To the editor: Your article, “Feds won’t test soil after L.A. wildfire cleanup, potentially leaving contamination behind,” raises necessary considerations about post-fire cleanup requirements. Nevertheless it overlooks an important query: Who ought to pay when state environmental requirements exceed federal necessities?
Whereas the article successfully highlights the general public well being implications of the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers skipping soil testing to see if the state’s contamination requirements have been met, it by no means addresses whether or not California has traditionally funded the extra cleanup wanted to satisfy its stricter requirements, or whether or not it ought to.
That is significantly related provided that, as your article reviews, about one-third of properties after the Camp fireplace required extra cleanup past the federal baseline six-inch soil removing.
If California chooses to keep up stricter environmental requirements than federal rules require, shouldn’t the state be ready to fund the distinction? Simply as California funds enforcement of its stricter automobile emissions requirements, it appears cheap that the state would fund soil testing and cleanup past federal catastrophe response requirements.
Somewhat than merely criticizing federal companies for not exceeding their scope, we must always have a clear dialogue about state funding duties when California’s environmental protections transcend federal necessities.
Brian Mason, Joshua Tree
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To the editor: I counsel that each rebuilt property in L.A. County be required to incorporate a belowground rainwater seize system with a built-in pumping unit. The identical requirement ought to be a part of any new dwelling building in fireplace zones.
Rain water would move from gutters right into a seize tank. In a hearth emergency, the pump would distribute water to the house’s roof on the push of a button.
The added value throughout dwelling building can be a small fraction of the constructing expense. Shouldn’t this be a metropolis planner’s first fireplace prevention thought?
Dennis McLaughlin, Rancho Palos Verdes
