LA County health officer orders dust control for fire debris removal
California lawmakers request nearly $2B for LA city recovery from wildfires
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EPA completes hazardous waste work at Azusa staging area By Joe Taglieri
VOL. 9, 11,
LA County has cut homelessness, but wildfires impede progress By Angela Hart for KFF Health News. Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service reporting for the KFF Health News-Public News Service Collaboration
joet@beaconmedianews.com
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Lario Park is now clear of EPA hazardous waste processing. | Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
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he U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has finished processing hazardous waste collected from properties damaged in the Eaton Fire and brought to a staging area in Azusa, officials announced Saturday. All operations have ceased at the Lario Park staging area, and EPA workers have completely left the site, officials said. Sample tests from the area verified that the hazardous waste processing had no environmental impact. “The successful comple-
tion of EPA's work at the Lario staging area marks an important step in our hazardous materials removal mission throughout the Eaton fire zone," Tara Fitzgerald, EPA's incident commander, said in a statement. "We recognize community concerns about environmental impacts from our operations and confirm that as anticipated, our work at the staging area had no adverse environmental effects on the site or the surrounding communities." Some examples of household hazardous materials
extracted from the more than 10,000 properties damaged or destroyed by the Eaton Fire in January include lithium-ion batteries, electronic devices, electric vehicles and bikes, power tools and home energy systems. Information on the EPA's safety and mitigation measures at and around the staging area is available at epa.gov/california-wildfires/ fact-sheets. The EPA’s hazardous waste work was part of a
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response effort led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which assigned the EPA to assess, remove and dispose of hazardous materials from all burned areas. The EPA set up temporary locations where hazardous materials collected from the fire zones were consolidated and repackaged in a controlled environment to ensure safe transportation to final disposal facilities. The 29-day hazardous waste cleanup was the first
See Hazardous waste Page 39
s flames engulfed a nearby canyon, dozens of residents in a sober-living home fled to an unoccupied building about 30 miles south. The evacuees, many of whom were previously homeless, watched helplessly as their home burned on live TV. When they awoke on air mattresses the next morning, loss set in. Some feared uncertainty. Others were jolted back to lives they thought they’d left behind. “I had nothing but the clothes on my back. It just brought back all of those feelings of being homeless and a drug addict,” said one resident, Sean Brown. “Kind of like I was back at square one.” The large two-story Altadena house, known to staff and residents as Art House, was surrounded by fruit trees and rugged mountains. For many, it was a safe space that enabled them to achieve and maintain
sobriety, rebuild relationships, and hold down jobs. Brown, 35, was among nearly 50 people displaced in January after the massive Eaton Fire destroyed one property and damaged another operated by the nonprofit Los Angeles Centers for Alcohol and Drug Abuse. Supported by public dollars, the organization provides housing and behavioral health treatment to people struggling with addiction, many who had been living on the streets. Operators say both properties are uninhabitable and that they are searching for permanent housing for those displaced. “Our residents are still in temporary lodging. Right now we’re looking for something on an interim basis, but we still need to identify long-term housing for them,” said Juan Navarro, CEO of the nonprofit. “And we need even more beds. We’re seeing even bigger demand for treatment and
See Homelessness Page 40
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