Hundreds of San Gabriel Valley residents confronted state and federal officials during a heated community meeting Wednesday, asking how a local recreation area had become a processing site for hazardous waste from the Eaton fire without community input.
The Environmental Protection Agency is trucking hazardous waste 15 miles from the Altadena burn zone to Lario Park in Irwindale for sorting and storage. Officially known as the Lario Staging Area, the rocky area is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and was leased until earlier this month to the Los Angeles County parks department.
The site is now home to a nondescript tent where workers in protective gear are sorting potentially hazardous household items — which can include paint, bleach, asbestos and lithium iron batteries — that cannot be sent to landfills.
State Sen. Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park) and several local mayors said they learned about the EPA’s use of the Irwindale site from news reports.
Residents of Duarte, Azusa and other nearby cities said they were furious that they had not been notified that waste was arriving by truck at a site near a popular recreation area, which includes the San Gabriel River trail. Some said they were afraid that toxic chemicals or other fire debris would leach into the air, soil or water.
Officials from the EPA and the California agencies that handle environmental protection and toxic substances control assured residents they were taking safety precautions, but were repeatedly interrupted by audience members who yelled: “We don’t want it!” and “Find another place!”
“Once you have a community that’s that upset, it’s really hard to walk it back,” Rubio said.
At one point, a woman rose from her seat and asked whether officials would be comfortable sending their children to school near such a site.
Yes, said Katie Butler, the head of the state’s Department of Toxic Substances Control: “Hazardous waste sounds really scary because sometimes it is, and that’s why experts have to handle it properly.”
The EPA is working under a 30-day deadline to remove all hazardous waste from the Eaton and Palisades fires burn areas so that the Army Corps can safely clear the rubble, said Tara Fitzgerald, the agency’s incident commander.
Fitzgerald had told frustrated Pacific Palisades residents last week that the process could take “months.”
The EPA was told, “by order of the White House,” to expedite the removal work to 30 days, said Celeste McCoy, an on-scene coordinator for the EPA, in testimony to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors this week. McCoy said it’s likely that the cleanup process will take less than six months, but that that was an estimate.
“Again, this is kind of unknowable,” she said. “The scale of this is bigger than we’ve dealt with before.”
Rubio and several local mayors, including Duarte Mayor Cesar Garcia, repeatedly pressed Fitzgerald about whether the 30-day deadline could be extended — or at least whether the EPA could move the disposal of lithium ion batteries to another site.
“I don’t know that we can reassess the deadline,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald said the EPA chose the Irwindale site because it was big and flat enough to suit their needs, and because it was available. Other potential sites closer to the burn zone, including the Rose Bowl and Santa Anita Park, are being used for fire crews and relief efforts.
Household waste from the Palisades fire will be trucked to the site of the former Topanga Ranch Motel in Malibu. Fitzgerald said the EPA is looking at additional processing sites for both fires, including the Altadena Golf Course and the Irwindale Speedway.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said Tuesday that President Trump, who met with her and other local officials during his brief visit to Los Angeles last week, “said 30 days.”
“The EPA’s gotta begin, like, yesterday,” Barger said.
Contractors for the EPA remove hazardous materials at a home in Altadena on Wednesday, Jan. 29.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
The cleanup process begins in the burn zone, where EPA contractors in respirators, white suits and hardhats sift through the rubble of homes and businesses. Hazardous items are placed into buckets and other containers, and are then trucked to the Irwindale site.
The waste won’t stay at the Lario site permanently, but where it will eventually end up is not clear.
Fitzgerald said the EPA has installed liners at the site to prevent toxic materials from leaching into the soil. She said the agency performed soil testing before beginning, and will test the soil again before leaving.
After the 2023 Maui wildfires, the EPA trucked waste to a shooting range on the island about 10 miles from the burn zone. About 2,200 buildings were destroyed in that fire, and the EPA’s cleanup took four months.
Jennifer Roman of Duarte attended the meeting with her sister-in-law and did not leave reassured. She said she was worried that the waste was being trucked through more than a half-dozen cities to reach the site, and wasn’t clear on how residents or workers would be protected.
Lario Staging Area has walking trails along the tree-lined San Gabriel River and sits near the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area.
Roman said she was worried that if toxins leached into the air, soil or water, they could harm children, cancer patients at the nearby City of Hope hospital, or nuns who live at a nearby retirement home.
“I don’t know why we should trust them,” Roman said of the government agencies. “Don’t they always lie?”
Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.
