Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin told Pacific Palisades residents that the agency was “working around the clock” removing hazardous material from the burn area.
Thousands of homes were destroyed, and tens of thousands of people were displaced when, on January 7th, the Palisades Fire started in Palisades and spread to Malibu. Then, the Eaton Fire hit Pasadena and Altadena to the east later that day.
The EPA is responsible for “Phase 1” of the cleanup, which means removing hazardous materials, including the remnants of electric vehicle batteries, household cleaning supplies, and other toxins, according to Breitbart News.
The EPA had been expected to take 90 days to complete its survey and clean up the burn area. Still, the timeline was shortened to 30 days under the leadership of President Donald Trump and Administrator Zeldin so other stages of the process could move quickly. The next phase, “Phase 2,” involves the removal of debris from burned properties and is managed by the Army Corps of Engineers, Breitbart said.
Phase 2 was supposed to take 18 months. However, Major General Jason Kelly told Breitbart News, “I’m going to tell you right now: I plan to beat a year.”
“EPA’s role is to help… we will work around the clock,” Zeldin said, noting that there were already 1,200 EPA personnel on the ground and it would continue to hasten its work.
Zeldin said on Thursday from the Palisades area, where he joined other federal agencies that he was confident that the areas destroyed by fires would return better.
Last month, Trump said he would withhold federal aid unless Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom and other state officials change California’s approach to water management and other policy changes.
When asked by Newsmax Thursday, in the aftermath of Newsom’s visit to the White House and meeting with Trump, if the president was still planning to tie federal aid to reforms, Zeldin said that he would “have to defer to the president on how he's going to lead us through that strategy,” but added that he was sure that Trump would do an “exceptional job with it.”
“I will tell you this: Yesterday, President Trump called me while he was in the Oval Office with Gov. Newsom. And I could tell on the other side of that phone that they were trying to figure out how to work through as much as they could, state and federal government, to tackle these issues. President Trump has been outspoken on what needs to get done. He means business. He's done this once, and he wants to get every aspect of this next term, getting it right this time around. So I'm confident that not just this process will come out the other side looking good, but hopefully, this community is going to be able to rebuild, and they don't have to worry about there not being the right mitigation measures from...the forest management to water. This should never happen again. We need to be smart to make sure that doesn't happen,” Zeldin said.
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