Cleanup problems hinder rebuild for some October fire survivors

After the rubble was cleared from Diana Breslich’s burned property in the hills northeast of Santa Rosa early this year, she identified two major problems with the work: Crews extracted too much soil, and they removed or damaged her two septic tanks.

So Breslich, who participated in the public debris cleanup launched after the October fires, turned back to the government for help. Officials had said damage caused by debris removal would be fixed, and she thought she had a strong case, especially given that her built-in pool had become an elevated “island” - a stark example of how deeply her property was scraped.

“Anybody who’s ever seen the site keeps saying, ‘Oh yeah, yours was overexcavated,’?” said Breslich, 72.

Then came the letter.

Addressed “Dear Fire Survivor” and signed by officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state Office of Emergency Services, the correspondence Breslich received in June informed her the “additional assistance” she requested was outside the scope of what the public agencies could provide. It did not say why.

Breslich later learned her septic tank issues might still be addressed, but officials from Cal OES, which is handling the complaints, haven’t been able to tell her exactly why they can’t help with her cleanup complaint.

She estimates refilling her property with the necessary amount of soil will require 60 dump trucks and cost more than $50,000 - money she will have to draw from insurance funds that could otherwise help pay for construction of her new home.

Breslich is among nearly 240 Northern California fire survivors who received a letter about debris removal issues the government determined it can’t fix. The public program removed 2.2 million tons of debris from more than 4,500 properties across Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino and Lake counties.

The survivors were told their cases were examined through field observations, a civil engineer’s assessment and reviews from senior officials at FEMA and Cal OES, but Breslich isn’t convinced her property got a close enough look.

“I can’t see a report that shows that, yes, we looked at this and found these findings, and we feel for some reason that this is not overexcavated, but it was appropriate for the site,” Breslich said. “Maybe there is something really behind their judgment that I’m unaware of, but it seems like I should be able to have access to that information.”

Sonoma County is trying to help Breslich and other fire survivors in similar situations, hoping to narrow the list of people whose complaints were denied, or at least provide them more detailed information about the decision. But that’s proven difficult.

“If their claim is being denied, they should at least know why,” said Michael Gossman, the deputy county administrator in charge of the county’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency. “We don’t have that information. And that makes it difficult for us to advocate on their behalf or even understand that it is a legitimate denial, which I’m sure there are some people that are being legitimately denied.”

Gossman said he recently received documentation of the range of reasons behind the denials, but county leaders are pushing for more detailed explanations to provide to fire survivors.

Getting access to those documents has proven to be a bureaucratic headache, involving multiple layers of government agencies whose representatives say they either don’t have the information or can’t release all of it.

The Army Corps of Engineers turned over its files on debris cleanup complaints to FEMA and Cal OES, according to Army Corps spokeswoman Nancy Allen. But some of the information in those files is “considered pre-decisional and is not releasable,” Allen said. That includes “all of the working documents that lead up to an agency decision,” she said.

FEMA, meanwhile, insists it’s not trying to hide anything.

“We definitely wish that every property that was impacted by the disaster and then had debris removal work was completely, exactly the way it’s supposed to be, that there were no issues and no problems,” said FEMA spokeswoman Brandi Richard. “But we know that, just due to the nature of this work ... that’s challenging.”

Federal law required the state government to be liable for any incidental claims arising from the public debris cleanup, Richard said. FEMA provided the documents about the complaint resolutions to OES, she said.

But Gossman said he and other county staff members still haven’t been able to get the records they’re seeking.

Eric Lamoureux, Cal OES’ acting deputy director of response and recovery, said his agency has “summary data” it reviewed to determine, with federal officials, who would receive rejection letters. Sonoma County and Santa Rosa officials were consulted before the letters were sent, he said.

“These issues have been adjudicated with the city and the county,” Lamoureux said. “We’ve spent a great deal of time working to find any remedy possible for legitimate issues, and in those handful of cases where the issue was unrelated to the (debris removal) project, where there’s nothing that we could do within our state or federal contracts or we could do legally - those were the individuals that received these letters.”

Lamoureux said he’d be happy to meet again with county officials to review the information his agency has regarding the debris removal complaint rejections. He reiterated that anyone whose compliant was rejected and is still dissatisfied can contact OES at 916-845-8200 or disasterrecovery@caloes.ca.gov.

About 80 people have already done so, he said.

Sonoma County Supervisor Shirlee Zane said her office is trying to set up a meeting with federal and state officials to resolve the issue.

“We’re not gonna be satisfied until we see those documents. Nobody should,” Zane said. “Otherwise, it’s just their word against the landowner’s.”

Gossman said county officials were trying to get the meeting set up for next week, but the numerous wildfires currently burning throughout California may cause a delay.

Caught amid the bureaucratic confusion are fire survivors such as Tim Gavin, who lost his Fountaingrove home in the Tubbs fire. He’d purchased the house only a year prior to the inferno. Gavin says contractors took too much dirt and also errantly removed one retaining wall and damaged another.

At first, Gavin had a hard time figuring out if his complaint would be addressed at all, until he learned recently that he was rejected. But this week, he said he got a call from an OES representative who told him his property didn’t fit the parameters of what the agency could fix because it’s situated on a hill.

Gavin said he wouldn’t have moved forward with rebuilding if he’d known it would take this long just to move past the cleanup phase.

“It’s just so deflating,” he said. “I’m getting frustrated that I’m seeing properties in Coffey Park and Larkfield and all over the county rebuilt, but our neighborhood is not. It’s just driving me nuts.”

You can reach Staff Writer J.D. Morris at 707-521-5337 or jd.morris@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @thejdmorris.