The EPA has chosen a site in Altadena, near burned areas in Los Angeles, to process hazardous waste from the Eaton and Palisades fires. While experts say the site poses minimal long-term risks, residents voice concerns about short-term air and soil pollution, as well as a lack of transparency from officials.
The blazes that began on Jan. 7 charred thousands of buildings, cars and electronics across the Los Angeles area, creating potentially hundreds of tons of hazardous materials.Not far from where Ceci Carroll lives, a rock-mining company has polluted the air with dust across the San Gabriel Valley, she said.“I’m concerned about the community and also the school districts here, where we have children,” said Carroll, a Duarte resident of 23 years and former local school board member.
The mostly Latino communities adjacent to the site are exposed to higher levels of ozone and particulate matter pollution than other areas, according to data from the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. At a town hall Wednesday, California Sen. Susan Rubio and local mayors opposing the site grilled state and federal officials: How was the site chosen? Why weren't we consulted or notified? Why truck toxic waste 15 miles from the burn zone and risk contaminating our communities? What testing will be done after it's closed?
But the Eaton and Palisades fires are unprecedented. Together, they torched the largest urban area on record in California, according to an Associated Press analysis, and more than double the urban acreage consumed by the 2018 Woolsey Fire.The EPA said it would regularly monitor air, sample soil, use water trucks to control dust and transport waste out of the area daily.
“There’s several feet of soil that the pollutant has to pass through, and that also requires lots of water to leech from the system,” Mohanty said."And even if there is leeching, they would not migrate far into the soil in a short time."
HAZARDOUS WASTE WILDFIRE POLLUTION COMMUNITY HEALTH ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
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