Left behind by the Camp fire: up to 8 million tons of debris

CHICO, Calif. –– The first job was to contain the state’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire. The second is to deal with what it left behind.

With more than 17,000 structures destroyed by the Camp fire, authorities will soon begin a cleanup that will test their ingenuity like never before: removal of an estimated 6 to 8 million tons of toxic rubble, soil and concrete strewn across 150,000 acres of mountain terrain.

If all goes according to plan, what is expected to be the most expensive cleanup campaign in California history will be completed in six months to a year, allowing some displaced Paradise residents to begin rebuilding their homes by summer, said Sean Smith, state debris removal coordinator.

“We still have some creative work to do, but I’m pushing hard to get that debris off the ground in time for people to start rebuilding in optimal weather,” Smith said.

The project will be managed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with help from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, state and county authorities and thousands of contract workers.

It will begin in a week or two, Smith said, when crews arrive to assess levels of hazardous and carcinogenic materials such as lead, asbestos, pesticides, herbicides and propane tanks, lot by lot.

In January, fleets of contracted bulldozers, dump trucks, cranes and track hoes with mechanical jaws at the ends of 30-foot hydraulic arms will swarm the narrow mountain roads of the Sierra foothills city, about 10 miles east of Chico.

Half the debris — burned concrete and metal including vehicles — will be taken to a railyard in Chico and later taken to a recycling center.

“The debris will be hauled in trucks lined and covered with heavy plastic to ensure containment of the materials while they are in transit” to seven landfills as far away as Kettleman City, about 300 miles south, said Bryan May, a spokesman for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

Landfills in the immediate vicinity of Paradise and neighboring mountain communities won’t be burdened by the federal cleanup, officials said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will fund 75 percent of the effort.