“Soil sampling is part of the plan, as well, and that includes potential contamination from heavy metals, dioxins and other toxic residues that may have settled from the wildfire ash and debris,” Ferrer said.

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control, the California Department of Public Health and the L.A. Fire Health Study Consortium are working with the county, with the state Public Health Department providing technical assistance, officials said.

Initial sampling is starting this week, and continuing through March. Information on each sampling’s results will be posted online.

The testing comes on the heels of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s decision to not conduct soil sampling as it has done in past fires.

That protocol has raised many questions for residents, who have expressed concerns that the current practice under the cleanup in the Palisades and Eaton fire areas of only removing 6 inches of soil during the debris cleanup would not be sufficient. Residents and local leaders were concerned that subsequent testing is needed to ensure that all hazardous soil was indeed removed.

Federal officials on Wednesday stood firm on the decision.

“We know from a decade or more of doing fire ash and debris removal that by removing six inches we are taking enough material and a little extra material to ensure that we have all of the fire ash and debris from this fire,” Col. Eric Swenson of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said.

Bill Dunbar, an Environmental Protection Agency spokesman, said though the decision rests with FEMA and other agencies, in the past they have seen 6 inches be a sufficient amount of soil to remove.

Swenson has told residents that under the mandate the corps are carrying out, the corps is legally saddled with the mission to remove the soil from “this fire,” not to dig down into materials below that 6-inch threshold.

Fifth District Supervisor Kathryn Barger said “Clearly this is on both Supervisor Horvath’s and my radar. … We have a lot of residents who are concerned.”

She said that concern has led to initial testing beginning this week, given that many want to rebuild. But a question leaders faced on Wednesday was, could people rebuild now and still meet the requirements of California law if that ground testing had not taken place.

“Rebuilding is absolutely allowed once the cleanup happens,” Ferrer said. “There’s no requirement around what the soil samples need to be at, this is really an issue around safety after the rebuild and people wanting to know that the area they live in isn’t really causing any exposures to dangerous contaminants that will continue to affect their health,” Ferrer said.

Ferrer said the county was working with the state to ensure such confirmatory testing was happening. Public Health was also working on letting residents know the results of such testing. Ferrer also noted that soil may have been contaminated previous to the fire.

Also related to the cleanup, Barger reported that 3,909 right-of-entry forms for Phase 2 cleanup, either opting in or out of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ free debris clearing service, have been submitted in the Altadena area, accounting for 61% of all the impacted homes. Barger asked residents to encourage friends and neighbors to submit forms.

“The county stands ready to support our residents to rebuild their home as quickly as possible,” she said.

A permit center, which Barger calls a “one-stop shop,” has opened in Altadena to support residents in the rebuilding process. The center, at 540 W. Woodbury Road, gives residents access to representatives from various agencies involved in the recovery process.

Third District Supervisor Lindsey Horvath noted that the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday put in place a six-month eviction protection for workers and small business owners that were affected by the fire.

“This morning includes $10 million dollars directed towards rent relief countywide and we know this is critical at a time where people are wondering how they’re going to pay their rent when they lost their job, when they lost their place of employment to these fires,” Horvath said.

In the Palisades, Horvath announced that the first property to be cleared out of both Phase 1 and 2 debris has been completed.

“We are moving with unprecedented speed and urgency in the Palisades fire burn area.” she said.

“Our Department of Beaches and Harbors as well as our state partners stepped up to protect our coastline, removing large debris from beaches and they are also testing sediment at Topanga and Will Rogers Beaches,” she said. “We know those areas are of particular interest, we are paying attention to them.”

Tests showed that the material did not pose a hazard to beachgoers or the environment, Horvath said.

She also reminded the public that if fire debris is seen on beaches, it can be reported to the county or lifeguards.

A resident relief fund has been established by the county and residents can submit interest forms at recovery.lacounty.gov.

The Environmental Protection Agency is about 80% done with Phase 1 cleanup, which involves the removal of household hazardous materials, with over 8,000 properties cleared of these materials, according to Dunbar, an the EPA spokesperson. Another 3,400 properties are being deferred to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“EPA defers to Phase 2 those properties where there are unsafe conditions for our workers and those conditions stop them from completing the Phase 1 household hazardous material removal,” Dunbar explained.

In these cases, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers takes over.

Damage that might warrant deferment include damaged walls, collapsed ceilings or upper floors or debris like trees or heavy metal that are better suited to be removed by the Corps.

Phase 2 is well underway, with almost 750 personnel working, a number that is expected to grow, Colonel Swenson said.

Fifteen primary debris crews worked in both fire areas on Tuesday, alongside 25 asbestos remediation crews and over 80 teams doing site assessments.

Palisades Charter High School has been undergoing debris removal for several days, Swenson said. Four of the five schools in the Eaton fire area have been removed of primary debris and ash.

Swenson also mentioned that debris is sorted at each site, wet down to stop ash or debris from getting into the air and that the Corps monitors the air in the area.

“For transport, that wet material is transported in the back of plastic lined trucks that are sealed and then the tarp of the truck goes down on top to secure all of that for transport to the final destination,” Swenson said.