Friday, August 15, 2025

How Safe is the Soil?

By EDDIE RIVERA

Panelists discuss soil testing in the Altadena burn areas. From left, consumer advocate Erin Brockovich, Joshua West, USC; Dr. Aradhna Tripati, a chemist and climate scientist at UCLA, and Christine Lenches-Hinkel, of 301 Organics. [Eddie Rivera/Pasadena Now]

Residents demand soil testing and action at town hall

More than 200 Altadena residents gathered in a meeting room at the Salvation Army Tabernacle Thursday with a mix of worry, exhaustion, and resolve. A Soil Testing Town Hall, organized by the LA Fire Justice law group, drew an array of environmental experts, scientists, and advocates — including consumer advocate Erin Brockovich — to confront an unsettling question lingering since January’s devastating fires: What toxins remain in the soil where we live, play, and rebuild?

In April, federal funds for soil testing were dramatically reduced, forcing the County Board of Supervisors to provide $3 million to pay for soil testing in the Altadena burn areas.

Joshua West, a professor of earth sciences and environmental studies at USC, whose own home burned in January, described the launch of a community-led testing initiative called Clean to offer free soil analysis, particularly for residents in the Eaton Fire burn area.

Initial roadside dust samples collected just after the fire revealed “startling” lead concentrations, especially within the burn zone. “No amount of lead is safe in your soil,” West reminded attendees, noting that even within a single block, contamination levels can vary widely.

To date, the program has tested more than 2,800 samples, finding most below California’s 80 parts-per-million screening threshold — but some with dangerously high readings in the thousands. “Getting the kind of granular, property-level information of testing your own soil becomes really important,” West said.

The USC program, along with parallel efforts by Los Angeles County, aims to expand testing to include other contaminants, from organic pollutants to heavy metals. But West cautioned against relying on over-the-counter soil kits, calling their accuracy “questionable” compared to laboratory analysis.

For Brockovich, whose name has become synonymous with grassroots environmental battles, the state’s response has been infuriating.

“I do have a serious frustration, unfortunately, with our state not doing testing and deferring that to you — the people who suffered and lost your homes,” she told the audience. “You cannot defend yourself if you don’t know what you’re building on.”

Brockovich, who lost her own fire insurance after surviving California’s Thomas and Woolsey fires, warned that failing to address contamination could leave communities vulnerable to “a large toxic litigation in the future” — and potentially uninsurable. “Bad timing to leave everybody in [a] quagmire when you need the funding and we need the tests,” she said, urging residents to press leaders for immediate action.

Her message was blunt: “Superman’s not coming. We’re going to have to start doing this ourselves.”

Dr. Aradhna Tripati, a chemist and climate scientist at UCLA, who lives near a burn area, placed the contamination crisis within a broader context of environmental justice and failed disaster response. “It is an absolutely immoral travesty,” she said, referring to gaps in federal and state aid.

Tripoli outlined a coalition effort to push for just rebuilding policies — ensuring that community members lead soil testing and remediation, that local residents are hired for reconstruction, and that sustainable land management practices guide recovery. She cited ongoing projects measuring multiple toxins, from arsenic and mercury to lithium from batteries and hexavalent chromium.

Her call to action was rooted in precedent: “They [communities] succeeded in getting oil wells banned in residential areas,” she said, referencing a previous environmental campaign. “That matters to all of us.”

For Christine Lenches-Hinkel, founder of 3 0 1 Organics, the path forward involves not just testing but healing the land biologically. Speaking while her own home near Antelope Valley remained under an evacuation notice, she described an on-site remediation approach known as bioremediation — using microorganisms, compost, and certain plants to detoxify soil without removing it.

“Any exposed ground is something we definitely want to cover,” she explained. Compost, she said, “is the material that houses these tiny creatures responsible for building healthy soil.”

Her team’s early treatments in the fire zone have shown reductions in hydrocarbons and volatile organic compounds, along with increases in beneficial soil biology. But she emphasized the importance of collective action: “Get with your block captains and get this done as a collective… You’re creating a protective kind of buffer for yourselves.”

The evening’s discussion ranged from the risks of “forever chemicals” like PFAS to whether fruit from backyard trees is safe to eat after fire exposure. (“Forego it for this season,” one panelist advised.)

For Brockovich, the night reinforced what she has seen in communities across the country: resilience. “You’re my heroes,” she told the crowd. “You’ve been through enough and you’ve shown up. It is my privilege to be able to be here… and help you in any way that I can.”

But her admiration came with a challenge. “Do not think somebody’s going to give you the next warning. It didn’t happen,” she said. “My job… is to arm you with the best information we can give you so you can better protect yourself, your home, [and] know what you’re being exposed to.”

As the meeting broke into smaller conversations and residents queued to speak with the experts, the sense of urgency was palpable. Testing, many agreed, was only the first step. Remediation, advocacy, and holding leaders accountable — would determine whether these neighborhoods could rebuild not just quickly, but safely.

LAFireJustice.com advertises in Pasadena Now.