LOS ANGELES — On a recent Sunday, Tracy Quinn drove down the Pacific Coast Highway to assess damage wrought upon the coastline by the Palisades Fire.
The waterline was darkened by ash. Burnt remnants of washing machines, dryers and other metal appliances were strewn about the shoreline. Sludge carpeted the water’s edge. Waves during high tide lapped onto charred homes, pulling debris and potentially toxic ash into the ocean as they receded.
“It was just heartbreaking,” said Quinn, president and CEO of the environmental group Heal the Bay, whose team has reported ash and debris some 25 miles south of the Palisades burn area west of Los Angeles.
As crews work to remove potentially hundreds of thousands of tons of hazardous materials from the Los Angeles wildfires, researchers and officials are trying to understand how the blazes have impacted the sea. The Palisades and Eaton fires scorched thousands of homes, businesses, cars and electronics, turning everyday items into hazardous ash made of pesticides, asbestos, plastics, lead, heavy metals and more.
Because much of it could end up in the Pacific Ocean, there are concerns about how the fires could affect life under the sea.
“We haven’t seen a concentration of homes and buildings burned so close to the water,” Quinn said.
Heavy rains stoke fears
Fire debris and potentially toxic ash could make the water unsafe for surfers and swimmers, especially after rainfall that can transport chemicals, trash and other hazards into the sea. Longer term, scientists worry if charred urban contaminants will affect the food supply.
The atmospheric river and mudslides that pummeled the Los Angeles region last week exacerbated some of those fears.
When the fires broke out in January, one of Mara Dias’ first concerns was ocean water contamination. Strong winds were carrying smoke and ash far beyond the blazes before settling at sea, said the water-quality manager for the Surfrider Foundation, an environmental nonprofit.
Scientists on board a research vessel during the fires detected ash and waste on the water as far as 100 miles offshore, said marine ecologist Julie Dinasquet with the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. They described the smell as electronics burning, she recalled, “not like a nice campfire.”
