A reader asked: Is fire debris being dumped in my neighborhood? LAist investigated

Are dump trucks from the Eaton and Palisades fire burn areas dumping waste in the desert?

That’s what one reader from Palmdale wanted to know after seeing vehicles with Army Corps of Engineers labels hauling waste through the Mojave.

As LAist recently reported, illegal dumping has reached emergency proportions in the area. And because we know that those Army Corps labels indicate that a truck has been contracted to haul fire debris, and that none of the approved debris hauling routes go to the Mojave, we decided to investigate.

Large piles of concrete, which includes foundations from fire sites, are taken to the Altadena Golf Course for processing.

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Jacob Margolis

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LAist

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Following trucks

The reader told me that I could spot the trucks getting off Highway 14 at the Pearblossom exit. So I started my day parked on the shoulder there one morning in early June.

Within a few minutes, trucks with the big white labels came lumbering along.

A truck bearing stickers that show it was hired to haul fire debris is seen in Kern County, far from facilities the Army Corps has said are taking fire debris.

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Jacob Margolis

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LAist

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I followed one with a black cab, full of concrete, deep through Littlerock and Pearblossom, until it pulled into a processing facility that was, as it turns out, completely legal to drop the material at.

After heading back to the highway, I followed another truck north on the 14 until it crossed into Kern County. The driver exited, made a sharp right turn behind a gas station and traveled up a small street toward the open desert, where concrete, terracotta tiles, bricks and wood were piled up on the roadside.

After a few minutes, he disappeared down a dirt road, making a left at a massive tire sticking out of the ground with the words: “Big Iron Mining Pit” painted on it.

The truck dropped its load of concrete in an open pit before turning around and heading back to the freeway.

Then, another truck with Army Corps labels showed up. Then another, and another.

A home destroyed in the Eaton Fire on Jan. 8. Nearly six months later, the cleanup is progressing, and debris is being hauled away.

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David Pashaee

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AFP

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The official explanation

Cory Koger, debris subject matter expert for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said that haulers can take concrete from the burn areas to any vendor that’s willing to accept it. And that once it leaves the temporary debris sites, such as the Altadena Golf Course, it's the property of the prime contractor, ECC.

I asked ECC program manager Matt Long why the trucks I saw in the desert would have an Army Corps sticker.

“ They're supposed to cover up that plaque and take off that logo when they're not working on our job site,” he said. Whether they remember to do that is another matter.

In other words, Long said, the trucks I saw could be picking up jobs in between hauling fire debris.

Given what I've reported on illegal dumping in the desert, that seems to be a likely explanation.

Haulers will drop waste at illegal sites to avoid paying more expensive tip fees at licensed landfills and other facilities.

With the fire debris, there seems to be little incentive for contractors to illegally dump.

ECC pays facilities directly for each load that's dropped off, and the haulers are paid by the hour by subcontractors, according to Long.

The material is supposed to be tracked by ECC until it reaches an approved destination, such as Bradley Recycling or Vulcan Recycling in Sun Valley. If the load left the debris site and didn’t show up, the ticket for that load remains open in ECC’s system.

“ We'd have to track that load down. That's how we control where those loads go,” Long said.

I did ask Long to look up a specific truck I saw dumping at the site, but he didn't get back to me.

As far as I can tell, the concrete from the burn sites is going to the aforementioned concrete recycling facilities and then processed into products like road base. Though that can be controversial, as LAist recently reported.

The concrete in the trucks was dumped at the Big Iron mine in Kern County. Officials say it's allowed to accept concrete as backfill.

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Google Earth

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Tying up loose ends

I had a final angle to check as I was wrapping up this story. What was the open pit where I saw the cavalcade of trucks drop their loads?

It’s a decomposed granite mine called Big Iron Concrete and Asphalt Disposal, owned by Big Iron DG Mine LLC. And according to California's Franchise Tax Board, the company's right to conduct business in California is suspended because they're delinquent on their taxes.

However, when I asked Kern County whether it was legal for concrete to be dumped there, Craig Murphy,  assistant director for the Kern County Planning and Natural Resources Department, confirmed that the company has a permit to accept concrete and asphalt as backfill.