The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Monday announced it will start with Phase 2 debris removal at private residential properties in the Eaton and Palisades wildfire impact zones this week, touting it as a “major milestone” in the recovery but cautioning that the process will bring heavier truck traffic on local roads in impacted areas.

The announcement comes as teams contracted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency continue with Phase 1 of the debris removal, which is collecting hazardous household materials from destroyed properties.

Phase 1 is the largest wildfire hazardous waste cleanup in the history of the agency, with more than 1,000 personnel involved at thousands of sites, according to the EPA.

Now, both phases will happen concurrently — as hazardous materials are cleaned up from a given property, it will give way to the next phase, assuming the property owner has “opted in” to the cleanup program.

Officials estimated that two Southern California fires would yield 4.5 million tons of debris. In contrast, the 2023 Maui fires yielded approximately 410,000 tons of debris, said Col. Eric Swenson, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Recovery Field Office.“This mission is personal for us,” said Maj. Gen. Jason Kelly, deputy commanding general for Civil and Emergency Operations. “Our teams on the ground are bringing the same urgency, precision and care to residential properties that we do with all our civil works and military construction missions around the world.”

The Phase 2 effort includes the state of California and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, along with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, and six local jurisdictions impacted by the fire.

Public Works has been working with wildfire survivors to collect rights of entry, establish safe debris haul routes, and coordinate the responsible transport and disposal of fire ash and other fire-related debris.

The first phase of the debris has been moving along in recent weeks, by EPA, despite some neighborhoods critical of choices of collection sites, where the Phase 1 materials are being hauled.

During a Monday media briefing provided by FEMA, the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers, EPA Pacific Southwest Incident Commander Tara Fitzgerald announced that the Altadena Golf Course will soon be the third staging area for household hazardous materials collected from the Eaton fire footprint.

Fitzgerald said the site would be built and start operations this week. The golf course joins the Lario Staging Area, in the Azusa and Duarte area, and Farnsworth Park in Altadena as EPA staging areas. Hazardous material collected from the Palisades fire is being taken to staging areas at Topanga Creek and a parking lot Will Rogers State Park.

“Clearing debris is the first step toward recovery, and we are committed to helping residents in communities across L.A. County rebuild,” Swenson said. “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is proud to support this mission alongside our federal, state and local partners to ensure families return home and begin the rebuilding process as quickly as possible.”

Fitzgerald said the EPA was not looking at any additional staging area sites for Phase 1, but Swenson said sites were being sought for staging of Phase-2 debris.

Residents and local governments in both fire areas have voiced concern over the location of the staging areas. Some have held protests at the sites. Others have formally criticized federal agencies for choosing sites in areas they believe are environmentally sensitive.

But agency officials have said similar operations in past wildfire cleanup have proved safe, noting too, that for the EPA, a 30-day timeline has not given much time for the debris removal.

According to the EPA, the mitigation measures taken at all staging areas include: pre-sampling of the area to establish current conditions; lining processing areas with plastic and installing protective measures such as wattles, booms, earthen berms and gravel; continuous air monitoring; spraying water three times daily to control dust from vehicle traffic; and packaging and removing waste from the site nearly daily, without ground contact.

Officials expect all eligible properties enrolled in the federal debris-removal program will be cleared within a year, with a majority expected to be completed well before that deadline.

Swenson said Monday that debris removal had been completed at Rosebud Academy and Edison and crews are in the process of clearing Franklin and Noyes campuses in the Pasadena Unified School District.

FEMA Region 9 Administrator Robert Fenton said Monday that the county has so far collected more than 7,300 right-of-entry forms.

Officials Monday cautioned residents to expect increased truck traffic in impacted neighborhoods and along debris removal routes to local landfills. In response to a question about Pacific Coast Highway would need to be closed to accommodate debris removal vehicles, Fenton and Swenson said the decision would be made by the county and Caltrans.

“We work around the conditions that we have,” Swenson said.

Fenton said the greatest number of households FEMA has removed private property from was in the aftermath of the 2018 Camp fire in Paradise. However, Fenton said there will be more material removed from these two fires because of the size of the parcels and houses within the two footprints.

Homeowners can access right of entry forms by visiting a Disaster Recovery Center or visiting the county’s recovery website at recovery.lacounty.gov.