The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will allocate $3 million to assist homeowners near the Eton Burn Area Test for lead contamination after a preliminary test found in a home standing after the fire.
After preliminary test results from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, supervisors Kathryn Berger and Lindsey Horvas showed lead levels above state health standards in 80% of soil samples collected in Eton Byrne’s scar downwinds.
On Tuesday, the board voted 4-0 to direct $3 million from the county and tested residential properties within a mile of the leeward and Eton Barnscar boundary.
Lead is a heavy metal associated with damage to the brain and nervous system, as well as serious health problems, including digestive, reproductive and cardiovascular issues.
Roux Associates, a private testing company hired by the county, collected samples from 780 properties in both combustion zones over four weeks from mid-February to mid-March. We tested 14 toxic substances that are common after wildfires. Heavy metals such as arsenic and lead. Polyaromatic hydrocarbons such as anthracene and naptalene. and dioxin.
More than a third of the samples collected within Eatonburn scars exceeded California health standards for 80 milligrams of lead per kilogram of soil, Lou found. Almost half of the samples just outside the burn scar boundary had lead levels above state limits. And between 70% and 80% of the sample, the downwind of the fire boundary exceeded that limit.
In the Palisades Burn area, tests were barely contaminated beyond isolated “hot spots” of heavy metals and polyaromatic hydrocarbons, Adam Love, Vice President and Chief Scientist at Lou.
Nicole Quick, chief medical advisor to the LA County Public Health Department, said at the time that officials were seeking federal and state support, would further evaluate Palisade hotspots and work with the county in target lead testing in areas affected by Etonfire blown up.
As reported, the county is currently responsible for pollution testing as the federal government chose to break away from its almost two-year tradition of testing soil with destroyed property cleaned up by the US Army Corps of Engineers after the fire.
After previous wildfires, the Army Corps first rubbed six inches of topsoil from the cleared properties and then tested the ground. If these tests still reveal toxic substances on the facility, it will cut further.
After a catastrophic camp fire in Paradise in 2018, soil testing of 12,500 properties revealed that almost a third still contained dangerous levels of contaminants, even after the first six inches of topsoil was scraped by federal crews.
LA County ordered a test from Lou instead of that federal exam. So far, the county has only released results from standing homes that are not eligible for cleaning from the Army Corps of Engineers. Results for land parcels with damaged or destroyed structures are still pending.
FEMA’s decision to skip post-fire testing in LA has irritated many residents and officials and has called for some residents.
“Without proper soil testing, contaminants caused by fires can’t pose risks to residents, construction workers, and the environment and can take risks to the environment,” state director of the emergency services Nancy Ward wrote in a February letter to FEMA. “The failure to identify and repair these fire-related contaminants could expose individuals to residual material during reconstruction, potentially putting groundwater and surface water quality at risk.”
Times staff writers Tony Brisco and Hailey Smith contributed to this report.
