Calabasas Residents And Officials Blockade Dump Used For 50 Years For Regional Trash – Say They Will Keep Malibu Fire Debris Out

Several news items this morning regarding the removal of both hazmat and the removal  of general debris. 

First … KBUU News has learned that the hazmat debris collection … priority one in the cleanup … will miss its deadline … maybe by a lot.

Too many burned structures are teetering near collapse … or are too close to cliffs or the ocean … for EPA crews to safely enter and retrieve the Phase One waste.

That would by things like burned batteries … paint … stuff that presents an immediate danger to human health. 

Over the weekend … the Army Corps Of Engineers told KBUU that it is in the process of hiring a company to specially handle properties that the EPA could not clean up in phase 1.

The army says it does not know how long this will take, but it seems certain that the army will miss the EPA end of the month deadline to remove the phase 1 waste.

And the army says it will continue to use the EPA’s two controversial hazmat sorting yards … one at Topanga Ranch Motel… The other at Will Rogers Beach.

These staging areas will be used to unpack wrapped hazmat from small trucks … the loads consolidated … and then large trucks will haul it away to hazmat dumps in the deserts of California and other states.

The army tells KBUU that all hazardous material will be segregated out from the general fire debris… Which will be tucked to local landfills.

That is a significant change from the earlier plan… Which was to have the EPA remove all the hazmat in phase 1.

Meanwhile… The phase 2 general fire debris removal is generating opposition over the hill.

70950 CALA CHANT

“Save Calabasas! Save Calabasas! Protect our children! Protect our children!”

That was Saturday.

Today … the entrance to the Lost Hills Dump in Calabasas was blockaded … preventing Malibu fire debris from being dropped.

People who live near the Calabasas dump don’t want Malibu or Palisades fire debris taken to the nearest landfill… the same place where Calabasas fire debris was buried after the Woolsey Fire five years ago. 

At the blockade this morning … Agoura Hills school district presicdent Dallas Lawrence.

70954 DUMP 1

“We had parents, members in the community, show up today to really push back against one of the most incomprehensible, illogical decisions I’ve ever seen from government.

“And that is to allow hundreds of thousands of tons of likely toxic and hazardous materials into a residential landfill.

“We have schools in the immediate vicinity. We have a park 100 yards away, kids play in it every day. 

“This makes no sense.

“Sso parents gathered together over here today pushing back.

“We closed this landfill today and will be here tomorrow, we will be here Wednesday to send a very clear message to our county leaders: that this makes no sense.”

County public works director Mark Pestrella in in charge of deciding where to dump the Palisades Fire debris.

He says it makes for a quick round trip to Malibu … important when thousands of truckloads of debris need to be disposed of.

Pestrella told the Acorn newspaper: 

70949 CALA PESTRELLA 

“Calabasas is designated to safely accept disaster-related waste, which is burned residential waste, after the hazardous material removal.

“So we are not, as a county-owned facility, accepting household hazardous materials as part of the debris removal.”

There are 17 dumps or garbage transfer stations in LA County have been identified for fire debris disposal. 

But none of them are in the San Fernando Valley or west LA.

Simi Valley is the next closest dump.

But that would add almost an hour round trip for the trucks hauling debris from Malibu and the Palisades. 

And Waste management … the company that operates the Calabasas dump … says it will reject any debris that contains hazardous material.

That doesn’t stop some Agoura Hills city councilmembers from worrying about odor and traffic.

Of course … the Calabasas dump has been operating for decades … long before most anyone moved to next door.

Today … Calabasas residents stood in front of the Calabasas dump and blocked trucks from entering. 

Calabasas Mayor Peter Hurt: 

70952 CALA MAYOR PETER HURT

“Palisades and the city of Malibu are certainly entitled to a speedy recovery, but we don’t want to take one environmental hazard from one location and move it to another location.”

Three Agencies Hold Key To Reopening PCH, None Will Say If The ‘Need’ It Closed

Yesterday afternoon at 4 … LA county engineers gave the green light to reopening Malibu Canyon Road to general traffic.

That came four days after the road was closed… due to the danger of major rockfalls during last weeks storms.

And indeed… some big rocks  did break off the cliffs and land in the two traffic lanes.

One chunk of rock was almost the size of a car.   It’s been removed.

But Pacific Coast Highway is still closed … with three agencies unsure of what they will do.

KBUU News has asked the Army Corps Of Engineers, the county Department of Public Works … and Caltrans … simple questions:

• Do they need PCH closed for their operations?
• What is the extent of their operations on the highway now?
• How long will that last?

Decisions about the road’s safety are being made by Caltrans and the LA County Department of Public Works and soon … the US Army Corps Of Engineers.

Caltrans and the county were still working on the road yesterday … removing mud.

Public Works still has dump trucks working to remove flood debris from storm control channels, and detention basins … particularly in the Sunset Mesa area.

Caltrans? We’re not sure what they are doing now … they still tell is they are evaluating landslides above the highway … threatening to fall on the road.

And the ocean is eating away at dirt … where wooden supports for houses burned away and may have exposed the road to coastal bluff collapse.

The Army Corps of Engineers supposedly will have dump trucks on the highway … and frontend loaders next to it … starting this week.

So put it all together … and ask … when will PCH reopen??? Maybe in the next few days. Unless … and it is a big if … unless major problems are found at the Tramonto Landslide down at Porto Marina.

Temporary repairs have been completed at one location … where heavy wooden timbers holding up a hillside burned.

This is at the Porto Marina traffic light … several miles east of the Tramonto restaurant in Malibu.

But the entire hillside in the Porto Marina area … several hundred feet east and west of the signal … show visible and recent movement.  The damaged cement and wooden retaining walls … vertical … are 100 years old.

You might recall that one house cracked in half and slid down towards PCH 10 days ago.

Caltrans has not yet released its assessment of that cliff yet … and there are also areas where the roadbed on a shelf above there ocean may be in jeopardy.