Althouse: "Blazes in these areas consume, in addition to brush and undergrowth, all sorts of manufactured materials: lead paint and piping, lithium batteries and computers..."

August 30, 2025

"Blazes in these areas consume, in addition to brush and undergrowth, all sorts of manufactured materials: lead paint and piping, lithium batteries and computers..."

"... cleaning solutions and artificial fibers, automobiles and electric wires. Soil samples collected from the Palisades and Altadena have revealed the presence of heavy metals and other toxic elements, including arsenic, lead and mercury. If not properly remediated, such contamination can linger, with potential effects including not only cancer but also damage to the brain and nervous system, especially in children under 3.... For all the visible damage to Altadena and the Palisades, in other words, there is a more insidious set of dangers, both in the homes and structures left undamaged and throughout the broader region. Even after the January fires stopped burning, wind distributed toxic smoke and ash across much of Los Angeles County, before blowing them out to the Pacific by way of Long Beach...."

Writes David L. Ulin, a USC English professor who wrote a book called "Sidewalking: Coming to Terms With Los Angeles," in "Los Angeles Is Contaminated Now" (NYT).

48 comments:

R C Belaire said...: Besides government intransigence, is this another reason these communities will not be rebuilt? At least anytime soon?; 8/30/25, 5:17 AM
rhhardin said...: It's the low income housing lobby.; 8/30/25, 5:21 AM
Marcus Bressler said...: Just another excuse to get rid of the original homeowners.; 8/30/25, 5:29 AM
Breezy said...: Didn’t the EPA clear rebuilding in those areas?; 8/30/25, 5:30 AM
Rocco said...: R C Belaire asked…
“Besides government intransigence, is this another reason these communities will not be rebuilt? At least anytime soon?”

[The government is] not here to create disorder, [it’s] here to preserve disorder.; 8/30/25, 5:30 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: The upside is the fires incinerate all the microplastics.; 8/30/25, 5:31 AM
Odi said...: To preserve the health of our residents, we must refuse to let them rebuild their homes.; 8/30/25, 5:42 AM
Oso Negro said...: I don't know about the rest of you, but if I want information on potential toxic effects requiring environmental remediation, I go directly to the English Department. Get those Chemical Engineering professors to explicate poems.; 8/30/25, 5:46 AM
Enigma said...: The Los Angeles metro area includes major shipping ports, industrial areas, a massive network of highways filled with cars burning gas and leaking chemicals, a history of military manufacturing and bases, and a very long history of oil drilling. As the city grew, various prior agricultural messes shrank. It has been contaminated for a century plus.

But, college English professors need to write something to get tenure or maintain their egos. Karens are greenies buy books that feed hand-wringing anxieties.; 8/30/25, 5:50 AM
Humperdink said...: Wut? Does LA have well water?; 8/30/25, 5:58 AM
Leland said...: I’m not convinced we could clean LA of the contamination that is damaging brains.; 8/30/25, 6:05 AM
rehajm said...: The upside is the fires incinerate all the microplastics.

Good point- also all the irresponsible architecture and bad art…; 8/30/25, 6:10 AM
Lawnerd said...: I lived in California during the intense fires in northern California. The smoke was intense and you could sense that it wasn’t merely wood burning but included the smoke from manmade shit like plastic. Just one of the many downsides of living in the liberal paradise.; 8/30/25, 6:33 AM
Lawnerd said...: Odi hit the nail on the head. There is a strong movement to prevent further building, or rebuilding in this case, in California. Progressives will use anything to push their agenda.; 8/30/25, 6:35 AM
rehajm said...: We have a backwards view of remediation- dig it all up and put it somewhere else. France drops a layer of healthy topsoil and keeps going. Why can’t we be more like Europe? 🫤; 8/30/25, 6:39 AM
boatbuilder said...: We have arsenic in our well water here in Maryland. Probably all of those other horrible elements. All of that stuff is present just about everywhere, and would be expected where there has been massive destruction by fire. So what?
How is an English teacher an authority on environmental contamination?; 8/30/25, 6:40 AM
Enigma said...: @Humperdink: "Wut? Does LA have well water?"

While mainly north of LA, California has groundwater recharge basins. California collects rain when it occurs, routes it into dry basins (temporary lakes), and it then percolate down into the aquifer. They ultimately pump it out for general use.

https://www.ladwp.com/who-we-are/water-system/recycled-water/groundwater-replenishment; 8/30/25, 6:50 AM
Lucien said...: So putting low income housing in the Palisades would be Environmental Racism?; 8/30/25, 6:56 AM
wild chicken said...: I heard that JPL became a concern during the Eaton fire because so much lithium is stored there. So resources were diverted there just to keep it from turning into a holocaust. Fortunately they are able to keep the fire away from that area.; 8/30/25, 6:56 AM
Biff said...: Did anyone doubt they would find some sort of contamination? It's just another tool that the planners and petty tyrants can use to get paid and move forward with their agendas, whatever those may be at the moment.; 8/30/25, 7:09 AM
john mosby said...: Rocco: great Mayor Daley quote! Although as his former constituent, I must offer the alternative translation: he was saying "preserve dis order," ie "this order" in our local dialeck. RR, JSM; 8/30/25, 7:14 AM
john mosby said...: I remember when one of my non-Chicagoan friends used the word 'dissenters' and I honestly replied "da centers of what?" RR, JSM; 8/30/25, 7:17 AM
Achilles said...: Lead arsenic used to be one of the most used pesticides for insect control in a lot of crops.

Farms that used it basically had to replace the dirt if they used it very long. I was in a trade program for Treefruit production and the school had one of these farms donated to it.

There was a reason the farm was donated.; 8/30/25, 7:17 AM
Wince said...: Bass and Newsom now have even more to answer for their negligence?; 8/30/25, 7:36 AM
Aggie said...: An English professor is writing to tell us the science demands we no longer have homes.

Where is the baseline? What analysis is being compared to, say, a barrio neighborhood in its present undamaged condition? Or to an industrial development area? I've seen plenty of burned out site rebuilt. Only in a few specific cases was there a protracted cleanup before rebuilding, because of concerns of toxicity. All of these were industrial sites. None of these were residential sites.

Methinks there is purpose behind these denials.; 8/30/25, 7:39 AM
Xmas said...: Adam Carolla was saying none of the beach side homes that burned down will be rebuilt. They are all use septic tanks, and current code requires the tanks inside a below-grade retaining/anti-erosion wall that will cost hundreds of thousands to build and years of bureaucracy to be approved.; 8/30/25, 8:19 AM
EdwdLny said...: This is all part of the continuing effort to screw every fire victim out of everything they can. From the start the mayor, the governor, the state government worked tirelessly to impede and deny the fire victims the opportunity to rebuild. The state was directly responsible for the fires and the lack of preparation to fight the fires and provide assistance in the recovery. And the state deliberately impedes the recovery efforts of the property owners. The states efforts are nothing more than an extortion and theft scheme. Exactly what is expected from the communist California government.; 8/30/25, 8:59 AM
Joe Bar said...: Those poor fire victims who inherited seaside property long ago, will never get it back. Just like Lahaina.; 8/30/25, 9:12 AM
n.n said...: Do Newsom, Bass et al share dreams of redistributive change at fire sale prices? With gerrymandering benefits?; 8/30/25, 9:18 AM
Yancey Ward said...: Fine with me- let the EPA declare L.A. a Superfund site and bill the state of California to clean it up.; 8/30/25, 10:12 AM
Mason G said...: The Left: "Los Angeles Is contaminated now."
Also The Left: "We are going to build high density housing for low income people."; 8/30/25, 10:14 AM
Enigma said...: @Xmas: "Adam Carolla was saying none of the beach side homes that burned down will be rebuilt."

A good half of the houses built in LA and along the California coast wouldn't be approved today. They have all sorts of water, landslide, access, and other issues. Many coastal and hillside houses with views have crumbled down in storms.

There's an infamous landslide region in wealthy Rancho Palos Verdes (Landslide Scarp Trail). They wanted a new road, so they cut the toe off an unstable hillside. You simply do not cut the toe off an unstable hillside, ever.

My favorite ill-conceived development is smack dab on the sand in Capitola, CA: the Capitola Venetian Court. If the ocean storms don't get you and if erosion doesn't get you, a flood from the river on the backside will get you.; 8/30/25, 10:15 AM
JAORE said...: Long term brain damage? Damn. Another plot to swell the ranks of Democrat voters.
I LOL/or cry at the left's claim the right is racist. Here's a prime example. Screw the well off (even if your wealth is largely due to your now devalued property) and build for the poor and minorities in a contaminated area. Protect the teachers Unions trapping poor and minorities in schools with NO kids reading or doing math at grade level. Drive up utility costs crushing poor and minorities while the elites of the left fly around preaching to the little people (no, NOT the dwarves). Raising the minimum wages even though time after time that has been shown to block entry level jobs for (you guessed it) the poor and minorities. Abortion at any time for any reason even though it vastly affects poor and minorities.
And on and on. Rinse and repeat.; 8/30/25, 10:24 AM
Levi Starks said...: Say hello to your new 55 and older planned community; 8/30/25, 10:47 AM
Jersey Fled said...: So if I’m understanding this correctly, we have to remediate all that stuff that was already there.; 8/30/25, 11:13 AM
mccullough said...: Dude writes like an English Professor. “Wind distributed” deserves an F.; 8/30/25, 11:15 AM
RNB said...: Maybe they should be more careful about letting entire neighborhoods burn to the ground in the first place?; 8/30/25, 11:59 AM
Skeptical Voter said...: I wonder if I could hire English Professor Ulin to do neurosurgery? Asking for a friend with a brain tumor. Ulin is an expert after all.; 8/30/25, 12:08 PM
loudogblog said...: All of these "toxic" things are all around us every day. The whole point to dealing with our environment is to determine if there is anything around that is at an unacceptable and dangerous level of toxicity. You can't live in a world where you can totally eliminate exposure to all things that could be statistically dangerous at high levels. For example: Asbestos is in the soil all around us and it's been in that soil since the soil was created. Asbestos is only statistically dangerous in very high concentrations. Some areas have very low levels of asbestos and some areas have very high levels of asbestos. That being said, you could be in a place with a very low level of asbestos and be unfortunate enough to breath in that one particle of asbestos and have that one particle merge with that one cell in your lungs and develop into cancer.

It's not possible to shield yourself from all the possible risks in life. You have to play the percentages and just deal with mitigating the statistically high risks.; 8/30/25, 12:33 PM
bagoh20 said...: I'm no expert, but it sounds like fires are bad and should be avoided at all costs by having robust fire fighting systems in place and ready, but if one does happen, it's best to spend years talking about how bad it was rather than cleaning it up and rebuilding. Leave that stuff to the next generation, or a very large investment firm that donates to Democrats.; 8/30/25, 12:35 PM
bagoh20 said...: Owners, new or old, would be more than willing to clean it up and sign a waver of all rights to sue for any health risks, and then they would build homes that would be at the top of the desired list. Most people do not care. They didn't care that they lived in a very high fire danger zone with incompetent communist in charge of their safety who made them uninsurable. They are not risk averse.; 8/30/25, 12:46 PM
Temujin said...: But Gavin cares about you and wants to do the same for the rest of the nation.; 8/30/25, 12:52 PM
Mason G said...: "but if one does happen..."

Remember- you got yourself in the wrong place, according to the LAFD.; 8/30/25, 12:53 PM
Lazarus said...: Would it be possible that all the lithium in the air, ground, and water after all those Teslas burned in the fire might actually make Los Angeles sane again?; 8/30/25, 1:54 PM
Tina Trent said...: Yeah, that's possible. That's why you educate yourself about your environment and take preventative measures, or don't move there at all.; 8/30/25, 7:01 PM
paminwi said...: “ there is a more insidious set of dangers, both in the homes and structures left undamaged and throughout the broader region.”
So even the homes and structures left UNDAMAGED are dangerous?; 8/30/25, 8:23 PM
Ampersand said...: The plaintiff bar can make anything, no matter how anodyne, a zone of likely harm, and thus of liability. Useful idiots like Ulin are part of the grift.; 8/30/25, 8:56 PM
Bunkypotatohead said...: They're just going to have to ban all those materials so that future fires don't cause this same problem again. No batteries, computers, cleaning solutions and artificial fibers, automobiles and electric wires for los angelenos.; 8/30/25, 10:01 PM