The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has finished processing hazardous waste collected from properties damaged in the Eaton Fire and brought to a staging area in Azusa, officials announced Saturday.
All operations have ceased at the Lario Park staging area, and EPA workers have completely left the site, officials said. Sample tests from the area verified that the hazardous waste processing had no environmental impact.
“The successful completion of EPA’s work at the Lario staging area marks an important step in our hazardous materials removal mission throughout the Eaton fire zone,” Tara Fitzgerald, EPA’s incident commander, said in a statement. “We recognize community concerns about environmental impacts from our operations and confirm that as anticipated, our work at the staging area had no adverse environmental effects on the site or the surrounding communities.”
Some examples of household hazardous materials extracted from the more than 10,000 properties damaged or destroyed by the Eaton Fire in January include lithium-ion batteries, electronic devices, electric vehicles and bikes, power tools and home energy systems.
Information on the EPA’s safety and mitigation measures at and around the staging area is available at epa.gov/california-wildfires/fact-sheets.
The EPA’s hazardous waste work was part of a response effort led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which assigned the EPA to assess, remove and dispose of hazardous materials from all burned areas. The EPA set up temporary locations where hazardous materials collected from the fire zones were consolidated and repackaged in a controlled environment to ensure safe transportation to final disposal facilities.
The 29-day hazardous waste cleanup was the first phase of LA wildfire recovery and was the largest removal operation of wildfire hazardous materials in EPA history. The effort received support from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, California state agencies and local governments’ public works and public safety departments.
More information about the EPA’s hazardous material removal operations at the agency’s 2025 California Wildfires website.
Azusa Mayor Robert Gonzalez released a statement Feb. 5 on the Lario site that followed a Feb. 3 City Council meeting where EPA officials gave a presentation about the hazardous waste operation.
“The Lario site is federally-owned and operated by the Army Corps of Engineers and has been designated as a household hazardous item collection site,” Gonzalez said. “EPA Representatives were present to listen to public comments and address key questions by the City Council.
“The council has been informed that operations at the Lario site are ongoing. As a result, we are demanding assurances to ensure accountability as these operations continue. However, the EPA has assured us that Phase 2 will not take place at the Lario Site.
“My colleagues and I remain committed to advocating for robust safety measures to protect our community, residents, and the quality of our air, water, and soil,” Gonzalez said.
Azusa and a number of neighboring cities publicly opposed using Lario Park to process the hazardous fire waste.
“While the cities are completely in solidarity with our neighboring communities, we are extremely disappointed with the lack of respect to our local residents for not being notified of the EPA’s cleanup efforts and having toxic materials transported to our backyards,” according to a city of Duarte statement.
“I was disappointed to learn that Lario Park was selected as the site for the Eaton Fire hazardous waste cleanup, with no advanced warning or opportunity for community input,” Arcadia Mayor Michael Cao said in a statement in late January. “The wildfires that have ravaged Los Angeles County must be cleaned up, but I cannot understand how trucking hazardous waste through so many vulnerable communities, and placing near homes and schools, is the best possible option.”
Officials from Irwindale and Baldwin Park also joined in opposing the Lario staging site.
Currently Phase 2 debris removal is underway in burn areas. That work entails moving debris from destroyed buildings and wildfire ash to approved landfills.
