The Los Angeles County Supervisors Board will assign $ 3 million to help housemates near the Eaton Burn area for lead pollution, after preliminary tests found High levels of heavy metal In houses standing after fire.
Kathryn Barger and Lindsey Horvath supervisors Propose the motion After the results of the preliminary tests Launched last week By the Department of Public Health of Los Angeles County, it showed levels higher than state health standards in up to 80% of the soil samples collected in favor of the Wind of the Eaton burning scar.
On Tuesday, the Board voted from 4 to 0 to direct $ 3 million from the county Agreement of $ 134 million 2018 with lead paint manufacturers Test residential properties in favor of the wind and within one of the scar limits of Eaton Burn.
Lead is a heavy metal linked to serious health problems that include damage to the brain and the nervous system, as well as digestive, reproductive and cardiovascular problems, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Roux Associates, a private test company hired by the County, collected samples of 780 properties in both burns areas for four weeks from mid -February to mid -March. He tested for 14 toxic substances that are commonly found after forest fires: heavy metals such as arsenic and lead; polyriarome hydrocarbons such as anthracene and neptalene; and dioxins.
Roux discovered that more than a third of the samples collected within the burning scar of Eaton Burn or 80 milligrams of lead per kilogram of soil. Almost half of the samples just outside the burning scar limit had lead levels above the status limit. And in favor of the fire of the fire limit, to the southwest, between 70% and 80% of the samples exceeded that limit.
In the Palisades burns area, the tests found little pollution beyond some “hot points” isolated from heavy metals and polyararomatic hydrocarbons, the main vice president and scientist of Roux, Adam Love, Said last week.
Nichole Quick, Chief Medical Advisor of the Department of Public Health of Los Angeles County, said at that time that officials would request federal and state assistance to further evaluate the hot points of Palisades and work in the county with a main target fire.
The county is now ascending the responsibility of the contaminant evidence because The times He has reported, the federal government has chosen to break a tradition of almost two decades to test the ground in destroyed properties cleaned by the US Army Engineers. UU. After fires.
After previous forest fires, the body of the army would first scrape 6 inches of plant land of the clear properties and then test the ground below. If these tests reveal toxic substances even on the property, it would scrape even more.
After the devastating fire of the camp in paradise in 2018, the ground tests of 12,500 properties revealed that almost a third still contained dangerous levels of pollutants even after the first 6 inches of the upper candle were discarded by federal crews.
The County of the ordered Roux’s evidence instead of that federal evidence. Until now, the County has announced results only of standing houses, which are not eligible for the cleaning of the Army Engineers Corps; The results of land plots with damaged or destroyed structures are still pending.
Fema’s decision to omit the evidence after Los Angeles storms has frustrated many residents and officials, and some asked The federal agency to reconsider.
“Without adequate soil tests, pollutants caused by the fire can remain without being detected, which raises risks to return to residents, construction workers and the environment,” wrote the director of state emergency services, Nancy Ward, to FEMA. “Not identifying and remedying these fire -related contaminants can expose people to residual substances of the reconstruction of the duration and enhanced groundwater and the quality of superficial water.”
Tony Briscoe and Hayley Smith personnel writers contributed to this report.
