LOS ANGELES, California — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is storing asbestos, for now, in Temescal Gateway Park, in the Pacific Palisades, as its contractors remove the carcinogenic material from homes destroyed in the recent fire.
The park, currently closed to the public, is one of the most popular in the mountainous area of Los Angeles, and is a “gateway” to the Topanga State Park, which stretches up Temescal Canyon to the Santa Monica Mountains beyond.
The park is run by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority and Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.
Breitbart News observed half a dozen green shipping containers in the parking area, which were marked with warning signs and lined with plastic inside. Workers from a company apparently contracted to the Corps unloaded plastic bags into the containers.
The Corps confirmed to Breitbart News that asbestos is being stored temporarily in the park, and that it will be removed.
Captain Joshua Baida, an engineer and public affairs officer with the Corps, said:
Yes, we are temporarily storing asbestos at Temescal Gateway Park prior to movement to an authorized disposal facility.
The asbestos is double bagged and placed into a triple lined and sealed container. It is in a secure, controlled and contained environment in accordance with all state and federal standards.
Asbestos currently on the ground in an uncontrolled state is the public health risk. Uncontrolled asbestos is a threat to the park and surroundings, not asbestos once moved to controlled environments, which is what USACE is doing.
The Corps is not providing soil testing for residents, but is testing some materials in the rubble, including concrete, for the presence of asbestos. Concrete without asbestos is being crushed and recycled in a makeshift facility on Temescal Canyon Road, on the lower, opposite side of Sunset Boulevard from the Temescal Gateway Park.
Older buildings tend to have asbestos, which was widely used for its fire resistant properties until its dangers were known.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
