City leaders, residents protest plans to dispose of fire debris in Calabasas Landfill

Dozens of people gathered outside the Calabasas Landfill in Agoura Hills on Saturday morning to protest plans to dump up to 5,000 tons of debris per day as part of a massive cleanup operation following the devastating Los Angeles County wildfires last month.

“Let us be toxic free,” chanted the group, which included children and families. “No dumping!” they cried out.

The protest comes as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this week began the second phase of cleanup from the Eaton and Palisades fires, which destroyed more than 9,400 structures in Altadena, and more than 6,800 in Pacific Palisades.

The Calabasas Landfill is one of at least seven nonhazardous waste landfills in Southern California approved to accept waste — including chimneys, hazardous trees and fire debris and ash — from this latest cleanup phase.

Residents Sandra Lewis and her daughter Isabella, 5, left, and their neighbors Leah McMullen and her daughter Adelaide, 4, right, gather outside the Calabasas Landfill to protest against debris from the Palisades fire being disposed there.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

The Army Corps could start hauling debris to the landfill as early as Monday, according to the city of Calabasas. To accommodate debris removal, the county last week approved a waiver extending the landfill’s hours of operation and increasing the daily tonnage limit from 3,500 tons per day to 5,000.

The demonstration came a day after the Calabasas City Council sent a letter to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, expressing its “strong opposition” to any fire debris being transported to and disposed of at the landfill, which is near neighborhoods, schools, senior housing, parks, wildlife corridors and other sensitive locations. In the letter, the council implored county, state and federal officials to explore other disposal options, including redirecting waste to low-population areas outside the state.

“The City Council is compelled to echo public sentiment that the urgency of the recovery phase and efforts to remediate one disaster is laying the foundation for future public health and environmental catastrophes that will affect Calabasas residents,” city leaders wrote. The council has directed the Calabasas city attorney to seek injunctive relief at the state or federal level, they wrote.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began the first phase of the fire debris cleanup Jan. 28, removing hazardous materials such as paint, cleaners and solvents, oils, pesticides, lithium ion batteries and asbestos from the burned areas.

An Environmental Protection Agency crew member combs through the ruins of homes burned in the Palisades fire.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The agency is transporting hazardous materials to temporary staging areas: Lario Park in Irwindale and the Altadena Golf Course for debris from the Eaton fire, and the former Topanga Ranch Motel and Will Rogers State Beach for the Palisades fire. The debris will then be sorted, secured and packaged for transport to permitted disposal facilities.

Residents and leaders from L.A. County’s foothill communities have raised concerns about the health and environmental risks that could be posed by the Lario Park site, with leaders from the cities of Duarte, Azusa, Irwindale and Baldwin Park last month expressing their joint opposition to the use of the site.

The EPA said it would take steps to ensure safety at the Lario Park site, including air quality monitoring, the use of a water truck to suppress dust and emissions, and continued environmental testing of the site after it closes.

The fire ash and debris collected during the second phase of cleanup will be carted into lined trucks and driven to approved landfills — which, along with the Calabasas Landfill, include the Simi Valley Landfill, the Azusa Land Reclamation site, El Sobrante Landfill in Corona and Sunshine Canyon Landfill in Sylmar.

Dozens of demonstrators protest Saturday as a dump truck arrives at the Calabasas Landfill in Agoura Hills. They are opposed to debris from the recent wildfires being disposed of there because of environmental concerns.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

The cleanup will include thousands of contractors from the Army Corps and private firms working to dispose of as much as 4.5 million tons of fire debris.

The demonstration Saturday was organized by Protect Calabasas, which also plans to seek an injunction to halt dumping of fire debris at the landfill while the issue moves through the courts.

Law enforcement officers arrived about 30 minutes into the protest to prevent the group from blocking traffic near the landfill, according to participant Kelly Rapf Martino. The group later marched down Lost Hills Road, holding signs with hand-scrawled slogans like, “Listen to the mothers!! No toxic dumping in Calabasas!” and eventually arriving at a nearby Erewhon market.

“We are very concerned about the microscopic particles that are in the ash and debris being dumped into a landfill in a residential community,” said Martino, a mother of two and member of Protect Calabasas who lives in a neighborhood at the base of the landfill. She said she is especially concerned about harmful asbestos particles potentially ending up at the dump.

She pointed to comments made by Col. Brian Sawser from the Army Corps during the Calabasas City Council meeting Wednesday. He explained that before beginning the cleanup process, the Army Corps would walk the ground of every property, looking for any visible hazardous materials, and then chip test every house for asbestos. If any asbestos were found, he said, they would abate the entire site according to state and federal regulations and remove any asbestos-containing materials, which would then go a waste stream not headed for the Calabasas Landfill.

Demonstrators held up signs on a 101 Freeway overpass in Agoura Hills on Saturday expressing their opposition to debris from the Palisades fire being dumped at the Calabasas Landfill. They are concerned about toxic materials endangering their community and environment.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Still, he told the council, he could not be 100% certain that hazardous materials would not end up in the landfill, saying: “I taught probability and statistics at West Point so I’m going to be hard-pressed to be 100% certain in anything.”

Members of Protect Calabasas are calling on residents to protest outside of the landfill again Monday morning, when trucks hauling fire debris could start arriving.

“We are just a bunch of moms looking to protect our kids, our schools, our health, not wanting this to become some huge thing in 20 years when a bunch of kids are sick and we have to sue for damages,” Martino said. “We’re trying to stop that before that happens.”