FIELD NOTE · SUPPLEMENTAL SET
Visibly Clean: What the Fire Debris Removal Certified, and What It Left in the Ground
ISSUEDJULY 11, 2026DRAWN BY THE NIGHTLY SWEEP
More than 2.5 million tons of debris came off the Eaton and Palisades burn lots in about seven months. The number of soil tests required to call any of those lots clean was zero.
Those two facts are the whole story now. The Army Corps of Engineers, clearing for FEMA, called it the fastest debris removal mission in its history. Cal OES calls it the second largest debris operation California has ever run. The hauling job is over. The soil job was never in the contract, and it is the part a 2026 rebuild inherits.
Phase 2 was the Corps, working for FEMA under the Consolidated Debris Removal Program. An owner opted in by signing a Right of Entry form before April 15, 2025. Not signing counted as opting out. From there the material split by what it was. Metal was compacted and trucked to recycling facilities, concrete was crushed and went the same direction, and the ash left with up to 6 inches of soil scraped from the ash footprint, bound for an approved solid waste facility on the Public Works list.
By the end, 9,664 parcels had gone through Phase 2 by Cal OES's tally, nearly 10,000 lots in the Corps' own count. Roughly 4,400 Palisades properties were processed through a single hub at Will Rogers State Historic Park. That one site moved 1.2 million tons. Crews started the final opt-in lot, in the Palisades, on August 26, 2025.
The private lane ran alongside, and it is worth remembering for what it required. Fire ash and debris is considered hazardous under state regulations. Only contractors holding a HAZ endorsement could clear a lot privately, every load had to land at an approved solid waste facility, and no debris permit issued until a certified asbestos consultant's report showed the site free of asbestos. All of that work had to finish by June 30, 2025. The lane is closed. What survives is its paperwork.
Visibly clean is a standard you meet with your eyes. The government lane ran on the same footing, because California formally asked FEMA to fund confirmation sampling as part of the removal and FEMA said no, reportedly inside a day, in February 2025. Earlier California fire cleanups had tested the soil left behind after scraping. This one did not.
On parcels the Corps had scraped, the report found a significant reduction in potential health risk, cleared lots still above residential screening levels anyway, and grounds to recommend managing surface soils during reconstruction, without ever saying remediation was required. The scrape worked and settled nothing. The Palisades side showed no widespread fire-related soil impacts.
Then the federal position moved. On January 13, 2026, FEMA agreed to fund EPA lead sampling at about 100 randomly selected cleared parcels in the Eaton area. On May 19, 2026, EPA released the results. The headline favored the cleanup. Across 4,200 soil borings on 100 Eaton properties where homes were destroyed, 98 of 100 properties came in below the federal lead screening level in subsurface soil. At the surface, 95 of 100 did. Median lead was 31 mg/kg at the surface and 21 mg/kg below it.
Read the thresholds before reading the verdict. EPA judged those borings against the 200 mg/kg federal residential screening level, while the county's Roux study screened at 80 mg/kg, the state level, two and a half times stricter. The two programs are not directly comparable. The medians came in below even the 80 mg/kg line. How many properties would have exceeded the state level, EPA did not report. And no federal study sampled the Palisades lots.
Foundations sat in the same reckoning. Foundation removal was a checkbox on the Right of Entry form. Burned foundations were not typically approved for reuse, and a building official could require removal at the owner's expense before issuing a building permit.
2.5 million TONS REMOVED FROM NEARLY 10,000 LOTS BY SEPTEMBER 2025 up to 6 in OF SOIL SCRAPED FROM THE ASH FOOTPRINT, CHECKED BY EYE, NOT BY LAB 80 mg/kg THE RESIDENTIAL LEAD SCREENING LEVEL COUNTY TESTING APPLIED AFTERWARD
More than 16,000 structures were destroyed in the two fires, by Cal OES's count. The mass clearing that followed those losses is finished. For demolition and site contractors the work has changed shape. What is live in 2026 is different work. Grading and site preparation on scraped lots. Foundation removals ordered by building officials. Surface-soil management the county health department still recommends during reconstruction. Every one of those jobs starts from the clearance record, not from the debris. The rebuild filings landing on cleared lots are that record's next chapter. PermitFeed reads them nightly for demolition contractors, scored for the work that actually remains.
The lot did not test itself clean. It was looked at, signed off, and handed back. The federal answer, when it finally came in May 2026, said the cleanup had done its job, for lead, in Eaton, at the federal threshold. What the rebuild inherits is everything that sentence leaves out: the state screening level two and a half times stricter, the surface soils the county still says to manage, and every Palisades lot no federal study ever sampled.
PermitFeed reads every Southern California permit filing nightly and scores it for demolition and site contractors. The trade sheet shows the live fire-zone numbers for your territory.
Those two facts are the whole story now. The Army Corps of Engineers, clearing for FEMA, called it the fastest debris removal mission in its history. Cal OES calls it the second largest debris operation California has ever run. The hauling job is over. The soil job was never in the contract, and it is the part a 2026 rebuild inherits.
How the material moved
Phase 1 belonged to the EPA, and it was fast. Twenty-nine days of field work, more than 1,700 staff, finished February 26, 2025. Crews pulled household hazardous material off 13,612 parcels by Cal OES's year-after count, more than 1,000 lithium-ion batteries in the pile, all of it routed through staging areas, sorted and packaged, then out to licensed hazardous waste facilities. EPA called it the largest wildfire hazardous materials cleanup the agency has ever run.Phase 2 was the Corps, working for FEMA under the Consolidated Debris Removal Program. An owner opted in by signing a Right of Entry form before April 15, 2025. Not signing counted as opting out. From there the material split by what it was. Metal was compacted and trucked to recycling facilities, concrete was crushed and went the same direction, and the ash left with up to 6 inches of soil scraped from the ash footprint, bound for an approved solid waste facility on the Public Works list.
By the end, 9,664 parcels had gone through Phase 2 by Cal OES's tally, nearly 10,000 lots in the Corps' own count. Roughly 4,400 Palisades properties were processed through a single hub at Will Rogers State Historic Park. That one site moved 1.2 million tons. Crews started the final opt-in lot, in the Palisades, on August 26, 2025.
The private lane ran alongside, and it is worth remembering for what it required. Fire ash and debris is considered hazardous under state regulations. Only contractors holding a HAZ endorsement could clear a lot privately, every load had to land at an approved solid waste facility, and no debris permit issued until a certified asbestos consultant's report showed the site free of asbestos. All of that work had to finish by June 30, 2025. The lane is closed. What survives is its paperwork.
The standard at the end of the route
The county's FAQ for the private opt-out lane says what done meant there. Once ash and debris are removed, the upper 6 inches of soil in the ash footprint comes off "to a level of visibly clean." The next sentence in the same answer: "Soil testing is not required."Visibly clean is a standard you meet with your eyes. The government lane ran on the same footing, because California formally asked FEMA to fund confirmation sampling as part of the removal and FEMA said no, reportedly inside a day, in February 2025. Earlier California fire cleanups had tested the soil left behind after scraping. This one did not.
What testing happened anyway
The county health department hired Roux Associates, which sampled more than 800 properties between February 18 and March 26, 2025, screening for 35 post-fire contaminants in and downwind of both burn areas. The preliminary results released April 10, 2025 landed the first blow: downwind of the Eaton fire, 70 to 80 percent of soil samples exceeded lead screening levels. The final report, released September 12, 2025, carried the count: in grids downwind of the Eaton fire where homes still stood, 10 of 23 averaged above the 80 mg/kg residential lead screening level.On parcels the Corps had scraped, the report found a significant reduction in potential health risk, cleared lots still above residential screening levels anyway, and grounds to recommend managing surface soils during reconstruction, without ever saying remediation was required. The scrape worked and settled nothing. The Palisades side showed no widespread fire-related soil impacts.
Then the federal position moved. On January 13, 2026, FEMA agreed to fund EPA lead sampling at about 100 randomly selected cleared parcels in the Eaton area. On May 19, 2026, EPA released the results. The headline favored the cleanup. Across 4,200 soil borings on 100 Eaton properties where homes were destroyed, 98 of 100 properties came in below the federal lead screening level in subsurface soil. At the surface, 95 of 100 did. Median lead was 31 mg/kg at the surface and 21 mg/kg below it.
Read the thresholds before reading the verdict. EPA judged those borings against the 200 mg/kg federal residential screening level, while the county's Roux study screened at 80 mg/kg, the state level, two and a half times stricter. The two programs are not directly comparable. The medians came in below even the 80 mg/kg line. How many properties would have exceeded the state level, EPA did not report. And no federal study sampled the Palisades lots.
The paper a rebuild stands on
Every cleared lot carries one of two documents. Opt-in parcels got a county Final Signoff. Opt-out parcels got a Completion Certificate through EPIC-LA, issued after the owner's certification and county review. Rebuilding could start only after that confirmation. The FAQ holds one clause worth reading twice. If adequate proof of cleanup is not provided, confirmation soil testing may be required before rebuild permits are issued.Foundations sat in the same reckoning. Foundation removal was a checkbox on the Right of Entry form. Burned foundations were not typically approved for reuse, and a building official could require removal at the owner's expense before issuing a building permit.
2.5 million TONS REMOVED FROM NEARLY 10,000 LOTS BY SEPTEMBER 2025 up to 6 in OF SOIL SCRAPED FROM THE ASH FOOTPRINT, CHECKED BY EYE, NOT BY LAB 80 mg/kg THE RESIDENTIAL LEAD SCREENING LEVEL COUNTY TESTING APPLIED AFTERWARD
More than 16,000 structures were destroyed in the two fires, by Cal OES's count. The mass clearing that followed those losses is finished. For demolition and site contractors the work has changed shape. What is live in 2026 is different work. Grading and site preparation on scraped lots. Foundation removals ordered by building officials. Surface-soil management the county health department still recommends during reconstruction. Every one of those jobs starts from the clearance record, not from the debris. The rebuild filings landing on cleared lots are that record's next chapter. PermitFeed reads them nightly for demolition contractors, scored for the work that actually remains.
The lot did not test itself clean. It was looked at, signed off, and handed back. The federal answer, when it finally came in May 2026, said the cleanup had done its job, for lead, in Eaton, at the federal threshold. What the rebuild inherits is everything that sentence leaves out: the state screening level two and a half times stricter, the surface soils the county still says to manage, and every Palisades lot no federal study ever sampled.
PermitFeed reads every Southern California permit filing nightly and scores it for demolition and site contractors. The trade sheet shows the live fire-zone numbers for your territory.