Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin made a surprise visit to Altadena on Thursday to tour the Eaton Fire’s devastation.
Zeldin, who was sworn as the EPA’s new leader last week, told KNX News’ Craig Fiegener the destruction is “impossible to fathom.”
“No American has ever seen anything like this ever before, and hopefully no American will ever have to see something like this ever again,” he said.
The EPA announced yesterday that Will Rogers State Beach would be used to temporarily store and process hazardous material from the Palisades Fire. Los Angeles Councilmember Traci Park blasted the move as “highly irresponsible,” but Zeldin defended the decision.
“EPA for a very long time has been doing projects where we're handling hazardous material,” he said. “It's very important that the hazardous material that we are handling is not touching the ground on these sites. We're going to continue that best practice to make sure that we're doing everything we can to clean the land, air, and water.”
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Zeldin said the EPA had set a 30-day goal for completing the first phase of the cleanup and was “doing everything we can” to meet that goal. He added that 1,200 staffers had been deployed to inspect 13,000 damaged properties for toxins.
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