The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 5 to 0 Tuesday to allow Calabasas Landfill to accept potentially toxic wildfire debris outside its typical service area and increase the tonnage limits at two other Southern California landfills to accommodate the fire-related waste.
Calabasas Landfill, a county-owned landfill in the unincorporated community of Agoura, is authorized to receive waste only from within a roughly 350-square-mile area, which includes about 70% of the fire-damaged area affected by the Palisades fire. The board unanimously voted to waive that restriction for six months, permitting Calabasas Landfill to receive ash and debris from the entire Palisades fire burn scar — and potentially from the Eaton fire and others.
County supervisors also approved an increase in the daily amount of wildfire debris that can be disposed of at the Sunshine Canyon and Lancaster landfills. Sunshine Canyon Landfill in Sylmar can accept an additional 2,900 tons of solid waste per day and Lancaster Landfill can receive an additional 4,000 tons per day — provided that the additional waste consists only of wildfire debris.
County officials insisted the changes were necessary to swiftly remove potentially toxic-laden debris from properties destroyed in the Eaton and Palisades fires, emphasizing the contaminants pose an immediate threat to public health and the environment in Pacific Palisades and Altadena.
“Some people, they just want nothing,” said Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, whose district includes the Calabasas and Sunshine Canyon landfills. “They don’t want anything to go to any of these landfills. And I can understand that frustration because they’re concerned about what this material is.
“And I also understand that we have to move this debris to a place … for it to be safe in the community. And we have to make sure the best practices that we have in place aren’t just lip service,” she said.
Ahead of the vote, droves of Southern California residents submitted written comments and spoke out against the wildfire debris disposal strategy, urging the county supervisors to deny the waivers that would send more contaminated materials to local landfills. Residents who live near local landfills say the wildfire debris should be sent to hazardous waste landfills instead. They fear that toxic ash could drift into nearby communities during strong winds or leach into the groundwater table.
“We are scared,” one Agoura Hills resident said during the public comment period. “Our property is threatened, our families are threatened, our health is threatened — and we’re at your mercy. So I just implore you all to do the right thing. We know what the stakes are and you can’t unring this bell. This will cause irreparable harm to our neighborhood.”
The vote also followed heated protests in communities near landfills, including a couple in which residents stood in traffic and blocked trucks entering Calabasas Landfill.
More recently, dozens of protesters assembled at a busy intersection in Granada Hills, a Los Angeles neighborhood near Sunshine Canyon Landfill. Protesters, including Granada Hills resident Kasia Sparks, waved handmade signs objecting to the debris disposal plan and shouted in unison, “No Toxic Dump!”
“The problem is, these types of health-related issues aren’t instant,” said Sparks as cars honked in support nearby. “We’re talking decades in the making. But we don’t want to get sick and then have somebody 20 years later say, ‘Oh, we probably shouldn’t have done that.’ We want to stop the problem now. We don’t want fire debris in this landfill. We don’t want it. It doesn’t belong in it. So we shouldn’t be putting it in it.”
Public health officials say the wildfire ash likely contains a myriad of toxic substances from burned-down buildings, including brain-damaging lead and cancer-causing arsenic. In the past, testing found wildfire ash contained enough chemicals to be considered hazardous waste under California disposal standards, according to the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.
Ordinarily, waste with high levels of dangerous chemicals is typically taken to hazardous waste facilities. However, following natural disasters, emergency waivers and disaster exemptions can allow for potentially contaminated debris — including wildfire ash — to be treated as nonhazardous waste and taken to landfills that typically only handle trash and construction debris.
In the aftermath of the Eaton and Palisades wildfires, before any testing could be performed on the ash, federal cleanup crews began hauling this waste to local landfills, which weren’t designed to accept high levels of toxic chemicals.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing the debris removal and disposal, says its contractors are using water to prevent any windblown dust as they remove and haul wreckage from burned-down properties. County officials also tried to assuage concerns, saying there would be minimal risk of exposure if safety protocols are followed.
“The state has already determined [these landfills] can handle fire debris,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. “There’s much less chance of people coming in contact with it ingesting, inhaling it or touching it. We do rely on the proprietors, the managers at the landfills to continue to take the precautions that they’re required to take by law so that … they’re minimizing exposure.”
The Board of Supervisors also held a closed-door meeting to discuss litigation over fire debris from being taken to Calabasas.
The Calabasas City Council unanimously voted to direct its city attorney to seek a temporary restraining order in Los Angeles County Superior Court to block L.A. County from accepting wildfire debris at Calabasas Landfill. The city’s filing cited 2,500 homes and three schools within a mile of the landfill’s boundary.
“The County and Sanitation District have a legal obligation to ensure that only non-hazardous wastes are disposed of at the landfill,” Mayor Peter Kraut wrote in a letter to residents last Friday. “This is necessary to prevent irreparable harm to the nearby residences, schools and community.”
Separately, Calabasas residents raised money to hire private attorneys to file a similar suit in L.A. County Superior Court against the county. In that case, attorneys emphasized that, without testing, there’s no way to ensure the safety of nearby residents.
This story originally appeared on LA Times
