Local News
As wildfire cleanup crews surge to nearly 1,200 workers, concerns about safety grow
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s army of wildfire cleanup crews has grown to nearly 1,200 workers as it races to meet a 30-day deadline set by the White House, but the rushed nature of the endeavor and the histories of the companies involved have sparked concerns.
The operation underway in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades is now the largest hazardous waste removal effort in the EPA’s history, officials said.
“We’re not going to wait days or weeks or months to ramp up,” said Lee Zeldin, the EPA’s newly installed administrator, in a statement. “We have over a thousand personnel on the ground to aid Californians, and our local, state, and federal partners, in Los Angeles’s recovery.”
The team has completed the first phase of cleanup at 1,153, or about 8%, of the 13,575 residential parcels affected by the Eaton and Palisades fires, as of Thursday, Feb. 6, according to the EPA. The second phase, which the Army Corp of Engineers will carry out, cannot begin on a property until the EPA has completed its work at that location. About 7,000 households have opted into that program so far and it is expected to begin next week, according to the county.
Processing sites criticized
The EPA’s faster ramp-up hasn’t gone smoothly and the Feb. 25 deadline is fast approaching. Residents and local officials in the San Gabriel Valley, Malibu and the Pacific Palisades have criticized the EPA’s opaque selection of the state and federal lands being used to process the hazardous materials before it is transferred to final disposal facilities, both within and outside of California. Officials have promised there will be no long-term effects from the use of the sites and will conduct soil sampling before and after to ensure areas are restored to their original state.
On the coast, residents protested the use of land in Topanga State Park, before officials announced a decision to open a second site in a parking lot at Will Rogers State Beach, but that also drew the ire of locals.
Farther inland, the selection of Lario Park, a federally owned property in Irwindale, for materials from the Eaton fire brought similar rebuke. The site is adjacent to the San Gabriel River and requires trucks to haul debris more than 15 miles through six cities. Officials have questioned why a site closer to Altadena wasn’t chosen.
Harry Allen, the EPA’s on-scene coordinator, told the Azusa City Council that additional staging areas are being sought closer to the burn area now that emergency personnel no longer need those locations.
The EPA has stressed it is taking precautions at all of the sites by sealing materials inside containers and bags and by using water to keep dust down. Protective flooring and waterproof barriers will be used to contain the waste.
Concerns about contractors
The deluge of contractors that have descended into those areas to bolster the EPA’s ranks has drawn additional concerns. One resident at the Azusa City Council meeting this week reported that some trucks transporting hazardous materials did not appear to have proper covers.
Additionally, at least one subcontractor has been fined repeatedly by the EPA and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control in recent years for violations relating to the handling of hazardous materials, according to public records.
Azusa Mayor Robert Gonzales visited Lario Park as part of a delegation of local officials last week and saw license plates from Oregon, Colorado and Washington. There, he learned how the process will unfold firsthand, though he still feels as though local communities are being kept in the dark.
“We’ve been in the dark since step one,” he said. “We don’t know who their contractors are, we know nothing. It is frustrating.”
The cities haven’t been included in any of the decision-making, he said.
“They’re expediting as quickly as possible,” Gonzales said. “My concern is, are you expediting it so quickly that human error could become a factor?”
The EPA hired two contractors, Environmental Quality Management and Weston Solutions, for $50 million and $26 million, respectively, to assist with the disaster cleanup, according to a federal spending database. Both companies have long histories with the EPA, including work on Hurricane Katrina, the space shuttle Columbia disaster and, more recently, the wildfires in Lahaina in Hawaii.
History of violations
Those companies then subcontracted the work out to meet the EPA’s huge demand. During a Jan. 29 townhall in Duarte, a resident accused one subcontractor, Clean Harbors, of having a history of environmental violations.
In November, the DTSC finalized a $125,000 penalty against Clean Harbors for more than two years worth of violations relating to the improper storage of hazardous waste at a facility in Wilmington, near Long Beach.
During inspections from 2018 to 2020, the DTSC found Clean Harbors had exceeded the waste storage capacity for certain areas of the facility, stored waste in unpermitted areas and containers, and failed to upkeep protective layers on the floor meant to stop spills and leaks from seeping into the concrete.
Records show the DTSC also fined Clean Harbors $52,000 for a facility in San Jose and $16,800 for another in the unincorporated community of Buttonwillow near Bakersfield in 2023.
Clean Harbors also has had its share of run-ins with federal regulators.
In 2021, the EPA reached a $25,000 settlement with the company for hazardous waste violations at a San Jose facility. The federal agency then hit Clean Harbors with another $270,412 penalty three years later for a Nebraska facility.
A Clean Harbors spokesperson and an attorney representing the company did not return requests for comment.
Another subcontractor, Patriot Environmental, was fined $10,640 by the DTSC for holding hazardous waste at a transfer facility for 141 days beyond the 10 days permissible under the law, according to a consent order.
Julia Giarmoleo, a spokesperson for the EPA, confirmed that both Clean Harbors and Patriot are subcontractors on the cleanup. However, neither is responsible for managing hazardous waste. The companies, like others involved, are providing manpower, she said.
If a company was fined in the past, Giarmoleo said, the EPA is “operating under the expectation that those violations were corrected.”
The amassed force is made up of about one EPA employee for every four contract workers, she said.
All contractors certified
All contractors and subcontractors are “certified to handle hazardous materials and hold other professional certifications specific to their job functions,” according to the EPA. Each attends a health and safety orientation and receives an overview of the standard operating procedure of the specific incident as well.
Anyone working on the clean-up effort is expected to follow federal standards and regulations. Ultimately, the EPA is the agency responsible for the hazardous materials removal and for ensuring all workers are operating to those standards, Giarmoleo said.
Zeldin, the new EPA administrator, was on the ground in Altadena on Thursday to talk to residents and officials and check on the progress on the cleanup efforts.
‘Lot of uncertainty’
Sam Kang, a Duarte councilmember, expressed his support for the recovery and said he understands the need for urgency, but he worries the rush will lead to mistakes that will impact the communities between Altadena and Lario Park as well as downstream if the river is impacted, he said.
Kang questioned whether sufficient training is possible in such a short time frame. He added that he is “baffled” by the EPA’s decision to work with a company fined for hazardous waste violations as recently as four months ago.
“This expansion is way too quick and they’re creating a lot of uncertainty for constituents,” Kang said. “Shouldn’t we take a little more time to clean it up safely, so we don’t jeopardize other people?”
The EPA’s quick standup of the site at Lario Park and the lack of communication with the neighboring municipalities in the beginning has shaken the confidence that some local leaders have in the agency, according to Gonzales, the Azusa mayor. He stressed that while the cities are opposed to the process, they still support the overall recovery efforts.
“You’re supposed to have confidence in the EPA because they’re the experts,” Gonzales said. “You want to believe that and you want to trust that, but they’re not getting out to a real good start here.
“There’s just a lot of mistrust now,” he added.
Staff writer David Wilson and correspondent Jarret Liotta contributed to this article.
ANAHEIM — It might not have been a work of art, but two vital points went into the standings rather than any museum, as the Ducks defeated the Nashville Predators, 2-1, on Friday night at Honda Center.
They moved to within six points of a wild-card playoff berth with the victory, while the Predators, now playing primarily for pride, were unable to extend their four-game winning streak.
Alex Killorn and Troy Terry scored for the Ducks. Lukáš Dostál held the hosts in a battle that saw them out-shot nearly two to one, with that proportion being even more lopsided at points in the third period, by halting 28 pucks.
Jakub Vrana scored Nashville’s only goal, and Juuse Saros had 13 saves.
“It’s a huge win because the boys really pulled together,” Dostál said. “Nashville had a push there. They’re an experienced team. They have veteran guys, but I think we held our ground. It’s important for the win and for the growth [of the team].”
A stalemate persisted for much of the evening, with transparent turning points late in the second period and in the middle of the third.
With 8:40 to play, Killorn’s 15th goal of the season came after Trevor Zegras threw an area pass into the slot, where Killorn criss-crossed with Drew Helleson, swooping on the puck and skating across the crease for the game-deciding goal, and a bit of redemption.
Leo Carlsson added a secondary assist on the goal, bringing his and Zegras’ scoring streaks to four games apiece.
“I thought Leo and Z got better in the third period, and they got rewarded with (Killorn’s) goal there,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said.
The Ducks had been in a tie game after Killorn’s interference penalty gave Nashville a power play. Early on, Dostál made a resplendent save, once again managing to reach out and knock down a puck that was labeled to one post as he slid toward the other.
“I can’t not mention Dostál, he was unbelievable,” Terry said.
On that same power play, however, Nashville regrouped to knot up the contest at the 4:25 mark behind Vrana’s hard one-timer from inside the blue line, which hit Dostál but squibbled through him.
The Ducks spent another 2:50 shorthanded, including 1:10 with a two-man disadvantage, escaping unscathed and propelling them to Killorn’s late, tie-breaking goal.
“The five-on-three that we had to kill was either going to make or break us,” Cronin said. “It was a trigger to get us to play a little bit more on our toes. There was more energy on the bench and in the building after that.”
For almost 36 minutes of the match, there was no score and few events to speak of, but a short spurt late in the middle frame enlivened the action and left the Ducks up 1-0 at the second intermission.
Terry had been dangerous for much of the night, weaving to the net for chances of his own and creating for others, before he scored at the 15:52 mark of the second period. A minute later, all hell broke loose in the Ducks’ crease as they scrambled frantically to prevent a tying goal.
Mason McTavish and Terry applied forecheck pressure, with Vatrano recovering the puck and sliding it across to Terry at the left faceoff dot, where he launched a missile that found its target under the bar to the far side. It was Terry’s 18th goal of the season and second since Jan. 29, but it reminded the world how he was able to score 37 times in 2021-22.
“It felt good. I haven’t been short on chances,” Terry said. “When Frank got it, I knew their (defenseman) had broken his stick, so I just tried to get over to that weak side. I knew (Ryan Strome) was going to the back post, and once I saw the D slide, I tried to get it off before (the shot was blocked).”
The Predators nearly clawed that goal right back, but Jackson LaCombe was on his toes and Radko Gudas was on his back, his belly and whatever else had to touch the ice to keep the puck from reaching Dostál, who also made a save during the sequence and then nearly slid the puck into his own net.
“It was a lot of fuss, but I think the guys blocked every single one of them, so they helped me out pretty much there,” Dostál said.
Twenty minutes came and went without a goal, with the Ducks failing to capitalize on a pair of power-play opportunities. LaCombe showed off his skating on a breakout that saw him elude three Predators by himself, as well as his deception when he looked off a penalty killer to set up a one-timer for McTavish in the right circle. Dostál helped keep the period scoreles with a cat-like glove save on Michael Bunting.
“It was a strange game. There was not a lot of energy. There wasn’t a lot of ice. It was kind of a tight-checking game,” Cronin said. “They were throwing pucks out and we were trying to gap up, and it seemed to be a little of a tennis match in the first period. There was just no rhythm to it.”
The Ducks will take to the skies for a three-game journey that will open against Cam Fowler and the St. Louis Blues, before heading to Dallas and concluding against these same Predators.
DENVER — The nature of the NBA’s 82-game regular season naturally creates situations like the one the Lakers faced on Friday night against the Denver Nuggets.
On the road, down four of five starters. Without six of their top-eight rotation players. All during a stretch of six games in eight days, including three back-to-back sets, with Friday capping the first one.
When the Lakers’ injury report was released on Friday, which revealed that Luka Doncic, Dorian Finney-Smith and Gabe Vincent would join the list of the team’s unavailable players, the matchup against the Nuggets could have been viewed as a schedule loss.
The Lakers didn’t treat it that way.
Austin Reaves, Dalton Knecht and their teammates nearly pulled off an improbable victory at Ball Arena before falling to the Nuggets, 131-126, after Jamal Murray’s tiebreaking 3-pointer with 5.6 seconds left and Russell Westbrook’s exclamation point dunk that sealed the win for Denver (43-24).
“I’m proud of the group for their level of fight and resiliency,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “There’s a lot we could have done better. But the group competed and we gave ourselves a chance to win.”
Reaves (37 points, 13 assists, eight rebounds) and Knecht (32 points) led the short-handed Lakers (40-25), with both players making clutch plays down the stretch that kept the team in the game before eventually suffering their fourth straight loss to close an 0-4 trip.
“You always want to win,” Reaves said. “And regardless of who you take the floor with, we feel like we could win, and we went and put ourselves in a good position to do that. Losing sucks, but I’m happy with what these guys in the locker room did.”
With the Lakers trailing 124-123, Reaves stripped reigning league MVP Nikola Jokic for his third steal of the game and converted a layup on the other end to put the Lakers ahead by one with just over a minute left after they had trailed by 13 in the third.
Knecht helped add to that lead after a Murray turnover led to the rookie dunking in transition to put the visitors up by three – with Knecht cramping up on takeoff and taking a hard fall on his head/shoulders but staying in the game with the Lakers up 126-123 with 52 seconds left.
With little time to go over defensive plans during a timeout as Redick checked on Knecht after his fall, Jokic (28 points, seven rebounds, five assists, three steals) converted an and-1 floater over Christian Koloko, making the free throw to tie the score at 126 apiece with 48 seconds left.
“The play that Jokic got the and-one, I’ll take some ownership of that just because that was a short timeout and I ran on the floor to check on DK,” Redick said. “And then I ran back and I didn’t have time to really get us the right substitutions and matchups that I would have wanted. And that’s not a knock on CK, but I just kind of put him in a tough spot knowing that Jokic was going to go quick.”
After Reaves missed a jumper that would have put the Lakers up by two, Murray (26 points, five assists, four rebounds) sprung free out of a pick-and-roll with Jokic and knocked down a pull-up 3-pointer for a 129-126 Nuggets lead – just the latest big shot he has hit against the Lakers.
“[Jokic and I] were tangled up, trying to get up there when I saw Murray come up,” Knecht said of the play. “And CK told me to go out there and switch. It was kind of hard.”
Westbrook (17 points, seven assists, six rebounds) picked off Shake Milton’s inbounds pass on the Lakers’ ensuing possession, scoring the game-sealing basket.
After leading by 11 in the first and keeping the game close at halftime, trailing 71-67, the Lakers were on the cusp of being blown out before they used a 19-9 run to close the third quarter and cut a 13-point deficit to 102-99.
Knecht, starting near his hometown of Thornton, Colorado, had his highest-scoring game since mid-November.
“I told him in the huddle, I said, ‘Hey, if you want to shoot it, shoot it. I don’t care if you shoot it 35 times, we’re going to need every bucket you can get,’” Reaves said of Knecht. “So he’s a hooper.”
Milton (16 points, five rebounds, three assists) and two-way guard Jordan Goodwin (10 points, six rebounds) both scored in double figures for the Lakers with the increased playing time opportunities.
Koloko (eight points, seven rebounds) impressed with his second-half defense, altering multiple shots at the rim that didn’t end with blocks and denying Jokic the ball late.
“The spirit was great,” said Redick, whose team had an eight-game winning streak before this trip. “It’s been that and will continue to be that. And I think it was a good opportunity for a number of guys to play bigger minutes, Shake, in particular. Christian, defensively, in the second half was awesome. So happy for those guys that they played well.”
Despite feeling under the weather, Bronny James played 16 minutes and contributed five points.
LeBron James missed his third straight game with a left groin strain and returned to Los Angeles along with Rui Hachimura (left patellar tendinopathy) and Jaxson Hayes (bruised right knee) ahead of the Lakers’ game in Denver.
“We went 0-4, so it’s a pretty bad trip,” Reaves said. “But JJ said a week ago, ‘Everybody’s like Lakers in five.’ So we just don’t listen to any of it. We know when we’re fully healthy and got everybody on the team that we have a really good chance to beat anybody.
“I just see this group, coming together, locking in on one common goal and that’s to win. And [Friday] is the biggest testament to that. Very shorthanded and went and played a really good basketball team with probably the best player in the world. And went toe to toe and had an opportunity to win it. Just didn’t execute the last 50 seconds.”
Local News
Amalia Holguin dazzles but Sage Hill girls basketball falls to Carondelet in CIF state Division I final
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SACRAMENTO — It’s been just over five years since Kobe Bryant and eight others died in a tragic helicopter crash. It’s been nine months since four of Bryant’s proteges from his Mambas youth girls basketball team graduated from Sage Hill.
Yet, with his youngest apprentice — Amalia Holguin — still playing for the Lightning and coach Kerwin Walters still at the helm, the influence of the Lakers great remains immense.
“Kobe is always going to be straight in the heart for all of us,” Walters said this week, “especially for myself and Amalia. It’s just really, really a personal thing. But he’s always going to be there.”
Bryant’s vision for Sage Hill continued to unfold Friday night at the CIF State championships.
The Lightning aspired for a second state title in four seasons as they squared off against Carondelet in the Division I final at Golden 1 Center.
With Holguin wowing the crowd with her 3-point shooting and passing, Sage Hill brought the energy. Unfortunately, the Lightning struggled at the foul line, and it cost them.
Sage Hill made 4 of 14 free throws and fell to Carondelet 51-48 in its bid to become a two-time state champion.
Carondelet sank 8 of 11 foul shots, including all four of its chances in the final 45 seconds for the final points of the game.
Walters, in his 13th season, and Holguin, the youngest player on Bryant’s famed youth team, shared a long embrace after the final buzzer as the Cougars (30-6) celebrated their first state title since 2004.
“This one hurts,” said Walters, who led Sage Hill to the state Division II title in 2022. “They hit free throws, we didn’t. If you can see the numbers, that’s where it all falls right now.”
“It’s abnormal for us,” the coach added. “We’re generally in the low 70s, mid 70s in free throw percentage.”
Sage Hill (23-12) missed a 3-pointer in the closing seconds in a chance to force overtime
Holguin, a junior, hit two of her four 3-pointers in the fourth period en route to a game-high 21 points. While her long-range shooting impressed the crowd, so did her spin move and assist to Kamdyn Klamberg (13 points) to give Sage Hill a 48-47 lead with about one minute left.
The play came off one of Holguin’s four steals.
Sage Hill started two freshmen, a sophomore and two juniors.
“(Bryant) always wanted us to look in the mirror every day,” Holguin said. “I’m going to go home and probably watch some film on this and see how we can get better already for next year. … We’re always looking toward the future and I think we have a bright one.”
Carondelet led by as many as seven points in the first half before taking a 24-18 lead into intermission.
Holguin (10 points) and Klamberg (eight points) combined for all of the Lightning’s first-half points while seven players scored for Carondelet.
The Lightning received more contributions in the second half as freshman Addison Uphoff scored eight points and finished with six rebounds. Freshman center Eve Fowler scored four points to go along with four blocks and nine rebounds.
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