Sulphur fire cleanup work on Clear Lake gets started
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – As the Sulphur fire cleanup and recovery process moves forward, the marine portion of the work is now under way.
On Tuesday afternoon, boats and equipment that contractor Seal Marine Salvage of Discovery Bay will use in the lake portion of the cleanup underwent examination by two special four-legged inspectors.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife officers Brian Patrick and Timothy Bolla and their K9 partners, Karma and Luna, respectively, met county officials and the contractor’s staff at Thompson Harbor at Redbud Park in Clearlake to inspect the barges.
Karma, a Belgian Malinois, and Luna, a German Shepherd, are specially trained to check for invasive quagga mussels, their handlers explained, as shown in the video above.
Although the marine contractor’s equipment previously had been used in salt water and drydocked, the county was still taking the extra precaution of using the quagga-sniffing dogs to inspect it before allowing it to be put into Clear Lake, according to Lake County Water Resources Director Phil Moy.
“It’s going to protect the lake as well as help with the fire cleanup,” Moy said.
Moy said the inspections went well and the boats and materials were clean.
He said Seal Marine Salvage has a 10-day window to do work along three-quarters of a mile of shoreline burned in the fire last month.
The work on the lake will include removal of fire debris and any burned pilings, Moy said, adding that the pilings won’t just be cut off but completely pulled out.
In other fire-related news on Tuesday, during the Board of Supervisors meeting county staff and representatives from state and federal agencies gave reports on the fire recovery.
Lance Harbour from the Federal Emergency Management Agency said just under $500,000 has been approved so far for housing in Lake County.
They’re still looking at long-term housing needs, and may once again contract with Clearlake Resort – as FEMA had after the Valley fire – for locating temporary housing units and travel trailers. Harbour said they’re not yet sure of the exact needs, but estimates range between five and 20 housing units.
Dana Ellis of the California Office of Emergency Services said the disaster recovery center in Clearlake will remain open for a few more weeks. The center is located at the Clearlake Community Center, 3245 Bowers Ave.
She also reported that the county has made good progress on collecting rights-of-entry, or ROE, forms for the government-run fire debris cleanup program.
“Of all the counties, Lake County has the highest percentage of ROEs collected,” she said.
County staff reported that so far ROEs have been collected for 118 of the 137 fire-damaged properties.
That’s an 86-percent rate compared to other counties in the debris cleanup program, where ROE percentages range between 50 and 60 percent, it was reported during the meeting.
Lake County Environmental Health Director Ray Ruminski said his office already has received indications that five or six of the remaining properties will have private cleanups, and he expects several more ROEs also will be submitted.
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