The Environmental Protection Agency opened a new hazardous waste processing site at Will Rogers State Beach to continue processing toxic household materials from the burn sites in Pacific Palisades.

The EPA says the cleanup between the Palisades and Eaton Fires is the largest wildfire hazardous waste cleanup in the history of its agency and crews are urgently working to bring the hazardous materials to the Topanga Staging Area to be consolidated, securely packaged, then safely loaded for transportation out to a permanent disposal or recycling facility. 

But as their work continues to expand, the EPA says it needed more space and the Will Rogers State Beach is ideal.

“That site is large, it’s flat, it’s paved, so therefore, pretty impermeable,” explained EPA Deputy Branch Supervisor for the Palisades Fire, Christina Progess. “So we don’t have a lot of concern about material leaving that location. However, all of our material here in this [Topanga] staging area, as well as that [Will Rogers State Beach] staging area, will never touch the ground.”

But not everyone is on board with using Will Rogers State Beach as the hazardous waste processing site. On Sunday, residents protested the decision, urging the EPA to choose another location.

The EPA says it recognizes the highly sensitive coastal ecosystems, but says there are multiple safeguards to protect them, including continual air monitors, as well as layers of waterproof liners in the containers that are processing the hazardous material.

“Prior to us building a staging area out there, we have done quite a bit of sampling,” Progess explained. “Sampling of the soil, the water, and that sampling occurred before we build. And we’ll do that again after.”