As deadline quickly approaches on debris removal opt-in/opt-out, rules change
With the March 31 deadline fast approaching for homeowners deciding whether to opt in or opt out of the County’s debris removal program through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), important changes were quietly made to the program that will have major impacts for fire victims. These changes only affect those burned out properties that elected to opt-out and were deferred by EPA in Phase 1.
Los Angeles County Department of Public Works officials announced earlier in March that EPA deferred properties could opt out of the USACE debris removal process and immediately commence Phase 1 hazardous household waste (HHW) removal with licensed private contractors authorized to remove such materials. In a major reversal, the county is now mandating that homeowners and their contractors who have opted out must wait for the USACE to remove HHW. This rule change comes after private contractors have already removed HHW from some EPA deferred properties and hascaught homeowners, contractors and even some county officials unaware.
As of this writing, county representatives could not give an estimate as to when Phase 1 debris removal would be complete. They said there appears to be a self-imposed March 31 deadline for property “assessments” by USACE but it was unclear whether those assessments would include HHW removal. Permits for ash debris removal cannot be obtained until USACE clears a property under Phase 1. Property owners who have opted out and signed contracts for private debris removal in hopes of getting debris removed quickly on their own timeline could now be at square one, waiting for the USACE to reach their property. Calls to the USACE debris removal hotline on Monday, March 24, went unanswered, the USACE later confirming that their phone lines were inoperable on this date.
A County Department of Public Works employee who refused to provide his name asserted that while prior guidance was provided, there were “never concrete rules,” and it was “a fluid procedure.” He described the unannounced change to the debris process as “unavoidable” and blamed the problem on area landfills. The unnamed employee stated that overwhelmed waste sites were unable to verify that debris being dumped at their landfills was truly free of hazardous waste, despite licensed contractors with the appropriate certifications so attesting. The DPW employee stated that truckloads of debris were being turned away by private waste management landfills. In an email, a separate unnamed county employee wrote, “Unfortunately, due to the concerns over potentially hazardous loads from fire debris, the landfills have expressed the loads need to be verified as hazard-free from the USACE or EPA. For certainty that the debris from your property will be accepted by these landfills, it is best to wait [sic] for the USACE is [sic] list the property as clear from household waste.”
The only local county-owned landfill, the Calabasas landfill, reportedly gets overloaded with debris and is forced to close by noon daily. County officials who instituted the new debris removal requirements argued that as a result their hands were tied — this after some homeowners opted out and signed expensive contracts with private debris removal contractors, contracts that can easily reach six figures.
The original debris removal permit process rolled out on the EPICLA website stated that debris removal permits could only be obtained after clearance from the EPA, an impossibility if one’s burned property was deferred by the EPA. Then the opt-out forms required the name and signature of a licensed contractor, forcing fire victims electing to opt out intosigning agreements with private contractors before the government-imposed deadline of March 31.
One local hazmat-certified contractor called the surprise change “a county Phase 1 fiasco”: Fire victims are forced by the government to make irrevocable decisions in the face of changing edicts issued by unnamed individuals without public comment, contractor input, or advance notice.