangerous concentrations of toxic chemicals in the soil.
Nancy Ward, director of California’s Department of Emergency Services, wrote to FEMA on Wednesday, calling on the agency to reconsider the decision.
“Without proper soil testing, no contaminants caused by the fire will be detected and could pose a risk to residents, construction workers and the environment,” Ward wrote in a letter obtained by the Times. “The failure to identify and repair these fire-related contaminants could expose individuals to residual material during reconstruction, potentially putting groundwater and surface water quality at risk.”
A letter to FEMA federal coordinator Curtis Brown is the first to show California officials are unhappy with the federal cleansing strategy. Officials have now announced that federal cleanup workers have just completed their initial cleaning of the Palisade Fire property.
In response to the ward’s letter, Brown said the soil testing put the speed and budget of cleanup at risk.
“Steam testing will slow recovery in a few months,” Brown wrote in his response. “However, FEMA does not prevent states, local governments, or individual property owners from conducting soil testing if they wish to do so. FEMA tests that positive results are clearly attributable to fires. Unless we do not refund the costs of soil testing.”
A rapid rebuild process aimed at the goal of deployed workers and erasing debris from some of the roughly 16,000 buildings destroyed by two wildfires. Debris removal has progressed rapidly, aiming to promote. However, some residents and elected officials have expressed concern over thorough disaster response, including soil sampling.
For nearly 20 years, federal or state officials have ordered soil sampling in response to cleaning all major California wildfires. The procedure aims to serve as a safeguard to prevent residents from returning to prolonged pollution.
According to a state contractor, even after 3-6 inches of topsoil was removed during the 2018 camp fire cleaning, about a third of the facility exceeds California’s cleanup standards. has been deleted. As a result, cleanup crews were dispatched to these facilities to remove more soil and follow-up tests.
In her letter, Ward said past soil sampling indicates that wildfire-related contamination can be well over 6 inches. For this reason, Ward said soil testing is an integral part of the process.
However, Brown revealed in his reply that FEMA disagrees.
“The practice was boring, inefficient, and a barrier to timely cleaning and recovery,” Brown wrote in his letter.
Federal officials say that if contamination is found, the cleanup crew will not return to remove additional layers of soil.
“We encourage the state to conduct soil testing if they want to do so,” Brown wrote. [we] We believe our current practices will speed up recovery while protecting and advancing public health and safety. ”
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