The Altadena Golf Course will soon be the latest site to be used by the Environmental Protection Agency as a staging area for the collection household hazardous materials as part of phase one of a two-phase debris removal process.
EPA Pacific Southwest Incident Commander Tara Fitzgerald announced that the site was being built and will be operational this week during a media briefing provided by FEMA, the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers Monday, Feb. 10.
“Securing this third staging area in Altadena means that EPA will be able to move more hazardous materials from an uncontrolled environment into a controlled environment daily to allow residents to move through the recovery process as quickly as possible,” Fitzgerald said in a statement.
According to the EPA, the following mitigation measures are taken at all staging areas: pre-sampling of the area to establish current conditions; lining processing areas with plastic and installing protective measures such as wattles, booms, earthen berms and gravel; continuous air monitoring; spraying water three times daily to control dust from vehicle traffic; and packaging and removing waste from the site nearly daily, without ground contact.
The golf course joins Lario Staging Area and Farnsworth Park as staging areas being used for the Eaton fire response. For household materials being collected within the Palisades fire footprint, Topanga Creek and Will Rogers State Park are being used as staging areas by the EPA.
Phase two of debris removal, led by the Army Corps of Engineers, has begun and Col. Eric Swenson said staging areas for those materials are being sought.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.