The main federal contractor hired to clear toxic debris after January’s Eaton and Palisades wildfires may have spread hazardous contamination across hundreds of properties, according to newly obtained government oversight records related to cleanup efforts.
Environmental Chemical Corporation, the primary federal contractor overseeing debris removal for the fires, might have illegally dumped toxic ash and misused contaminated soil in violation of state policy, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing Federal Emergency Management Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers documents. The records reportedly found dozens of instances in which inspectors flagged crews for allegedly cutting corners, including dumping ash on neighboring parcels, reusing contaminated soil and leaving debris buried on sites cleared for reconstruction.
Environmental Chemical Corporation denied authorizing such practices.
“At a high level, ECC does not authorize the placement of wildfire debris or ash on neighboring properties, does not permit the use of contaminated material as fill, and operates under continuous [Army Corps] oversight,” Glenn Sweatt, the Burlingame-based company’s vice president of contracts and compliance, told the Times.
Overall, FEMA and the Army Corps allocated $60 million to hire personnel to monitor daily cleanup operations and document any health and safety risks observed in the Eaton and Palisades burn zones between February and May.
One report cited an April incident in the Pacific Palisades where inspectors said workers ordered by an Environmental Chemical Corporation official moved several buckets of fire debris onto an adjacent property after a cleanup truck had already departed. Other reports described crews using ash-contaminated soil to fill holes on fire-damaged properties, which would be a direct violation of state policy prohibiting contaminated material from being reused on site. Inspectors also cited workers for recontaminating cleared lots by walking through them with dirty boot covers, spraying polluted pool water onto neighboring properties and into storm drains and mixing clean and toxic soil with improper excavation equipment.
The Army Corps responded to nearly 1,100 public complaints related to the federal fire cleanup between February and September. More than 20 percent of those were related to quality of work, with some of them aligning with the same issues inspectors pointed out, according to the Army Corps.
U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman, who represents Los Angeles, wants authorities to investigate further.
“I’m going to press the Army Corps to look at where the testing indicates there [were] still contaminants and who is the contractor for that, to see whether there are certain contractors that had a high failure rate,” Sherman said. “I want to make sure they’re… evaluating these contractors vis-à-vis the next disaster.”
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