The Army Corps of Engineers has now been tasked with cleaning some nonresidential properties such as the Palisades Presbyterian Church.Photo: RICH SCHMITT[/caption] As of June 2, 3,373 Pacific Palisades residences have been cleared by the Corps, leaving 922 properties. After the Palisades Fire on January 7, 8 and 9, with nearly 7,000 properties destroyed, the Army Corp of Engineers was brought in to help with removing the burn debris. Residents had the option of signing up with ACE, who would clear the ash footprint, or could opt out and hire a private contractor to do removal. To opt in to have ACE clear a property, a resident needed to grant L.A. County the Right of Entry, who then gave ROE to the Corps. About 4,295 residents opted to have ACE perform removal. The remainder of Palisadians hired a private contractor to do that job. The first houses were cleared on February 15 on DePauw, Swarthmore and Via de la Paz. At the time, Colonel Brian Sawser, who was in charge of the Palisades, estimated it would take six months. At the beginning of the debris removal, a recycling site was set up on Temescal Canyon Road, and trucks saved hauling time by taking concrete, vegetation and metal to the four-lane road. Once the debris was separated, and recycled, it was hauled from the site and possibly reused. Environmental testing was set up to record air quality. At one point there were so many contractors removing burned homes and belongings, a second recycling site was set up in the lower Will Rogers State Park dirt parking lot. But, with about 21 percent of the individual residences left, two sites will no longer be needed for recycling. Temescal will once again become a thoroughfare, but recycling will continue in Will Rogers. Temescal Canyon Road, which had a water leak that was reported December 12, was never fixed and developed a sinkhole. In early March, when this editor rode with Sawser in the Canyon to observe recycling, he said ACE would leave the property better than they found it, but that the water leak was the City’s responsibility. “We are working with our contractors to return the road to the condition in which it was received,” Sawser said. ACE Public spokesperson Melanie Peterson said, “You would have to check with the Department of Public Works on the status of the water leak. We are working in coordination with our contractor and the city to turn over the road by the end of the summer, if not sooner. CTN reached out to Councilmember Traci Park’s office for an update on fixing the leak. Peterson also clarified that ACE has not received a right of entry to clear Palisades Bowl Mobile Home Park, but has cleared Malibu Village and Tahitian Terrace. The Corps has also been approved to clear the large gym, the tennis center building and the maintenance building at the Palisades Recreation Center: that timeline is being worked on for a date. Additionally, Peterson said: “We have been tasked by FEMA to clear debris from a number of special inclusion properties that are non-residential. These include private non-profit and municipal properties such as the YMCA, St. Matthews and the Presbyterian church.” [caption id="attachment_34417" align="aligncenter" width="640"]
Temescal Canyon Road was filled with water starting in mid-December. The leak still needs to be fixed by the City.[/caption]
As a point of clarification, the Army Corps did not conduct the debris removal of the Pali Pres church site; it was the generous assistance of CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort – Sean Penn and Ann Lee’s wonderful nonprofit which assists with disaster response around the world) that financed the fire debris cleanup of the Pali Pres campus. The company that did the actual work was American Plus, Inc.
In response to the fire emergency, hundreds of tons of trees and vegetative debris had been deposited on the parking lot at Pali Pres. Since no public agency was designated to clear the parking lot, the Army Corps of Engineers is now slated to do so. We are grateful for all the support we have received.
I have a question regarding debris removal by the Army Corps of Engineers. I have a signoff that debris removal has been completed, but when I visited my property (at 576 Radcliffe) a couple of weeks ago there was a tangle of rebar in one corner and some other debris (piping that carried wiring from the telephone pole in the alley, and the like). It seemed to me that this was debris that should have been removed by ACE. Am I wrong?
Mary,
The Corp just removes the debris in the ash footprint of the home. It sounds like this was outside of the ash footprint. Check with the Army Corp — they have someone who sits at the American legion and just answers question.
Sue