Residents of the Pacific Palisades are increasingly concerned that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) continues to refuse to test soil for contaminants after the removal of debris following the Palisades Fire.
As Breitbart News reported last week, residents were alarmed when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said that it would not test the soil after removing up to six inches of topsoil, leaving testing to state and local authorities, or private homeowners.
The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that FEMA is continuing to refuse to do testing:
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have said that federal cleanup workers will remove toxic wildfire ash and rubble, along with a 6-inch layer of topsoil from properties. But, this week, federal officials told The Times they won’t order soil testing to confirm that properties aren’t still contaminated after the removal.
Follow-up soil testing — conducted after every major wildfire in California since 2007 — is intended to ensure that properties are remediated to state standards and don’t still contain dangerous levels of toxic substances.
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Brandi Richard Thompson, a spokesperson for FEMA Region 9, which oversees disaster response in the southwestern U.S. and Pacific islands, said the agency’s cleanup strategy is “based on scientific best practices and FEMA’s longstanding policies.” She said any contamination deeper than 3 to 6 inches “is unlikely to be attributable to the fire itself and does not pose an immediate threat to public health and safety.”
President Donald Trump has criticized FEMA in recent weeks for its recent record of responding to natural disasters. The agency has an acting director, Cameron Hamilton, but does not currently have a confirmed administrator.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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