Duarte residents on Tuesday voiced their opposition to the EPA trucking Eaton fire hazardous waste to a staging area that adjoins their neighborhood, applauding a City Council resolution opposing the site.

A standing-room only crowd of more than 150 packed the City Council meeting Tuesday night, where the governing body discussed what they called an imminent public health threat.

Tara Fitzgerald, EPA incident commander, took responsibility for choosing Lario Park as a processing site, in agreement with other agencies such as FEMA.

She said the site, which straddles cities within the area, will be used for processing hazardous waste for 30 days and then used as storage for several months.

“We are going to have to do a better job,” she said about communicating with local leaders. “I want to be clear that the area we’re planning to use will only be used temporarily and we will leave it as we found it.”

She added the waste will be packaged properly and stored on site in a way so as not to release to the environment and will not come into contact with the ground.

Councilmembers grilled Fitzgerald about why the agency failed to inform local cities about the operation, what options were considered before Lario Park was chosen and concerns about fire hazards and asbestos danger from the collected waste.

Fitzgerald said the Rose Bowl and Santa Anita Park were considered, but those venues were occupied by first responders, adding the agency is looking at other locations to use as a collection site.

Councilmembers also tried to pin down a timetable for completion of the processing and collection of the fire waste, citing the 30 days Fitzgerald said to 90 days to six months reported at the Board of Supervisors meeting.

“I don’t understand how we’re being given different information than the Board of Supervisors, then you expect us to trust you?” Councilmember Toney Lewis said.

Mayor Pro Tem Tera Martin Del Campo agreed, saying the agency’s failure to communicate doesn’t inspire confidence that the EPA will keep residents safe.

Councilmember Margaret Finlay urged Fitzgerald to listen to residents and city leaders.

“This is not the best place for this and I believe you can do something about this,” she said.

Samuel Kang raised concerns about water safety and fire hazards from ion lithium batteries. He asked Fitzgerald to reconsider using the staging area.

Duarte City Manager Brian Villalobos suggested using Farnsworth Park and Altadena Golf Course, within the burn area, as options.

Hours before the meeting, Celeste McCoy, EPA on-scene coordinator, appeared before the Los Angeles County supervisors in the board’s Tuesday meeting. She reported the agency was ordered to expedite opening the site by President Donald Trump, who issued an executive order within the past 48 hours.

McCoy said the site was selected because it was owned by a federal agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and thus made it easier to come to an agreement. Lario Park is also the closest option and has enough flat land to accommodate the operation.

On Monday, officials from the cities of Azusa, Baldwin Park, Duarte and Irwindale stated their opposition to the Environmental Protection Agency using Lario Park to collect and sort hazardous materials from the Eaton wildfire in Pasadena and Altadena.

The site, at unincorporated Lario Park on Foothill Boulevard, sits along the San Gabriel River in the foothills of Azusa and Irwindale, and adjoins Duarte to the west.

The Lario Park site began accepting fire debris Monday, according to Anna Drabek, spokesperson for the EPA. It outlined plans for its operation, including processing areas lined with plastic, spill control protocols, continuous air monitoring and dust suppression measures.

These operational plans and EPA assurances that the process will be safe and carefully implemented did not dissuade Alejandra Avila, mayor of Baldwin Park, and Michael Cao, mayor of Arcadia, both of whom joined their colleagues in opposing the site, from saying the current plan could expand the disaster to other communities if toxic waste would be driven through San Gabriel Valley cities.

During the meeting, Villalobos said he has received assurance that the trucks with Eaton fire waste will now use the 210 Freeway and not surface streets.

In public comment, residents also raised concerns about children’s health, decreased home values and how the site can be closed. Finlay asked city attorney Thai Viet Phan to look into ways to take action.

Henry Sornoso, 69, of Azusa attended the meeting to get more information.

“I don’t want the site there because I use the bike trail three times a week and now I’m paranoid,” the retired city worker said. “I won’t use the trail as long as it’s there. And I want to know how long they’ll test the air after they leave.” State Sen. Susan Rubio, D-West Covina, and local mayors were scheduled to attend a town hall at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Duarte Performing Arts Center, 1401 Highland Ave. Representatives from the EPA were scheduled to attend.

According to the EPA, the first phase of the wildfire cleanup is identifying and removing household hazardous waste, including batteries from vehicles and homes, paint, asbestos, and propane tanks. Once at the collection site, these will be sorted and then contained for disposal at hazardous waste landfills.

A site for collecting hazardous waste from the Palisades fire is being prepared within the fire zone, according to Rusty Harris-Bishop, site cleanup section manager for the EPA.