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Residents of Tujunga’s heavy-duty enclaves became suspicious in January after dirt trucks began flooding nearby roads and dumping their belongings on nearby county-owned properties.
Their enquiries revealed that the truck carried winter storm deposits that were drifted from the catch basin.
The basin essential for flood control at San Gabriel Mountains is primarily located above the residential Burns area, according to the county.
However, the transport and dumping operations have led to dramatic fallout between county officials and Tujunga residents, and are another example of a community fearing to accept debris related to the Eton and Palisade fires.
Residents say the harmful stains are made from trucks. At least one local local sneaked into the site earlier this year to collect fishing soil and test it personally. The community said the results found selenium and arsenic.
“I’m scared and angry,” said Karen Von Ganten, a Tujunga resident who lives within about 150 yards of the county property. She no longer felt comfortable gardening for a long time due to the harmful odors that she caused the site.
County officials claim the soil is safe.
At the same time, locals in Tujunga who experience the relative isolation that lives against the sturdy background of the San Gabriel Mountains say they are tormented by the noise, vibrations and dust caused by hauling trucks crossing this semi-village home.
It all hates everything for Tujunga’s history and reputation as a clean air community. Since the 1920s, the area began to attract people with asthma. Today, neighborhoods still attract residents looking to escape the pollutants and noise of urban life. And around the mountains, this area has bear, deer and rabbit houses.
Caroline Kim Palacios said she was forced to temporarily move her 70-year-old mother Suki Kim from her mother’s home next to the county property after complaining about sore throat, burning eyes and lungs and nausea in March. Her mother believes these issues are related to transport operations, Kim Palacios said.
She also pointed out wildlife, including deer, and nearby washes. “I’m worried about the ecosystem,” Kim Palacios said.
The county apologises, but the dumping continues.
County officials admitted that at a March meeting with locals in Tujunga, they did not warn residents about the operation on the 17.5-acre property.
County engineer Laren Bunker said “I apologize for not dealing with that well,” according to a recording of the conference. “I think we may have gotten a little better in communicating with the community.”
Lydia Grant, president of the Sunland Tujunga Neighborhood Council, said she confirmed that dirt from the fire area was being carried to her neighborhood following the truck from the location of this Sachau Canyon deposit in Tujunga to Altadena.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
The county began transporting many people from seven Hals Drive in January, according to county officials, after not using the site for 15 years. The lot was activated due to the size of the storm debris that needed to be removed from the basin.
Operations stopped earlier this month, but transportation is likely to resume after a future storm, the county said.
The lot, known as the location of the Sachau deposits, is surrounded by tall fences and next to several homes.
County Public Works spokesman Elizabeth Vasquez said the deposits brought to Tujunga came from the Western Valley and the Fern Basin on the edge of the mountainous region. Inside the house burning on the hill, it is on top of the basin.
Photos taken by Altadena residents in February show basins filled with dark, sludge-like debris.
The wreckage contains “nutrients,” Vasquez said. Vazquez said the operators scraped it off the top floor and went to Zakou and sent it to a Simi Valley landfill with dirt and rocks.
Some ashes from the undeveloped hillside could have ended up in basins, underground storm drainage systems and landfills, Vasquez said. She said Phos-Chek, a flame retardant, has not been observed in the fragment basin.
The Western Valley Basin of Altadena was swollen with debris on February 14th.
(Commentary of Michael Vikay)
Vazquez also said the crew took measures such as installing balm types to prevent burned house debris from washing away the property.
The rudders have flooded
Colin Sweeney, a spokesman for the LA Department of Transport, told The Times that the county doesn’t need to clear truck routes in the city.
In Tujunga, residents living along the route described trucks passing by their homes. The screams of the truck brakes were particularly torture, they said.
The Ala Hachadulian lives on the corner of Commerce Avenue and Samitlo Rose Street, and after moving to Tujunga two and a half years ago, they wanted a quiet neighborhood after living next to a high school in Glendale.
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The truck started in the morning and went all day, six days a week. Seven tiles on the floor of his dining room cracked in March, and he blamed the vibrations from the truck.
“It was a very stressful time,” the Hachadurian said.
Karen von Gunten and her husband John live near the Sachau site and moved to Tujunga in 1987 to enjoy the owls and other wildlife that flock to their backyard.
Today, she said that she can’t keep the windows open all the time, unless the smell is blowing through their homes. After the truck first arrived in January, there was a strong “burning rubber” smell that was eventually reduced but still troublesome, she said. Her husband described the odor as resembling an “old car engine.”
Representatives from the South Coast Air Quality Control District said they have received 23 complaints since January 7th claiming traffic concerns, odors and dust from the soil related to Sachau.
“The South Coast AQMD responded to each complaint and conducted inspections on site on nine different days,” spokesman Nahar Mogarabi said. “Our inspectors did not detect odors in the area and did not observe any air quality violations on any of these in-person visits.”
Multiple soil tests
The stains collected by site residents showed Selenium, a large concentration of harmful trace elements, according to results reviewed by The Times.
Lab results showed that arsenic showed higher amounts than federal and state levels, but below another common level used in California.
The county conducted its own tests of two storms with Zakau, and their results showed no generally the same level of arsenic as selenium, according to tests reviewed by the Times.
“You can take two scoops and get two different results,” said Joe Sevrean, labody réctor at 1 Laboratories, who handled community testing.
“Toxicologists have reviewed samples collected by residents, and their tests show that the soil is clean and wealthy within state safety standards,” Katherine Berger, Los Angeles County superintendent, told the Times in an email.
Los Angeles City Councilman Monica Rodriguez demanded that the road in Tujunga, where the county said it was damaged by the truck.
Rodriguez, a district that includes Tujunga, said in a March letter to Los Angeles County Public Works director, Mark Pestrala, that he was “deeply interested” in the use of the county’s site.
The Tujunga community hopes the county will do more testing. Residents are also preparing for the next storm and another round of trucks.
An official from one county told residents to consider removing speed bumps along part of the track route, so the trucks didn’t have to brake and squeal.
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