Butte County, California - The California Environmental Protection Agency is busy this week, helping to clean up toxins left behind by fires in Ophir and Humboldt in Butte County, California. The CEPA is providing workers and covering all clean up costs.

According to Butte County director of general services Rich Hall, CEPA Department of Toxic Substances Control teams have been working in the areas which were burned in the fires which began on June 10, and have now almost completed the job.

The EPA work crews are removing toxins such as asbestos, paint, insecticides, and electronic waste, all of which were left behind when homes in the area burned.

Initially it was thought that the CEPA would have to remove and dispose of all potentially hazardous waste before homeowners could retrieve their possessions and ready their properties for rebuilding. And many homeowners were concerned that they may have to pay the costs themselves.

During a July 9 meeting of the Butte County Board of Supervisors these issues caused considerable consternation, particularly as several officials said that the state had made a point of saying the work needed to be done, but made no mention of helping to cover the costs.

After much frustration, the CEPA stepped up and offered a solution. For many that solution hasn’t come as quickly as they hoped, but now that the work has begun, it has moved ahead at a much more rapid pace.

With the CEPA’s help, the clean up is now free of charge for property owners, and they need only sign a participation form allowing workers on their property to clean up debris.

After all potentially hazardous material has been removed, trash bins will be moved into the area to allow workers to dispose of non-toxic debris. While this debris isn’t toxic, ash still presents a public health risk, and must be handled and disposed of carefully.

Oroville Supervisor Bill Connelly says the work is proceeding reasonably quickly, and says the CEPA’s offer to carry out the work and cover the costs is “the best you can do in a bad situation.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 5:14 pm and is filed under Asbestos Exposure, California. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.