FEMA doubles down on its decision to not test soil as part of wildfire cleanup

In the face of mounting backlash from wildfire survivors and California elected officials, federal disaster agencies are defending their decision to forgo soil testing after cleanup crews remove debris from properties that burned in the Los Angeles County fires. Follow-up soil testing — conducted after every major wildfire in California since 2007 — is intended to ensure that properties are remediated to state standards and don’t still contain dangerous levels of toxic substances. Brandi Richard Thompson, a spokesperson for FEMA Region 9, which oversees disaster response in the southwestern U.S. and Pacific islands, said the agency’s cleanup strategy is “based on scientific best practices and FEMA’s longstanding policies.” She said any contamination deeper than 3 to 6 inches “is unlikely to be attributable to the fire itself and does not pose an immediate threat to public health and safety.” Crews clean up a property on Palm Street in Altadena. “While FEMA is committed to supporting communities in their recovery, decisions regarding additional soil testing and over-excavation are left to local and state authorities,” Richard Thompson said in a statement to The Times. What’s more, FEMA’s new stance ignores that during past wildfire responses, soil testing found a significant number of properties still contained unsafe levels of toxic chemicals even after 6 inches of topsoil was removed.