The Brief

Any musician who’s ever jammed with a group knows the deep connection that can form between players.

Jam sessions can be a moment of clarity, when all the pressures of the world are drowned out and you commune with other people through the language of music.

That’s part of the idea behind a new effort that seeks to bring people with autism together through the sounds of bluegrass.

There’s something about bluegrass... 

John Frizzell has had a long and successful career as a composer for film and TV.

If you’ve ever seen the 2002 cult horror classic “Ghost Ship,” you’ve heard his eerie scores. And the score for 1997’s “Alien: Resurrection”? Frizzell worked on that one too, among a long list of other TV and film credits.

As a multi-instrumentalist, Frizzell became interested in bluegrass later in life. But he’s attended many jam sessions and festivals within the community.

“I kept noticing at so many bluegrass events, there seemed like a lot of people on the spectrum,” Frizzell, who got a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder Level 1 as an adult, said.

“There’s something about bluegrass about maybe the patterns. It’s such pattern-oriented music, it’s [so] detail oriented. The hyper focus is so effective in practicing and learning bluegrass. It just seems like a natural fit,” he said.

That got Frizzell thinking about what an inclusive meetup for fellow musicians on the spectrum might look like.

Enter Spectrum Bluegrass, a new group dedicated to connecting neurodiverse people through bluegrass music.

The Spectrum Bluegrass Band

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Steve Sidney

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The idea is something that made perfect sense to Spectrum Bluegrass co-founder Steve Sidney, whose 43-year-old son, Joel, has autism and is an avid bluegrass player.

“You know, people with [Autism Spectrum Disorder] oftentimes tend to get an obsessive disorder. At 9 years old, he became obsessively interested in bluegrass music. He’s probably one of the most knowledgeable people, I’m guessing in the world. ... He reads everything about it,” Sidney said.

Building confidence through music

Spectrum Bluegrass has had a few meetups at festivals and other events, with more than a dozen people participating in jam sessions over the past year or so.

This spring, the Spectrum Bluegrass Band performed at the Greek Theater for the group Autism Speaks’ “Light up the Blues” concert. They were in good company with performances from Neil Young, Cat Power and others.

Joel got to play on stage with the Spectrum Bluegrass band.

Sidney says being part of the bluegrass community has been extremely important for his son’s social life. Playing bluegrass with other people has been soothing and centering for Joel.

Joel Sidney, left, L and John Frizzell perform at the Greek Theater.

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CBA File Photo

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“To me he was clearly pleased. He looked very happy and relaxed on stage, which was pretty amazing because he’s never been in front of an audience like that ... a nearly full Greek Theater down in L.A.,” Sidney recalled.

Spectrum Bluegrass recruit Melanie Biesecker brings her experience in the nonprofit and charity world to the new endeavor. She said part of the idea is to have open invite jam opportunities at California Bluegrass Association events.

She’s also working to put together resources for jam leaders to be more inclusive and even have people come in to talk about employment opportunities.

“On the spectrum or not, if you go to a jam and you’re able to play along and call a song and lead a song, everybody’s really excited for you. That’s a really great feeling to have and can build confidence in or outside that social interaction,” Biesecker said.

And it’s not just the Spectrum Bluegrass folks noticing how music can be life changing for people with autism.

Dr. Elizabeth Laugeson, a clinical professor at UCLA, says it’s no secret that music can be a really powerful form of communication.

“But this can be particularly true for those who have difficulty with spoken language or social interactions, which is true for many autistic people. And so there have been many studies which have shown that things like music therapy can improve things like social engagement,” Laugeson told LAist.

There’s also research showing that many people with autism can have natural musical talent too, Laugeson said. They often have excellent auditory memory, heightened pitch perception — and sometimes even perfect pitch — at rates that are significantly higher than the general population.

And she said the benefits of playing with a group can stick around long after the jam session.

“For a lot of autistic people who have experienced peer rejection or social exclusion, difficulty connecting with other people, participating in a group with some sort of shared purpose like music-making can be very empowering,” Laugeson said.

Frizzell said that’s really the goal for Spectrum Bluegrass, even if they’re just getting started.

“I’d love to look back in 10 years and go, ‘Hey, you know, there’s this many hundreds or this many thousands of people on the spectrum who had a great time playing bluegrass and just clocked in a lot of beautiful hours of feeling good,” he said.

Next event

The next Spectrum Bluegrass meetup is slated for Nov. 8 at the South State 48 bluegrass festival in Carlsbad.

You can learn more about Spectrum Bluegrass on their website — and sign up for their newsletter.

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

Four weeks ago, Matt Johnstone received a call from the board-and-care facility in North Hollywood where his 89-year-old father lives. Health Net, the insurance company that pays for his care, was eliminating its assisted living benefit, meaning he would have to move out soon.

Johnstone panicked. His father has dementia and needs around-the-clock care. Neither Johnstone nor his brother can afford the roughly $6,000 per month the facility costs, and with health problems of their own, they can’t safely meet his needs at home either. Without insurance coverage, their father could end up on the streets, he said.

“He’s declining, and I just don’t know what’s going to happen if the program ends,” Johnstone said. CalMatters is not publishing the father’s name because Johnstone fears the plan will target him for speaking with media.

Health Net, one of the largest Medi-Cal insurers in the country, is canceling assisted living benefits for members at the end of the year, according to documents obtained by CalMatters and interviews with providers. Approximately 3,500 Medi-Cal patients like Johnstone’s father rely on Health Net to pay for assisted living costs. Most are elderly, and many have cognitive issues like dementia, senior advocates say. Medi-Cal is the state’s public insurance program for low-income Californians and people with disabilities.

CalViva Health and Community Health Plan of Imperial Valley, which contract with Health Net to provide services, have also notified the state of their intent to discontinue assisted living benefits.

Health Net's decision has been shrouded in confusion with little public information. Senior advocates and family members of assisted living residents fear people will become homeless or be shuffled between hospitals and skilled nursing facilities.

A disaster in the making?

Pauline Shatara, deputy director of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, said a few assisted living facilities have already confirmed to her organization that residents have been dropped off at emergency rooms.

“This is going to be a disaster,” Shatara said.

Senior advocates also say the state did not include enough consumer protections to ensure patients stay housed if plans decide to terminate coverage. State regulators dispute that characterization.

The assisted living support is an optional Medi-Cal benefit, meaning plans can opt-into offering it to members and decide annually whether the program will continue. Assisted living support is part of CalAIM, California’s broad effort to improve Medi-Cal services and save money by stabilizing high-cost users who often end up repeatedly in emergency rooms. It pays a majority of the 24-hour service costs at board-and-care homes, memory care facilities, or larger group settings, while residents cover room-and-board fees.

The average nursing home, which offers a higher level of medical care, costs upwards of $10,000 per month, while an assisted living facility costs between $5,000 to $7,000 monthly.

The state created the benefit in part to relieve pressure on a separate assisted living program for low-income patients managed directly by the state, which has an 18,000 person cap and a three- to four-year waitlist.

Health Net operates Medi-Cal plans in 10 counties: Amador, Calaveras, Fresno, Inyo, Los Angeles, Mono, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tulare.

In an unsigned statement, a spokesperson for the company disputed the assertion that patients would be left without services and would end up unhoused. Affected members will receive care through their individual authorization date, and could be transitioned to nursing homes, back home with in-home supportive services, or to other programs, according to the statement.

“We are working closely with members, providers and care management teams to develop individualized transition plans based on each member's clinical needs and eligibility for other available programs and services,” the company statement said. 

The statement also said internal data showed the assisted living program “has not led to better care” in terms of fewer emergency room visits or days hospitalized.

Matt Johnstone helps his dad Jim put on his shoes while he sits at the edge of his bed in his room at an assisted living facility in North Hollywood on Aug. 13, 2026.

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Ariana Drehsler

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CalMatters

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Health Net told state regulators its decision was fueled partly by an increase in members moving from home to assisted living rather than from nursing homes, a trend that costs the plan money instead of generating savings, according to a termination notice sent to the Department of Health Care Services. The plan also blames regulators for changing program guidelines that had previously allowed Health Net to limit community transitions.

“The guidance raises concerns regarding program integrity and long term viability,” the notice reads.

The Department of Health Care Services, which oversees the program, refused an interview request. In an emailed statement, officials said the department would communicate with Health Net to “ensure member protections and continuity of care”

Health Net’s decision follows a similar one last year to terminate a separate CalAIM benefit with a provider in L.A. County, affecting hundreds of people in temporary medical housing.

“Their position is it’s less costly to offer no services than some services,” said Hagar Dickman, director of long-term services and supports for Justice In Aging.

No information sparks confusion, 'rumor mill'

When Johnstone first heard about Health Net’s decision, he searched the company’s website for information about the change: Nothing. Then, he picked up the phone.

“When I called into Health Net customer service, they didn't even know what the program is,” Johnstone said. He has not received a letter notifying him of the upcoming termination.

Jennifer Horcasitas-Glenn ran into the same problem. Her 75-year-old mother-in-law, Jacqueline Glenn, has dementia and Alzheimer's. Horcasistas-Glenn and her husband spent nine years caring for Jacqueline at home until recent hospitalizations made it impossible to continue. She has been in a memory care facility since May.

Horcasitas-Glenn said she was also notified of the change by a third-party provider, not Health Net, and hasn’t gotten answers from the insurer. Horcasitas-Glenn said she spent days bouncing between customer service representatives and supervisors who had never heard of the program before being transferred to a Health Net social worker who was aware of the changes but had no further information.

“I told her I have a plethora of questions I need answered. She said ‘I think you should forward all of your questions to this email,’” Horcasitas-Glenn said. To-date she has not received answers.

The health plan notified some major contractors that services would be terminated Oct. 7, according to providers interviewed by CalMatters. But Medi-Cal enrollees themselves have not been notified of changes by Health Net, according to advocates and multiple families interviewed for this story.

One of the biggest sources of confusion is when services will actually stop. Many of the plan contracts end in October, but the plan has an obligation to continue services until the end of the year, Dickman said.

“The question is, what's Health Net going to do after October 7? They don't have contracts with these facilities, so how are they going to provide?" said Jonathan Istrin, chairman of Libertana, one of the groups whose contracts were terminated. Libertana subcontracts with hundreds of assisted living facilities in California, Istrin said, and Health Net doesn’t have the infrastructure to pay those places directly.

Health Net must notify members of termination 30 days before the service end date. Providers aren’t certain whether notices will go out at the end of September or beginning of December. For some, the notices may come after members are already evicted, Shatara said..

“Right now it can feel like a rumor mill and nobody knows what they should do because Health Net has not been giving anyone any information,” Shatara said.

Matt Johnstone, left, and Russell Granger, right, help their father Jim get up from his bed at an assisted living facility in North Hollywood on Aug. 13, 2026.

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Ariana Drehsler

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CalMatters

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On Aug. 10, Horcasitas-Glenn said she received a letter from Health Net stating that approval for her mother’s memory care facility would be revoked a month early “at the request of the provider.” The provider told Horcasitas-Glenn that they had not requested an early termination and had instead asked Health Net how to accommodate patients who have a right to services until the end of the year. CalMatters independently confirmed this information.

“This is baloney. They’re not being transparent about anything, and they’re lying on documents,” Horcasitas-Glenn said. Customer service still doesn’t know what program she’s talking about when she calls.

According to state regulators, Health Net members are entitled to services until Dec. 31 as long as it is “clinically appropriate.” If the authorization for a member’s assisted living expires before the end of the year, they should request an extension.

State offers few consumer protections

Other than the 30-day notice, advocates say, the state has very few protections for patients when services are terminated.

Health Net has not given patients transition plans, and the state cannot guarantee patients will receive the same level of care elsewhere, Shatara said. Advocates and providers told CalMatters the Department of Health Care Services and Health Net have mutually referred questions to the other organization, offering no clear answers.

The Department of Health Care Services in an email argued its patient notification requirements are adequate, stating “Medi-Cal members have strong protections.” Some patient protections include the right to appeal or file a grievance with the plan, access to alternative services, and continuity-of-care requirements. The state also places responsibility with Health Net.

According to the termination notice filed with the state, Health Net members “will be transitioned to alternative care settings, including home, as appropriate.”

Jim smokes his pipe outside an assisted living facility in North Hollywood on Aug. 13, 2026.

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Ariana Drehsler

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CalMatters

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Pictures of Jim’s sister, Jim with puppies, books, a stuffed animal and a first-prize award for a motorcycle show sit on a nightstand in his room.

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Ariana Drehsler

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CalMatters

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For most patients, home is not an option, Shatara said. Many live on fixed Social Security incomes and give up their primary residence in order to pay room and board fees at care facilities that Medi-Cal doesn’t cover. Their needs are also too acute for family members to meet. The only other appropriate alternative care settings, Shatara said, are nursing homes and hospitals, which may not be able to handle the influx.

“It’s inevitable that people will end up in ERs and on the streets,” Shatara said.

Some families like Horcasitas-Glenn are contemplating switching to another Medi-Cal insurer that still provides the benefit, but have been told other plans don’t want to approve these expensive long-term services for new patients. Others, like Johnstone, are at a loss.

Johnstone’s dad turned a lifelong love of motorcycles and racecars into a successful autobody repair and restoration business in Southern California. Eventually, in his later years, undiagnosed dementia would trap his mind 20 years in the past, Johnstone said, causing him to make poor business decisions and take on enormous amounts of debt and work he could no longer perform. A terminal cancer diagnosis for Johnstone’s mother would also wipe out all of the family’s savings.

“There is nothing else,” Johnstone said.

Worried your loved one will be affected by changes to Medi-Cal services? Send tips to health@calmatters.org.

Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

For more than six years, a Los Angeles-area fiduciary altered bank statements and fudged court reports to steal more than $6 million from his clients, the California Attorney General’s Office claims, setting up what it called a “Ponzi-style” scheme to rob people who can’t take care of themselves.

In May, state prosecutors filed grand theft charges against Gregory Oveross and his accountant, Faranita L. Corvalan, alleging what would be one of the largest fiduciary thefts in California history.

Oveross and Corvalan pleaded not guilty and have been released on bond, awaiting trial.

Prosecutors say Oveross misled his clients and the probate court. But court and other public records reviewed by CalMatters show that court officials and the state Professional Fiduciaries Bureau missed red flags years before Oveross was charged, highlighting our ongoing reporting into the state’s weak oversight of fiduciaries, who have the power to control people’s finances and basic aspects of their lives.

For example, in one case Oveross allegedly wrote himself 19 checks totaling $670,000 over the course of a year from one client’s accounts. Even though the state accounting form asks for check numbers for every expense, Oveross left that column blank.

Still, Superior Court Judge Deborah L. Christian approved the financial report.

“Not having check numbers would be a big red flag,” said Judge Sandra Bean, the supervising judge for probate court in Alameda County. “It’s all very practical. If something smells bad, it probably is.”

In response to past abuses, lawmakers in 2006 passed a law that required fiduciaries to turn in more detailed documentation to account for how they spent their clients’ money. By forcing fiduciaries to list check numbers, the courts would ostensibly be able to spot if check numbers were missing and stop fiduciaries from writing hidden checks.

In a separate case, the Attorney General’s Office said Oveross never paid a $1.7 million inheritance to beneficiaries after the court appointed him to manage a deceased person’s estate.

Records do not indicate that Los Angeles Superior Court ordered a hearing to ensure the money had been distributed. State law does not require courts to automatically schedule such a review, creating a hodgepodge of rules across California counties.

The courts in some counties automatically set up such a hearing. Others, such as Sacramento, San Joaquin and Santa Clara counties, do not.

During the time of Oveross’ alleged thefts, the Los Angeles Superior Court did not automatically schedule such hearings. The court changed its rules in January 2026, automatically scheduling follow-up review dates after approving the final distribution, said Rob Oftring, a spokesperson for the court.

Additionally, public records obtained by CalMatters show that Oveross omitted from his annual statement a case in which he’d been accused of wrongdoing. The statements, which are supposed to give the public and the bureau a window into fiduciaries who’ve been in trouble, are based on the honor system. Fiduciaries sign the statements under penalty of perjury.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a 2021 law that would have required courts to notify the bureau when judges punished fiduciaries for abusing their licenses. However, that requirement was to go into effect only if lawmakers funded it. They haven’t.

In 2022 and 2023, Oveross submitted statements to the bureau that didn’t answer a question about whether he had settled any complaints, records show. The bureau still issued Oveross a valid license each year, according to its website. The bureau declined to answer any questions about Oveross, citing the pending criminal case.

The state Professional Fiduciaries Bureau was established two decades ago to protect consumers after a news investigation showed that judges were not preventing abuse and conflicts of interest by fiduciaries. However, CalMatters’ reporting this year has found that some of the same issues remain.

The bureau says it depends on courts to police fiduciaries, and the courts often depend on the bureau, creating a loop of blame and little accountability.

Oftring said an attorney reviews fiduciaries’ accounting and confirms that “all required information and supporting documentation are provided, that financial activity is clearly explained, and that the accounting is accurate and balanced.”

When asked why the court approved Oveross’ accounting, he said judges and court staff are “prohibited from publicly commenting on any pending or impending proceeding in any court.”

In the arrest declaration, the Attorney General’s Office said Oveross had a “systematic and pervasive pattern of asset misappropriation, discrepancies, unauthorized fund diversions and non-compliance with probate court mandates.”

Attorneys for Oveross and Corvalan didn’t respond to requests for comment for this story.

Oveross kept his license for years while under investigation

Jean C. Elbert had dementia. Her extended family was far away, and her closest relative, her brother, was battling Alzheimer’s. Elbert’s family asked the court to appoint a fiduciary to handle her care and finances. The court appointed Oveross, a longtime fiduciary, in August 2018.

Oveross managed Elbert’s conservatorship for about a year. During his time as her conservator, prosecutors say, Oveross wrote 19 checks to himself and didn’t include any of them on the financial report he filed with the court.

After Elbert died in August 2019, Oveross told the court that he had $1.8 million to distribute to her heirs, and the court ordered him to deliver the money.

Oveross did not send $764,000 owed to Elbert’s brother, according to court filings and state prosecutors.

The brother’s son sued for his father’s share of the inheritance, court records show. The son’s attorney discovered that Oveross had taken money from the conservatorship and estate, according to the court filings, and that he had used money from other clients’ accounts to eventually pay Elbert’s brother his inheritance.

In May 2024, the two sides entered into a settlement agreement, but state records show the fiduciary did not report it on his 2025 annual statement, as is required.

All told, the fiduciary made $1.3 million in unauthorized payments from Elbert’s accounts, according to court filings from the Attorney General's Office.

In another case, Oveross was in charge of Guadalupe Rodriguez Diaz’s $2 million estate after she died in 2019.

After paying the bills, Oveross told the court that Diaz’s estate had $1.6 million left for her beneficiaries.

The Attorney General’s office says Oveross opened “a secondary set of accounts” and made “unauthorized” transfers to himself and Corvalan, and to another trust he managed. In court filings, they say Oveross spent nearly the entire estate on himself and his associates.

Diaz’s heirs, prosecutors say, never got a dime from the accounts.

“Notably, no transactions related to heir distributions were observed within these accounts,” prosecutors wrote in court records.

The criminal case was launched after Elbert’s nephew and one of Oveross’ clients filed complaints to the bureau in 2023, according to court records. Shortly afterward, the bureau investigator forwarded the case to the California Department of Justice.

As the criminal investigation played out, Oveross was allowed to work with a valid fiduciary license for more than two years.

His license was suspended less than two weeks after he was arrested. In its order prohibiting Oveross from practicing, the bureau asked him to turn over a complete list of all matters in which he serves as a fiduciary.

Those are details the bureau should have had. The bureau requires its fiduciaries to accurately report them every year on their annual statements.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

California lawmakers are advancing an effort to preserve oil refinery safety rules that were designed to prevent fires, explosions and other catastrophes despite industry opposition.

The union-backed proposal, Senate Bill 966, would enshrine existing worker protections into state law as California regulators move to revise them in response to a legal settlement with the state’s oil lobby.

“We're trying to get the best regulations possible for these industries,” said Nick Plurkowski, a leader of a Bay Area local of the United Steelworkers. “An industry where you have to write into regulation … that it's okay to refuse work that could lead to your death.”

The bill would lock in workers’ rights to refuse dangerous work, participate in safety reviews, choose their own representatives for safety planning and report hazards anonymously.

The measure is among several targeting the oil and gas industry this year, including proposals aimed at refinery closure plans and a bid to curb high gas prices during wartime by expanding the state’s price-gouging law. Lawmakers’ focus on refineries comes as California drivers face the nation’s highest gasoline prices and the Iran war pushes up the global price of crude oil.

The worker safety bill would lock in provisions adopted after a 2012 Chevron refinery fire in Richmond that prompted 15,000 people to seek medical attention. The Western States Petroleum Association, the state’s main oil lobby, formally opposes the measure, arguing it would override a 2024 legal settlement the industry reached with regulators.

The industry and union players fighting over the bill do not contribute much money directly to lawmakers, according to CalMatters’ Digital Democracy database. Campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry can be toxic in elections for the state’s politically dominant Democratic Party.

But WSPA is a powerhouse when it comes to lobbying. It’s routinely the biggest spender in the Capitol among the many interest groups that hire lobbyists, according to state records.

WSPA reported lobbying on the measure, and is joined by some of the state’s largest refiners, Chevron, Marathon Petroleum and PBF Energy, according to lobbying reports reviewed by CalMatters. Those three companies run refineries that comprise nearly 90% of California’s crude oil refining capacity.

The proposal, which cleared a key fiscal committee this week, is authored by State Sen. Lena Gonzalez, a Democrat from Long Beach, and comes after an explosion last year at Chevron’s El Segundo refinery. That blast rattled windows across nearby neighborhoods and shot uncontrolled columns of flame into the air, raising new concerns about the safety of the state’s aging refineries.

Zach Leary, a lobbyist for WSPA, in testimony at a legislative hearing earlier this summer, argued the proposal would override a 2024 settlement under which California regulators agreed to pursue changes to refinery safety rules in exchange for the industry dropping years of litigation.

“Unfortunately, it's this type of regulatory and legislative whiplash that creates a business environment that is very difficult to operate in,” Leary said in June.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Department of Finance also opposes the bill, arguing it adds additional costs not included in this year’s budget, could expose the state to further litigation expenses and may conflict with an ongoing process to rewrite the rules following the 2024 settlement.

California has some of the nation’s toughest refinery safety measures because of two earlier explosions: the 2012 Richmond refinery fire, and another in 2015 at a refinery in Torrance then owned by ExxonMobil that came close to releasing modified hydrofluoric acid, a potentially deadly industrial chemical.

The worker rules are built around the concept of process safety, which requires refineries to identify and address hazards before they lead to accidents and gives workers a direct role in safety reviews and investigations. The goal is to prevent failures that can lead to refinery fires and explosions.

But WSPA sued to block the rules in 2019, calling them unclear and invalid. California quietly settled in 2024. In response to the settlement, the California Environmental Protection Agency finalized amendments this year to its refinery safety rules, including how workers take part in safety decisions and how hazards are reviewed. A companion rule revision at the state’s workplace safety agency is ongoing.

Plurkowski, of the local United Steelworkers union, said that the outcome at CalEPA prompted the push for the worker safety measures to be written into law. The regional United Steelworkers District 12 sponsored the measure.

“Part of what led to SB 966 was how quickly CalEPA folded,” Plurkowski said. “People's lives are at stake, communities are at stake, we've learned enough lessons to know better at this point.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

This story first appeared on Long Beach Post.

At the peak of efforts to quell a massive warehouse fire in Boyle Heights in June, firefighters sent 12,000 gallons of water per minute at the flames — by water cannons, aerial ladder pipes and helicopter flybys.

The overwhelming rush of water, millions of gallons over the eight days to subdue the fire, filtered through the Lineage cold-storage facility’s solar panels, insulation and freezers before feeding into nearby storm drains, carrying with it an array of toxic metals, chemicals and tainted food that eventually flowed into the Los Angeles River.

If this were an oil spill, sewage leak or a chemical tank explosion, a standardized system would kick in to notify downstream cities and residents that a dangerous flow is heading their way.

But in this case, that didn’t happen, as experts say a gap in environmental rules made it so the hazardous firefighting runoff skirted the threshold for such a response.

Water is dropped by helicopter at a warehouse fire in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles on Wednesday, June 17, 2026.

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Jae C. Hong

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AP Photo

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According to records reviewed by the Long Beach Post, the city didn’t receive outside warning that its waterways might be unsafe until June 25, eight days after the fire began, when a county public works employee sent a brief email saying fish had begun dying in the nearby wetlands, and that it might be tied to the fire.

“We wanted to alert the City, as your beaches are located at the receiving end of the L.A. River, and wanted to share this information to keep you informed of the situation to ensure that public health and safety are protected,” the email stated.

Even then, that warning never made it to the public. Two months later, Long Beach residents have never been told exactly what chemicals and metals may have been sent downstream and what, if any, harm could have come from swimming, wading and boating in the public waterways that connect to the river. Emergency declarations made by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom days earlier addressed only the toxins sent into the air.

When it comes to firefighting runoff, “there are no mandated protocols” for warning downstream neighbors of the risk, according to Elizabeth Vazquez, a spokesperson for the L.A. County Public Works department that manages the L.A. River.

Long Beach’s only public notice came as a city health advisory after routine testing on June 23 discovered high bacteria levels in the ocean. Officials posted warning notices about the bacteria, total coliform, fecal coliform and enterococcus on five segments of beach from Fifth Place to the west side of the Belmont Pier.

Bacteria levels were so high that they reached the peak of what could be registered, said Emmanuel Carrera Ruedas, a community scientist and member of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, an ecological watchdog group. “We don’t really even know the full extent of the bacteria in the water, but what we do know is that it’s at least thirty times higher than normal levels,” he added.

Emmanuel Carrera Ruedas wears a mask and gloves as he prepares to collect water samples from the LA River on Wednesday, July 1.

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Steve Saldivar

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The LA Local

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A health department spokesperson said last week that no beaches or waterways were closed, even though bacteria levels were high enough to make someone sick. This is standard practice, the department says, as closures are typically reserved for when there is known or suspected sewage or chemical discharge.

The extremely poor water quality was odd for this time of year, according to Heal the Bay, which tracks water quality and indicated it’s normally much better in July. Despite the anomaly, the city’s notices did not mention any potential connection to the fire or any other pollutants it may have sent into the ocean, as the link to the fire has not been confirmed. The city health department tests only for bacteria; it does not routinely test for chemicals, heavy metals or viruses.

Researchers at UCLA and Columbia University, as well as the city of LA’s Bureau of Sanitation, are still testing to determine what hazardous chemicals were in the water and to what extent the runoff carried toxins to the coast. Teams say they screened for 14 metals like cadmium and lead, along with metalloids like arsenic and selenium.

Frustrated by the weak outside warning and the city health department’s limited response, Long Beach City Council members argue there should have been better notice to the thousands of people fishing, boating and swimming in the lower estuaries.

“When water quality is in doubt, families avoid the water, people stop fishing, visitors stay away and local businesses suffer,” according to a July 21 letter from the City Council. “Even perceived risks can limit shoreline use. Protecting our water quality is a regional equity issue, as downstream pollution threatens access to one of the most accessible coastal resources for Southeast Los Angeles communities.”

The Long Beach City Council is now demanding that regional, state and county agencies rethink how they warn each other in the event that dangerous runoff is heading their way.

Councilmember Kristina Duggan, who has championed the idea alongside council members Tunua Thrash-Ntuk and Cindy Allen, argued the problem isn’t some individual or department failing to give notice, but a regulatory blind spot that needs systemic change.

Typically, when a major sewage spill or crude oil slips into the river or sea, a strict, standardized chain of alerts sound off, starting through the California Office of Emergency Services that can trigger beach closures and rapid water testing.

But there is no automatic mechanism that forces agencies to respond the same way for firefighting runoff once it leaves the scene. In fact, it is conditionally exempt from federal and state storm sewer rules.

Instead, departments rely on an informal patchwork of inter-agency courtesy calls; there is no single standardized system dictating who calls whom, how fast or under what threshold.

Without a system in place, scores of dead fish were found in the Dominguez Gap Wetlands before any agency publicly acknowledged the runoff might endanger the water, right before one of the city’s busiest beach weekends of the year.

“Without timely information, our public health professionals cannot make decisions about risks to our residents and our recreational water risks,” Duggan said.

It’s an oversight that’s had consequences before.

In 2021, water used to douse a warehouse fire in Carson sent packaged hand sanitizer into the Dominguez Channel, killing marine life, mystifying residents with a smell of rotten eggs and prompting a proposed $17 million state penalty against property owners. During the 2025 Palisades fires, rain sent toxic ash runoff — containing pesticides, asbestos, plastics and lead from burned cars, electronics, batteries and building materials — into local waters.

In some instances, such as during a January 2025 power plant fire in Moss Landing and another instance at the Port of Los Angeles in September 2024, firefighters thought it environmentally safer to let fires scorch through deposits of lithium-ion batteries rather than douse them and send hazardous runoff into storm drains.

Environmental advocates say these incidents fit a recurring pattern along the concretized Los Angeles River, which lacks natural floodplains and wetlands to filter urban runoff.

Firefighters continue to work on a warehouse fire in Boyle Heights on Sunday, June 21, 2026.

(

Steve Saldivar

/

The LA Local

)

“What is clear is that our infrastructure and our drainage systems do not consider the LA River to be part of our ecology,” Ruedas said. “There’s no filtration, no efforts to contain any of the metals or any of the bacteria that’s happening at our drainage. It’s a straight shot from wherever the fire is straight into the city of Long Beach. And we saw that very clearly.”

Some groups, including East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, have resorted to self-testing the water out of a growing skepticism for official oversight.

Ruedas said their testing last month along the L.A. River near Long Beach has come back, and they hope to present it to the public in the next week or so. Unable to give too much information, Ruedas said they did notice in their data collection there were heavy spikes in the presence of metals along the river from June 20 to 22.

Ruedas says the region desperately needs to fix how it responds and how it communicates to the public when and where hazardous materials are present.

That requires not just fixing a broken warning system but looking years into the future, he said: “How do we want our drainage systems to look? How do we want to limit not just isolated fire events, but just the entire way we think about water in the city of LA and the county of LA.”

Long Beach is now discussing updated notification protocols with Orange County and Los Angeles County.

“When any event that significantly impacts our water quality and puts the public at risk, it should trigger notification, protocol monitoring and coordination,” Councilmember Duggan said.

The L.A. Regional Water Quality Control Board is set to take up the topic next month, in a presentation that will review sampling taken along the river and an update on the facility cleanup. Those interested in watching the meeting or reviewing its agenda can click here.