Duarte residents at town hall express opposition to location of Eaton Fire’s debris processing site​on January 31, 2025 at 2:41 am

DUARTE, Calif. (KABC) — Duarte residents on Wednesday night packed a town hall to express anger and frustration over the location of a new processing site for debris in the aftermath of the destructive Eaton Fire.

The destination of the charred debris, much of it comprised of the remnants of burned homes, is at the center of a debate that has roiled community members in Duarte. Many residents say the debris should remain within the fire zone rather than being shipped to their city.

“It being a half-mile from my home is terrifying, and all it says is ‘hazardous waste site,’ ‘hazardous waste staging,” Deshawn Samad told ABC7. “So there’s no information on what’s actually being done.”

“It’s unbelievable that they could do this because it was convenient and because they’re in a rush,” Kimberly Tittle said in an interview.

Residents and local lawmakers say they are angry that they weren’t consulted in the decision to use Lario Park, which federal officials say has already been prepared to begin collecting waste from the burn zone.

Duarte residents spoke out against the EPA using a local park as a site for processing hazardous debris from the Eaton Fire.

“They’re traveling 16 miles from the fires to come and dump the debris — toxic debris — in our backyard, so to speak,” state Sen.Susan Rubio said. “That is unacceptable. I think that they needed to be more transparent in their operations.”

Azusa Mayor Robert Gonzales said, “This is a federal project on federal land, so we’re limited in what our say is.”

The Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to bring the debris in via the 210 Freeway — as opposed to surface streets — through several cities. The federal agency says there will be extensive monitoring of the air, soil and water at the Lario Park site.

But on Wednesday night, some residents said they were not given very much more information than that: All of the federal officials who attended the town hall got up and left the meeting after the crowd turned testy.

“We don’t know what materials they’re talking about, what processing they’re really doing,” said Duarte resident James Tittle. “They really gave us no answers whatsoever.”