With its sunny towers, bronze surfers and volleyball players, Will Rogers State Beach is one of the most recognizable parts of sand in the world thanks to the global cult classic “Baywatch”.
But now the iconic beach is surrounded by the ruins of burned homes and palm trees, its parking lot by sorting the soil for dangerous fire waste. Babe on the beach were replaced by crews of the Environmental Protection Agency in Hazmat suits, sifting through melted electric cars and other dangerous waste before being disposed of on landfills.
Palisades and Eaton fires created a stunning amount of debris, estimated at 4.5 million tons. In comparison, devastating Maui fires in 2023 created about 400,000 tons, according to the US military corpus of engineers.
These EPA fires took three months of cleaning, which is in charge of removing dangerous waste. But now the agency hopes that he will end his job in LA in a month – until February 25 – after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that demanded that EPA “accelerate the collective removal of polluted and general debris”.
The decision to classify themselves through dangerous waste along the coast has encouraged protests and as the cleaning of fire debris is moving with unprecedented speeds, many wonder if and when the ocean water will be safe to swim and surf.
“In this very vulnerable place, they sort these very dangerous, dangerous things,” said actor and ecological Bonnie Wright. “For me, it feels like 10 steps backwards, because you literally put this waste even closer to the beach than it is already in combustion sites.”
Ms. Wright, who starred in Ginny Weasly in the films about Harry Potter, wrote a book on sustainability and devotes most of her time to environmental causes. While their battle for measuring the sorting site from the coast was ultimately failed, she said that activists were successful in the EPA persuading to move the burned electric vehicles to Will Rogers down the road and far from the sensitive Topango Creek.
EPA has announced that batteries of burnt vehicles are a particularly dangerous challenge, but that the Agency has an expertise to deal with them. To sift waste, they need a large space with roads large enough to traffic trucks – which is why the Pacific coast highway, which passes along the beach, is more attractive than within the windy, mountain roads of Palisades.
When damaged lithium -obion batteries – especially high heat and fire flames – have the potential for the reign and exploding of the day, weeks or even months after they influenced, said Steve Calano, commander of the EPA incident for LA fires.
“We have to treat them as an unexploded regulation or, as the army calls it UXO,” he said.
Although some have questioned the speed at which Epa moved to clear the poisonous debris, he said he had no time to wear.
“We have to do that very quickly,” he said, noting that they started sorting waste even as the fires were still raging.
“If we are late, the risk of impact on the ocean is increasing again.”
Mr. Calano was also in charge of the EPA response to the Maui fires, who could have traces of how to measure what is safe and reasonable when it comes to testing of water and soil samples.
Many are concerned about the impact of heavy metals and chemicals in the air and water after the fire. It has been almost 18 months in Maui since the fires and a small part of the coast around Lahain are still closed to the public. Military Corps of Engineers – which removes heavy debris after EPA removed dangerous waste – just on February 20th just ended its last time from Lahain.
But most Maui remained open to the locals, and tourists, and the Hawaiian Ministry of Health announced eight months after the fire that the coastal waters around Lahain were safe for the Ocean recreation.
However, the extent of cleaning from the fire in Los Angeles is unprecedented and the largest in the history of the US.
The LA County closed the beaches along nine kilometers (14 km) weeks after the fire in January. Then the torrent of rain – as she helped to stifle any crowds – caused skaters in the burns and runoff of toxic ash and chemicals to the ocean, which prompted further closure.
Now most of the beaches are reopened, but in force remains advisory tips along the coast from Santa Monica to Malibu until further notification “Visitors to the beach can be recreated on the sand, but they are still advised to be kept away from visible fiery shards and to stay beyond it the ocean water during any published Ocean Counseling. “
Only the most loyal and local surfers could approach the beaches in the burns area anyway – no parking or stops about 9 miles along the Pacific Coast highway, which is clogged with trucks and workers cleaning debris.
Although some will risk most of everything to catch a good wave.
While touring the EPA sorting site, Annelisa said she saw two surfers in the water on a popular break for surfing on Topanga beach, while watching workers across the street in full PPE handling burned Burter Batter.
“Water looked like a brown foam chocolate milk on it,” Mrs. Moe recalled, who is associated with the director of science and politics, the water quality in Heal the Bay, an ecological non -profit organization dedicated to healthy coastal basins.
“It was one of those days, between storms, such as beautiful, sunny, time -type 75 degrees,” she said. “And so it felt a little weird to be there in the middle of destruction as we have this perfect day on the beach.”
Jenny Newman from the Regional Water Quality Control Committee in Los Angeles said on February 18 in the Public Health County District in Public Health County that the initial water quality tests that they spent on 22. to 27 January “returned better than we expected”. But the water committee warned that people should follow county tips to stay out of water near the combustion site.
Dozens of scientists and volunteers from the treatment of bay and countless private and public sector agencies also tested water and soil samples to see what levels forever chemicals and heavy metals present in the ocean, but toxic analysis may take 4-6 weeks and are available Very little data.
In the Surfider Foundation, volunteers test ocean water throughout the year. But their little laboratory is testing for fecal bacteria – not arsenic. It is now too dangerous to reveal volunteers in the combustion areas, so staff united with Heal the Bay and the University of South California to process their water samples.
“All members of our Ocean lovers are. We have the same questions,” said Eugenia Ermacora of the Surfider Foundation. “It’s a concern and everyone is wondering, when can we come back? When is it safe? And I wish I had an answer.”
Chad White, Surfer who grew up in Palisadam and protested against a place to sort Epa along the Pacific Ocean highway, said there is no way to surf now – it would be too painful to look at the shore and remind yourself of what it would be like lost. And there are too many metals and other debris on surfing.
“It took me a desire to surf to zero, not only because of the quality of water, but only for what was happening,” he said with coffee in Topanga Canyon. He drove his first wave in 1977 at the Will Rogers State Beach and taught his son to surf at the age of four and his wife at the age of 60.
“It’s the breaking of the earth to someone like me,” he said about the destruction of the coast. “That beach means something to me, and I’m one person. There are dozens, maybe hundreds or thousands of us who use the beach every day.”
Many friends of Mr White lost their homes and said people were traumatized to see what the landscape and shore around them look like now.
“Every movie you see, every movie that makes anyone from any other part of the world wants to come to California is based on their watch of that Pacific Ocean highway and those beautiful homes in Malibu, through the beach. All of them do not have,” he said. “It’s a toxic waste now.”
