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Treated like dirt
(Photo Illustration by Jim Cooke / Los Angeles Times; Photos via Christina House / Los Angeles Times; Getty Images)
L.A.'s January firestorms incinerated more than 16,000 structures across nearly 37,500 acres and unleashed tons of toxic material into the air, water and soil.
Many homeowners who lost everything in the Eaton and Palisades fires hoped that the federal debris-removal process would at least offer a fresh start for the land where their houses once stood.
That peace of mind may prove elusive.
Soil testing commissioned and led by The Times found lead levels up to three times higher than the state health standard on several properties cleaned by the Army Corps of Engineers.
It's the first evidence that the federal government's decision to skip comprehensive soil sampling — a step carried out after every major wildfire in California since 2007 — is leaving potentially dangerous levels of contamination behind.
The government refused to test soil. So we stepped in
As Times reporter Tony Briscoe revealed back in February, FEMA is abandoning a long-held practice of testing soil for lingering contaminants after debris and the first 6 inches of topsoil have been cleared away.
In the absence of data from the federal government, The Times launched its own soil-testing initiative modeled after the state's sampling methodology used in previous wildfires.
Journalists fanned out across Altadena and the Pacific Palisades to pull up columns of dirt from about 40 properties: 10 Army Corps-cleared lots and 10 still-standing homes in each burn zone. The samples were carefully collected, stored and transported to BSK Associates, a state-certified laboratory in Fresno, to be tested for 17 toxic metals.
The lab found that two of 10 Altadena properties cleared by federal crews still contained heavy metals exceeding California's health standards: lead on one lot, arsenic on the other.
News of lingering contamination came as a blow to residents
"All of these 50 years, going and raising my kids, grandkids and great grandbabies — this is their inheritance," said Altadena resident Lupe Sanchez. Tests found lead levels at 290 parts per million in the footprint of a destroyed outbuilding on her property; the state health standard is 80. Prolonged exposure to the metal can cause permanent cognitive disabilities in children and kidney damage in adults.
"I worked so hard," Sanchez said after learning of The Times' test results, "and now I got nothing. It's not fair."
A daunting choice: Pay for testing yourself, or live with the possibility of lingering contamination
FEMA insists that it has no responsibility to ensure destroyed properties meet California's health standards. The state isn't stepping in to provide that testing either.
This leaves tens of thousands of L.A. wildfire survivors with two options: pay for testing and potentially additional soil removal themselves, or live with the possibility of lingering contamination.
And millions of people who live in fire hazard zones in California and across the U.S. could one day find themselves in a very similar place.
"By not conducting soil testing, the federal government and state government have made the decision that leaving contaminated properties — and not informing the homeowners about how much contamination remains — is okay," said Andrew Whelton, a professor of civil, environmental and ecological engineering at Purdue University.
You can read the Times' full coverage of these findings and their implications for Californians here.
Today's top stories
(San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst N/San Francisco Chronicle via Gett)
Trump orders Alcatraz prison to reopen
- "I am directing the Bureau of Prisons, together with the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America's most ruthless and violent Offenders," Trump wrote on Truth Social yesterday.
- "Looks like it's distraction day again in Washington, D.C.," a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom said.
- John Martini, an Alcatraz historian, said the prison was closed in part because it was built with bad construction methods, was decaying and "would be such a money pit to bring it up to standards ... that it was easier to build a new penitentiary."
The Hollywood slowdown hits a new generation
Jeffries pilloried Trump in California
What will come of the history January's firestorms destroyed?
Apple's big streaming conundrum
Both L.A. teams have now been eliminated from the NBA playoffs
What else is going on
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- Guest contributor Steven W. Hackel spent 30 years helping Californians learn more about themselves and their history, largely through grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. President Trump has now gutted it.
- Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is on a quest to dismantle a multitude of programs that help keep Americans alive and disease free, columnist Robin Abcarian wrote.
This morning's must reads
"Doffer boys" in Lewis W. Hine's 1914 photograph replace bobbins in a Georgia textile mill (J. Paul Getty Museum)
Lewis W. Hine's photos helped child labor laws pass a century ago. We need him again. As states consider loosening laws that regulate child labor, Lewis W. Hine's early 20th century photographs, which helped child labor laws get passed, are worth our attention once again.
Other must reads
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For your downtime
(Patrick Hruby / Los Angeles Times)
Going out
Staying in
A question for you: What's the best career advice you've ever gotten?
Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.
And finally ... your photo of the day
Show us your favorite place in California! Send us photos you have taken of spots in California that are special — natural or human-made — and tell us why they're important to you.
(Sunny Mills)
While everyone's seen images of the devastation, no photographers have captured the sadness quite as well as Sunny Mills, a set decorator who lost her home in the fire.
Have a great day, from the Essential California team
Andrew Campa, Sunday reporter
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
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