Malibu says no to proposed EPA cleanup site, as opposition to existing Topanga site grows

Malibu city leaders on Tuesday, Feb. 4, said that a site near City Hall eyed as a staging area for household hazardous debris from the Palisades fire will not be available for that use, turning down Environmental Protection Agency officials, who said the agency’s one site, in Topanga, is not enough to handle the debris.

The EPA had sought to establish the site as a second staging spot as federal authorities undergo a two-phase debris-removal process from the fire, which destroyed more than 6,000 homes.

In the first phase, staging areas are used to collect household hazardous materials, such as batteries, spray paint and motor oil, that were in burned homes.

As the proposal to use the “Bell lot” as a location was discussed at a special Malibu City Council meeting on Monday, council members pushed back against the idea, ultimately not voting on the site as it was not on the meeting’s agenda.

On Tuesday, Alexis Brown, deputy city manager of Malibu, stated that the site will not be available for the EPA to use as a secondary transfer site as the agency had been seeking to do. The lot will be available for the EPA to use as a muster site, to gather personnel.

“Right now, the decision to use the Bell lot is a no. If we need to pick that up at a later date, we will,” Brown said.

Instead, the city will support the EPA’s request to the state to use the Will Rogers State Beach parking lot, in the Pacific Palisades, working with other agencies to advance this plan.

An EPA spokesperson said that the agency will need more sites to stage household hazardous materials – the singular current location for Palisades fire materials in Topanga is not enough for the debris that needs to be collected from thousands of homes. What’s more, they’ve been mandated to remove the debris from homes within 30 days.

“We need over 20 acres of staging areas at both sites… we need significantly more staging areas,” Robert Fenton, a Federal Emergency Management (FEMA) Regional Administrator, said at the meeting. “The risk of it (hazardous waste) being in an open environment is far greater than any risk of using a staging area,” Fenton said.

He noted that many Malibu residents whose homes were affected have been eager to get waste removed from their properties, so they can move forward in the rebuilding process. They told the City Council that the materials collected at these sites are not so hazardous that they would affect areas outside the perimeter of established staging sites.

A petition opposing the location of the Topanga staging area, which was established last week for Palisades fire household hazardous material staging, grew to over 9,000 signatures by Tuesday, Feb. 4, afternoon.

The petition referenced Topanga residents’ concerns regarding the proximity to waterways, the importance of the land to Indigenous tribes and worries that the site could inhibit residents’ access to Pacific Coast Highway, one of two exit points to the canyon.

Last week, protesters showed up to the site, expressing their disapproval and speaking with EPA representatives who answered questions and provided information about the site’s operations and timelines.

On Wednesday, Feb. 5, a virtual town hall on the subject of debris removal from the Palisades fire will be held by the office of Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath at 6 p.m. The EPA will have a representative present at this meeting.

But, these meetings come after the Topanga Motel site has been established, prepared and staging has begun. The site is operating, separating household hazardous materials and shipping them out to the appropriate disposal sites.

Protesters on Friday referenced lack of communication about the site’s establishment as a source of frustrations, feeling upset that they were notified of the site’s location in their community after decisions had already been made. At Monday’s special City Council meeting in Malibu, Councilmember Steve Uhring expressed similar frustrations, noting that to his knowledge, the Topanga site was decided on Jan. 21, but he and other community members did not find out about it until Jan. 28.

EPA on-scene coordinator Tara Fitzgerald said that the EPA worked with many state agencies and communicated with the necessary parties to get approval to use that site.

“We need more space, we need space here (Topanga and Malibu), we need space down there (Palisades). Our Topanga Creek staging area just won’t be able to do the capacity at the speed which we’ve been asked by local government to work,” Fitzgerald said.

FEMA and the EPA are looking at various locations for further sites, including many in the Palisades, Fenton said.

The EPA highlights that the staging of materials is being done safely, describing the existing site as “highly controlled,” and noting that processing areas will be lined with plastic and there are various spill control measures in place. Additionally, the agency has highlighted that there has been no history of exposing communities to hazards during past work of this nature.

Environmental watchdog group Heal the Bay and the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains expressed their own concerns about the site.

Heal the Bay stated that the organization “strongly disagrees” with the site selection and is requesting additional water testing be done in Topanga Creek and Lagoon, on top of the testing that the EPA has conducted prior to the site’s establishment and will be conducting after the staging process is complete.

The Resource Conservation District’s statement acknowledged that the agency “would have preferred a different location,” and “urge(d) caution and thoughtfulness, so we do not irreparably damage some of our most precious spaces and resources.”

As the area prepared for rain starting Tuesday night, the EPA staging site in Topanga had been covered with a canopy and there will be increased visual inspections to check for standing water. If extremely heavy rains hit the area, materials will be secured and tied down and operations will stop, according to EPA spokesperson Anna Drabek. Hazardous materials need to be out of the rain and elements.

The upcoming rains will impact the area in other ways– the recently reopened PCH will close again on Feb. 4 at 3 p.m., from Chautauqua Boulevard to Carbon Beach Terrace. The last rains in the area, at the end of January, caused a small mudflow on Palisades Drive.