Debris removal begins in Sonoma Valley

Post-fire recovery programs in Sonoma Valley have picked up in recent days, with Caitlin Cornwall of the Sonoma Ecology Center reporting, “herds and herds of giant trucks all over Glen Ellen here for debris removal.”

Wildfire debris removal, which began in early November with the Environmental Proection Agency eliminating the most dangerous toxic materials left over by the disaster, will continue to expand to include ash, foundations, chimneys and other building materials that remain.

“There’s going to be a lot of activity in the next few weeks,” said state Senator Bill Dodd, whose 3rd District covers the Sonoma Valley outside the city limits.

Dodd also announced he would host a Sonoma Valley Recovery and Rebuilding Town Hall, to be held at the Veterans Memorial Building on Jan. 30.

The clean-up effort is broadly directed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. Agencies such as the Army Corps of Engineers, California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, and the state Office of Emergency Services also cooperate in debris removal.

Dodd is chair of the Senate Committee on Governmental Organization, which oversees legislation pertaining to the Office of Emergency Services, among other responsibilities.

Dodd said the material being removed is headed for staging areas to be sorted for what can be reused, recycled or disposed of. FEMA has set a goal of the end of February for all debris clean-up. “That’s the stated goal, I know they’re trying to get it done even quicker,” said Dodd.

Nancy Allen of the Army Corps of Engineers confirmed that “there has definitely been a ramp-up in recent days.” She said two firms were awarded contracts for the Sonoma clean-up – ECC and Ashbrit – following a formal bidding process at the end of 2017. Earlier clean-up contracts were awarded on an emergency basis.

Though tons of toxic sludge and burned building materials have been cleared so far, much remains to be done. As of Jan. 20, according to the Army Corps’ wildfirerecovery.org site, there have been 1,896 properties cleared in Sonoma County – separate figures for the Valley were not available – with 875 remaining to be cleared. A total of nearly 729,000 tons of debris had been removed so far, representing 33 percent of the total clean-up effort, according to Army Corps statistics.

Earlier news reports said approximately 652 structures in Sonoma Valley were destroyed, and 1,121 structures were damaged. Total area burned by the combined Nuns and Oakmont fires came to more than 30,300 acres, approximately 28 percent of the Valley.

In Sonoma Valley, the Nuns fire destroyed 375 Glen Ellen structures, including 183 homes, according to Sonoma Valley Fire Chief Steve Akre.

There were 70 crews in the field Friday who worked over the weekend, with 90 crews scheduled to work starting Monday, said Allen.

She said that as of this week, there are still 76 properties in Kenwood that still remain to be cleared, and 47 in Glen Ellen.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers functions as project manager for debris removal, infrastructure assessment, emergency power, temporary roofing and critical public facility construction.

In addition, local agencies and ad hoc organizations, such as the Open Space District Watershed Collaborative and the Sonoma Ecology Center, have been focused on properties at risk of spilling toxic material into waterways with the advent of rainfall.

“We prioritized properties based on proximity to waterways and how sloped they are,” said the SEC’s Don Frances. “But we’re not saying ‘no’ to anybody and will come out and do the shoring-up work as soon as we can for anybody in the Valley.”

Figures from the Sonoma Ecology Center show they’ve worked on 131 properties – with a total of 272 structures, including houses, garages, outbuildings, etc. – to prevent toxic sludge from washing into creeks as part of its Emergency Watershed Protection Program.

That initiative worked hand-in-hand with government agencies on burned sites, prioritizing those that FEMA was not getting to quickly to assure that properties at risk were “secured” with wattles, sandbags and other means, to make sure the rains don’t wash pollutants into the waterways.

“As for results, it’s hard to be 100 percent sure of how much toxic material was kept out of the streams by our efforts,” said Frances. “But we’ve been monitoring the water at various locations and so far are not seeing evidence of pollutants entering the streams.”

The Sonoma Valley Recovery and Rebuilding Town Hall on Jan. 30, at the Veterans Memorial Building, will begin at 6 p.m., and include experts on watershed protection, flood prevention, insurance and rebuilding programs, as well as debris removal.

“If anybody still has any question about anything, we’ll have experts there to answer their questions,” said Dodd.

Contact Christian at christian.kallen@sonomanews.com.