Sawser, Yolanda Bundy and Richard Gibbs take the stage at the Composer’s Breakfast Club
Col. Brian Sawser is the very model of a modern Army colonel. He exudes competence and get ‘er done in a time and place when that is desperately needed. On Monday, March 17, the member of the Army Corps of Engineers sat on the edge of the Aviator Nation stage with Yolanda Bundy from the City of Malibu and your host Richard Gibbs for a special edition of the Composer’s Breakfast Club.
The topic of the day was debris removal: Past, present and future. Now that the wheels are in motion and speeding up every day, Colonel Sawser spoke confidently about the progress made so far, and how that was going to accelerate: “When we said originally, ‘Hey, this is going to take until January. I really believe when you get to July, the whole world looks different.”
Colonel Sawser was on the stage for 40 minutes. Here are some of the numbers pulled from his talk — and added to by Erin Jimenez, the PIO for USACE. In all of this, “Palisades” refers to Palisades and Malibu. We are in the process of putting the entire 40-minute presentation online. Malibu needs to see and hear all this, and be reassured.
4: Months it will take to clear 3,800 opted-in properties at 1,000 per month.
15%: Percentage of lots that have not opted in and are using private companies.
20: Crews working as of two weeks ago.
30 to 35: Ideal average of properties cleared a day
March 31: The deadline for opt in/opt outs.
May 31: When PCH will open to everyone. Sawser: “So right now working with the authorities, Caltrans, and then the three different law enforcement agencies that are on the highway in the county, just looking at all the work that has to do with utilities. What I’ve been hearing is that they’re still looking at keeping a residents only closure through the end of May. It’s advantageous for us and that’s the sprint that we’re on to try to get all the coastal seafront properties complete before then as well, because we’re sharing the road with utilities and sedimentation removal.”
40: Crews working a week ago.
62: Total USACE personnel assigned to Palisades fire. A total of 62 Quality Assurance and QA supervisors on-site in the Palisades. This number does not include other positions.
87: Crews working as of March 17.
Palisades: Six crews performing Hazardous Site Assessments (HSAs), one crew performing Household Hazardous Materials (HHM) removal, 80 crews performing debris removal.
100: Crews working as soon as possible.
133: Of the 311 beach front properties that have neither opted in or opted out.
311: Beachfront properties lost.
357 : Total USACE personnel assigned to the Southern California Wildfires Mission: Palisades and Eaton as of March 18.
391: Properties cleared in the Palisades as of March 17.
500: Trucks removing debris as of two weeks ago.
938: Properties that have opted out in the Palisades and are using private companies as of March 18.
1,000: Properties cleared a month is the goal.
1,200: Truckload of debris a day is their goal.
This is the average tonnage of the different materials trucks as of March 15.
13.8 tons: Ash.
12.96 tons: Construction and demolition.
11.63 tons: Concrete.
16.61 tons: Hazardous household materials.
11.08 tons: Household hazardous waste.
2.04 tons: Metal.
8.24 tons: Vegetation.
2,000: Sawser: “So there’s a 2,000 Delta there right now of folks that are undecided or haven’t submitted. Now that’s the real danger. I don’t know what’s happening with those 2,000. If you opt out, I know what you’re doing. You opt in I know we’re going to take care of you. If you don’t do either. I don’t know what’s going on with those 2,000 and we have two weeks left. The deadline for submitting ROEs is March 31.
2,162: Properties that have opted in and filed Rights of Entry to be cleared by USACE as of March 17.
6,000: Tons of concrete being crushed and recycled every day.
6,500: Damaged parcels.
70,000: Tons is the weight of an aircraft carrier, and the estimated weight of debris removed as of March 17.