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New soil testing by the Los Angeles County Public Health revealed high levels of lead and other toxic metals in households that were destroyed by a catastrophic wildfire in January and removed by a federal cleanup crew.
The County Health Department hired Roux Associates Inc. to perform soil sampling at 30 home sites cleaned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Army and Federal Emergency Management Agency say crews will clear wildfire debris and up to six inches of topsoil in ashes-covered sections of the facility.
In areas that were scraped by federal cleanup crews, in Etonburn scars, about 27% of Lou’s soil samples still had California’s state standards adoption levels (80 milligrams per kilogram). In samples taken from some of these properties where soil was not excavated, nearly 44% had lead levels above the state benchmark.
In the fire zone of Palisades, numbers were much more guaranteed. Less than 3% of soil samples increased lead levels from the portion of the removed properties and approximately 12% from out-of-range areas.
Adam Love, Vice President and Chief Scientist at Lou, says that there is a high percentage of old houses with Altadena lead paint that Eaton Fire has hit mainly, which could be one of the reasons for the huge disparity.
“The honest answer is that you don’t know everything you can contribute. [the variation in lead contamination]“It could be related to the difference in housing stock and the fact that homes in the Eton area are likely to have lead-based paint.
“It could be from the soil in scraped scraped,” he continued.
Love and County Public Health officials now recommend that property owners in affected areas consider potential soil contamination prior to reconstruction efforts.
“Evaluation and management of soil impacts should really be part of the restructuring plan,” Love said. “We recommend that you consider obtaining an assessment by an environmental expert to ensure that you are taking appropriate measures to be protected.”
This has already broken down some developers as county and city officials issued reconstruction permits without soil testing requirements.
The county’s results add to much evidence that even after federal cleanup crews remove the wreckage, a significant number of properties may still carry dangerous contaminants.
This week, the Los Angeles Times released a special report built around a soil testing initiative that provides the first evidence that homes remodeled by federal contractors still have levels of heavy metals beyond typical state cleanup targets. Times journalists have discovered that two Altadena home sites, burnt out and cleaned by federal cleanup crews, still contain heavy metals that are more dangerous than California standards.
The Times first reported in February that the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would not pay for soil testing following the Eaton and Palisades fire. Refusals by federal and state disaster agencies are removed from the property of a home by a clean-up crew after a large wildfire destroys California’s long-standing wildfire recovery guidelines aimed at ensuring fire-related contamination, followed by soil testing.
Previous Wildfire testing showed that about 20% of the properties fail to meet California’s cleanup targets of potentially toxic materials after first round debris removal, which usually involves removing about 6 inches of topsoil. However, soil sampling allowed state and federal contractors to identify which facilities still had high levels of contamination, and then relocated the cleanup crew to remove additional soil, ensuring that they met California’s cleanup standards.
For this cleanup, the federal cleanup crew will not return to remove any additional soil, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.
The decision not to conduct comprehensive soil testing has been criticized by many environmental and public health experts.
“By not conducting soil testing, the federal and state governments have decided to leave their contaminated property and not let homeowners know how much contamination remains.
As Eton and Palisade consumed thousands of homes and cars, they released a huge amount of dangerous chemicals. The most worrying thing is lead. It is a brain damage chemical that has been historically used in paints and is still a battery fixture.
“Given these findings, it is important to understand this by the specific health risks posed by the detected chemicals, especially lead, which remains one of our biggest concerns.” “Lead is a powerful neurotoxin, and even at low levels, exposure can affect learning, development and behavior in young children. Lead exposure is not always clear. Symptoms do not appear immediately.
The county health department previously shared preliminary results from soil testing still present homes within and around Eton and Palisade’s burning range. 80% of soil samples collected downwind from the Eaton Fire had lead levels above state health standards for residential real estate.
However, department officials have refused to provide copies of soil test results, saying the data has not yet been finalized. The department also said it would not share these results with individual property owners. The Times submitted a request for public records for these data.
The Los Angeles County Health Department is the only government agency that performs post-cleaning soil sampling. Federal disaster agencies repeatedly refused. The Newsom administration has also not undertaken soil testing.
In April, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved $3 million to help homeowners test leads on the windward fire. The program is scheduled to begin on May 19th, and public health officials said 26,000 eligible assets will receive postcard invitations containing more information.
In that case, the homeowner will need to collect the soil sample itself and lower it for analysis.
If the result finds contamination, the homeowner will likely have to pay for additional soil removal or other methods of sealing the contaminated area. As the meeting continued, many residents in the comments section expressed concern about how to pay for such deletion.
“We don’t have the money,” wrote one commenter.
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