SoCal’s first rainstorm of the year touched off worries of mudslides and debris flows in the burn scars of the Eaton, Palisades, and Hughes Fires. As of this morning, reports say enough mud is covering some roadways to trigger school closures in Malibu. But overall, damage has been minimal (so far), allowing firefighters to continue mopping up remaining embers and smoldering debris in the fire zones, which are now almost completely contained.
Now a new phase begins: cleaning up the roughly 18,000 structures that have been damaged or destroyed. The California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal EPA) is the lead state agency overseeing the cleanup, and is working with the U.S. EPA.
This initial phase, which will take weeks or months, involves removing household hazardous materials such as batteries, propane tanks, paints, paint thinners, pesticide products, and even home cleaning products. With extreme heat, these items can become extremely toxic and raise the risks of another fire sparking. That’s all according to Cal EPA Secretary Yana Garcia.
Then phase two is removing the rest of the debris, such as ash from destroyed material. Homeowners can do this themselves or have help from the government. The timeline for this stage is even tougher to determine than the first, Garcia points out.
As for air quality, it’s measured regionally. “What we are talking about when we're talking about the extremely fine particles is more localized. And some of the monitors that will be used throughout the debris removal process would be measuring those types of finer particulates.”
Air quality has been generally okay by most counts, but with respect to smoke, Garcia advises people to go to https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/smokereadyca.
Meanwhile, President Trump has threatened to withhold federal disaster aid to California. He wants a change in water policy. Could that impact the cleanup efforts?
“FEMA has put forward $100 million for U.S. EPA to conduct this first phase of debris removal. I cannot speak to unknown risks associated with phases from there. … Hopefully we will be in this position … in President Trump's first term, wherein California was able to move forward with disaster recovery from wildfires and receive full reimbursement from FEMA for those activities.”