Wildfire debris washes up on LA beaches after major rainstorm
Los Angeles county beaches are contending with the aftermath of recent wildfires and winter storms as debris from the Palisades fire and urban runoff are carried to the shoreline.
After last week's major rainstorm, beaches in southern California have been littered with timber, twisted metals, construction materials and charred silt and sediment originating from the Palisades fire in January. That blaze, along with the Eaton fire, killed at least 29 people.
The Los Angeles county department of beaches and harbors said last week that officials were monitoring beach conditions and ocean water quality. Maintenance crews were working to remove large pieces of debris from the shore, and the department advised beachgoers to avoid visible fire debris and stay out of the ocean water where advisories were posted.
The department of public health lifted the ocean water quality rain advisory last week for all Los Angeles county beaches except those affected by fire. Beaches from Las Flores beach to Santa Monica state beach were still under advisory warnings.
Just days after the fires began, winds carried ash and charred debris up to 100 miles (161km) offshore. Since then, wind and waves have spread the charred material along the county's coastline.
'The fires burn also through vegetations that normally will help stabilize soil,' said Tania Pineda-Enriquez, water-quality data and policy specialist at Heal the Bay, an environmental advocacy group. 'Without this natural barrier, all the ash and soil will be washed out into the waterways.'
Beachgoers can still hang around the sand areas but should avoid water contact, especially near storm drains, creeks and rivers, since ocean water-quality testing results are still pending, according to the department of public health.
Initial sediment testing at Will Rogers state beach and Topanga Beach shows that the charred silt and sediment are not hazardous to people or the environment, the department of beaches and harbors said.
More testing is being conducted this week. The dark sediment, made up of fine ash mixed with sand, will not be removed to prevent further shoreline erosion and habitat destruction.
'Natural tides and weather will gradually break down and wash away the sediment, allowing the ecosystem to recover naturally,' reads a statement from the department of beaches and harbors.
The concern about debris comes as Angelenos protest against the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to set up a hazardous waste sorting site in lower Topanga near the ocean. The site is meant to process materials like paint, solvents and lithium-ion batteries from wildfire-ravaged homes, but hundreds of protesters thus far have raised concerns over the risks to water quality, wildlife and Indigenous heritage.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
What defunding public media would mean for the West
Sage Smiley, KYUK's news director, and Morris Alexie visit the proposed site for the climate-driven relocation of Nunapitchuk, a village of about 600 on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska. Alexie is the community's relocation manager. (Photo by Katie Baldwin Basile) Late last fall, members of Bethel, Alaska's search and rescue team met at the local public radio station, KYUK, for a program called River Watch. Over an hour and a half, they took calls from listeners around the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, comparing notes on the safety of the ice at different points along the Kuskokwim River. 'Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there,' said a caller from the village of Kalskag, his voice muffled over the phone. He said he'd recently flown over the river to the east and observed lots of holes in the ice. He wanted to warn listeners in other towns: 'There is no trail right now. None of the open water is marked. So it's advised not to be traveling back and forth from Aniak.' KYUK is the only daily news source for this region, which is roughly the size of Oregon, and River Watch is a staple of its programming. In dozens of Southwest Alaska villages — including many Yup'ik, Athabaskan and Cup'ik communities — residents who live far from the U.S. highway system rely on boats and snow machines to get around. 'The Kuskokwim River in this region is like our highway,' said KYUK news director Sage Smiley. During freeze-up and breakup each year, knowing the condition of the ice can be a matter of life and death. And in the Y-K Delta, where Internet access is often limited, public radio plays a crucial role. But if the Trump administration gets its way, programs like River Watch could soon disappear. Last month, the president signed an executive order aimed at preventing congressionally approved federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) from going to National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). CPB, NPR, PBS and a host of local stations have all filed lawsuits in response. Meanwhile, in its proposed budget, the administration outlined a plan to eliminate funding for CPB entirely — and this week, Trump asked Congress to take back more than a billion dollars that had already been set aside for public broadcasters. Lawmakers have 45 days to make a decision on the request, with a House vote expected as early as next week. Defunding public media would hurt stations across the U.S., but for ones like KYUK, which relies on CPB for nearly 70% of its revenue, it would be 'catastrophic,' Smiley said. The data show that stations serving rural and Indigenous audiences in the West would be the hardest hit. Here's why, by the numbers. CPB is an independent nonprofit created by Congress nearly 60 years ago to distribute federal funds to noncommercial TV and radio stations across the U.S. Today, it funds more than 1,500 stations, many of which buy NPR and PBS content to distribute locally alongside local news, music shows and other programming. Collectively, the stations in the public media network give 99% of the U.S. population access to public broadcasting. Nearly half of CPB grantees are rural, and together they employ close to 6,000 people. As nonprofits, local public media stations rely on a variety of funding sources, including federal funding, state funding, listener donations, grants, and underwriting from local businesses. On average, federal funding accounts for 16% of a local public media station's revenue. But for many stations, that percentage is much higher. Three factors unite the stations most reliant on federal funding: They are located in the West, they are rural, and they are tribal stations. Among stations in the 50 states, those in the Western U.S. are by far the most dependent on federal funding, according to a recent analysis of station financial reports for fiscal year 2023, carried out by former NPR product manager Alex Curley. (Limited data is available for American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, but according to Curley, the few stations there rely even more heavily on federal funding.) On average, Curley found, Western stations depend on federal money for just over 20% of their revenue — compared with just under 15% for the next highest region, the Midwest. The states with the highest average dependency, in order, are West Virginia, Alaska, New Mexico and Montana. In Alaska, the most dependent Western state, public media stations rely on federal funding for an average of 36% of their revenue. If all the stations with a dependence of at least 20% were forced to close, Alaska would lose 15 stations — half of its total, Curley said. More than 50 stations around the country belong to the Native Public Media network, and they are also particularly vulnerable to funding cuts. All but one of the Native Public Media stations with available data relied on federal funding for at least 20% of their revenue, and the average reliance was more than 50%. Source: CPB defines rural stations as those whose coverage areas have a population density of 40 or fewer residents per square kilometer. The stations defined as rural on this map come from CPB's FY 2024 list of rural station grantees. The funding percentages come from a list of the most vulnerable public radio stations compiled using CPB data from FY 2023, the most recent available. Tribal stations are defined as stations that are 'tribally owned, managed or staffed by tribal members,' according to this map and station websites. (Map design by Luna Anna Archey/High Country News) According to CPB data shared with , 79 radio stations in the U.S. relied on CPB for 30% or more of their funding in FY 2023. More than half of those stations (42) are located in the West. Of the vulnerable Western stations, all but two are rural — and 20 are also tribal stations. Not only would these stations be drastically impacted by losing federal funding, they would also find that money especially hard to replace. Urban stations have large audiences to turn to for help, but rural stations by definition serve sparsely populated areas and often lower-income communities. According to CPB, 40% of the average non-rural station's revenue comes from listener donations, compared with just 28% of the average rural stations. Meanwhile, the average rural station relies on CPB funding nearly twice as much as a non-rural station does. This past fiscal year, KYUK raised just under $20,000 from a total of 413 members, comprising 2% of the radio station's revenue. 'We live in a subsistence region,' Smiley said. 'The way people survive and thrive here does not necessarily follow the traditional Western economic model.' To her, this is part of the beauty of public media: Stations like KYUK allow people to get thoughtful, nuanced coverage of the place they live, whether or not they can afford to pay for it. In Bethel, that includes public safety alerts and emergency coverage on shows like River Watch — but also, local news accessible to everyone in the region. The oldest Indigenous-owned and operated bilingual radio station in the U.S., KYUK broadcasts local news in both English and Yugtun, the Yup'ik language, three times a day. The station also airs several other Yup'ik public affairs and culture shows throughout the week, sharing traditional knowledge and conversations between elders. Villages in the Y-K Delta — like many rural and Indigenous communities — tend to receive a flattened portrayal in the national media, when they're covered at all. Outside reporters often miss the good news: The Bethel student robotics team bringing Yup'ik dance to an international stage, say, or a Cup'ik artist using traditional carving techniques to tell the evolving story of hunting and fishing in his community. Celebrations of berry picking and high school graduation — the everyday activities and special events that make headlines at a local publication run by the same people who coach youth sports and act in community plays. These are stories at stake in the fight over federal funding, Smiley said: 'This idea that a region that has been historically underserved by the state and by the country could lose a public media organization that is focused on providing what people here need, which is public safety information and a reflection of a life that is multifaceted and beautiful — that really, really tears my heart out.' This article first appeared on High Country News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
Air quality getting worse amid Canadian wildfires. Is the smoke headed to Delaware?
Air quality continues to worsen across the United States as smoke stemming from Canadian wildfires begins moving south prompting air quality advisories in multiple states. The National Weather Service already issued alerts for Nebraska, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan in the Midwest, and for New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Maryland in the Northeast. Although the majority of wildfires are occurring in western Canada, smoke from these fires has been drifting eastward, impacting air quality in areas around the Great Lakes and the U.S. Northeast, shows AirNow, the Environmental Protection Agency's interactive air quality map. In New Jersey, air quality started to worsen in the northern part of the state prompting the state Department of Environmental Protection to issue a code orange air quality alert early on the morning of June 5 for northern counties in the state. However, soon after, the alert was extended all the way down to the Jersey Shore. While no alert has been issued for Delaware, pollution continues to move southward in New Jersey, and most of Pennsylvania now has moderate air quality, according to AirNow. To the west of Delaware, a portion of Maryland has been under an air quality alert since early June 5. A Code Orange air quality alert means that pollution levels may be unhealthy for vulnerable groups, such as children, the elderly, and those with respiratory or heart conditions. To reduce health risks, vulnerable groups should limit outdoor physical activity. The air quality index for Delaware is good, overall standing in the mid-40s. But the Environmental Protection Agency is forecasting the index to rise to 80 on June 5. On June 6, the index should be around 58. The air quality index, or AQI, is a standardized rating system that assesses the severity of air pollution on a scale ranging from 0 to 500. The higher the number, the worse the quality. An AQI below 50 is considered optimal; between 51 and 100 is considered moderate; and above 100, unhealthy. This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Air quality index worsens nears Delaware. See the air quality map
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
Iowa exits statewide air quality alert
Smoke from Canadian wildfires worsened air quality in the eastern U.S. on Wednesday as several Midwestern states battled conditions deemed unhealthy by the federal government. The fires have forced thousands of Canadians to flee their homes and sent smoke as far as Europe. Iowa issued a statewide air quality alert through early Thursday, urging residents to limit certain outdoor activities and warning of possible health effects due to the thick smoke. Wisconsin officials made similar suggestions as the smoke drifted southeast across the state. In the U.S., smoke lingered on the skylines of cities from Kansas City to Minneapolis, and a swath of the region had unhealthy air quality Wednesday, according to an Environmental Protection Agency map. In Stoughton, Wisconsin, Nature's Garden Preschool was keeping its kids indoors Wednesday due to the bad air quality, which interferes with the daily routine, said assistant teacher Bailey Pollard. The smoke looked like a coming storm, he said. The 16 or 17 kids ages 12 weeks to 5 years old would typically be outdoors running or playing with water, balls and slides, but were instead inside doing crafts with Play-Doh or coloring. The situation was unfortunate because kids need to be outside and have fresh air and free play, Pollard said. 'It's something where we've got to take precaution for the kids,' he said. 'Nobody wants to stay inside all day.' In Michigan's Upper Peninsula, authorities advised people shut windows at night, avoid strenuous activity outside and watch for breathing issues. Parts of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and New York had areas of moderate air quality concern, and officials advised sensitive people to consider reducing outdoor activity. Unhealthy conditions persist in Midwest The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued an alert for almost the entire state into Wednesday, but the Twin Cities area got the region's worst of it Tuesday. Children's Minnesota, a network of pediatric clinics and hospitals in the Twin Cities area, has seen a 'modest increase' increase this week in patients with symptoms that doctors attributee to polluted air, Dr. Chase Shutak said. Their symptoms have included breathing problems, including asthma and other upper respiratory issues, said Shutak, who stays in close touch with other pediatricians in his role as medical director of the Minneapolis primary care clinic at Children's. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources warned that air quality in a band from the state's southwest corner to the northeast could fall into the unhealthy category through Thursday morning. The agency recommended that people — especially those with heart and lung disease — avoid long or intense activities and to take extra breaks during strenuous activity outdoors. Conditions at ground level are in the red The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's AirNow map showed a swath of red for 'unhealthy' conditions across Wisconsin and northern Iowa. Conditions in northern Michigan also reflected many unhealthy zones. The Air Quality Index was around 160 in many parts of the upper Midwest, indicating poor conditions. The Air Quality Index , or AQI, measures how clean or polluted the air is, indicating which health effects might be experienced within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. It is based on ground-level ozone, particle pollution, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. Particulates are the main issue from the fires. The index ranges from green, indicating satisfactory air quality that poses little or no risk, to maroon, which is considered hazardous. That level comes with health warnings of emergency conditions, which are more likely to affect everyone. There were areas of reduced air quality all over the U.S. on Wednesday, with numerous advisories about moderate air quality concerns as far from the fires as Kansas and Georgia. The air quality was considerably better Wednesday in Minnesota, where only the barest hint of haze obscured the downtown Minneapolis skyline. The city experienced some of the worst air in the country on Tuesday. But the air quality index, which had reached the mid-200 range, or 'very unhealthy' on Tuesday, was down to 60, or 'moderate,' by Wednesday afternoon. The Canadian fire situation even reaches Europe Canada is having another bad wildfire season. Most of the smoke reaching the American Midwest has been coming from fires northwest of the provincial capital of Winnipeg in Manitoba. Canada's worst-ever wildfire season was in 2023 and choked much of North America with dangerous smoke for months. The smoke over western Europe is expected to keep moving eastward, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. It's causing hazy skies, but not expected to affect surface-air quality. However, it could rise high enough to be carried that far, indicating the immense size and intensity of the fires, according to Copernicus. Whittle reported from Portland. Karnowski reported from Minneapolis. Associated Press writers Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Tammy Webber in Fenton, Michigan; and Scott McFetridge in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
