 Why not have the contractors remove household hazardous waste as part of the general cleanup? You know, our goal is to make sure that any chemicals associated with the household hazardous waste do not find their way into the environment. So we will be removing these materials as fast as possible. Again, the goal is to prevent these materials from entering the environment. A second goal is to prevent, to protect the cleanup workers that are coming behind us, whether it's the Army Corps of Engineers and their contractors, or whether it's private residents and their contractors. So we want to make sure that the people who are removing the ash and the debris are safe. And then finally, we want to make sure that all these materials are disposed of appropriately. That's a good point, that this hazardous waste cleanup is not just about your property. It's about the properties near your property. It's about the people who are going to be on your property later on. It's going to be about the people who are going to be there in the future. So the last question for you, Tom, is how will I know that the process has started and been completed? Okay, as I said, we're starting in Paukey Park tomorrow. But it should be very obvious when the process starts. You know, you will see our crews, they're just out in personal protective equipment. They have white track mix suits on. They may or may not have respirators on. It will be very obvious when we're in your neighborhood. We will only be on your property for a few minutes. It all depends on the size of the property. Our process will be a few minutes on your property. And when we're done, when we've completed the process, we will leave a sign. The sign itself, I think it's going to be a green sheet, but this is exactly what the verbiage will be. We'll have some copies back on our table. So we will place a stake in the ground. We'll catch one of these signs to the stake, and it will be very obvious that we've come through your property. One more time for confirmation. This is going to happen on every property, and it's not going to cost anybody anything. It's not going to cost any property owners anything. That is correct. Every burn parcel in Sonoma County, we will come out and do the household hazardous waste inspection and removal, and there is no charge to any, anybody in the county for this. Thanks, Tom. All right. So our next two speakers are Dr. Karen Milman, the Sonoma County Public Health Officer, and Kristine Sasco, the Director of Environmental Health and Safety for the county. Hello, I'm Dr. Karen Milman, and I'm the Sonoma County Health Officer, and I first want to extend my heartfelt sympathies to all of you. I know that the past couple weeks have been probably the worst in most of your lives here, and I just want to sit with you. Yes, sorry, I'm not very good at being loud. My apologies. So as the Sonoma County Health Officer, I'm charged with providing information and guidance to the county board supervisors on health issues in the county, as well as ensuring adherence to statutes and orders related to public health. This includes evaluating potential public health exposures or public exposures to hazardous materials and declaring a public health emergency. My responsibility as the health officer in this time is to take preventive measures to protect and preserve the public health from any hazards that may have occurred. Because of the magnitude of this problem, and I'll get into a little bit of details about why we're concerned in a little bit, we did declare a public health emergency and the board of supervisors ratified that and will renew it again. This enables us to get this assistance for all of the programs that are coming here to help with the cleanup for both state and federal agencies and to help us do the debris cleanup. That's the important criteria for this public health emergency. And so far as the cleanup, my role is to provide technical guidance and to ensure that the process is followed by the agencies and individuals doing the debris removal, as well as the final outcomes of them, fully address the health risks that are in our community. And so I'll be working with this multi-agency group to help coordinate and manage the process. So to clarify, there are a couple of different public health concerns. One you just heard mentioned about was the household hazardous waste materials. Many of those you usually have in your house under normal circumstances, so the propane tanks, your pesticides, your pool chemicals, the paint and the batteries. And under usual circumstances, we actually have declared them as critical components and that's why there are special disposal requirements. But with the fire, the containers that are in have been damaged and punctured and may have been destroyed. And so we want to be very careful that we're cleaning these all up and addressing them, both to prevent anyone who's doing the cleanup from being exposed but to prevent them from spilling into the environment where they can consolidate and can affect future people who are on that property. That's why we're being very careful about this first sweep to ensure that all of the household hazardous waste materials can be cleaned up, not just for you but for your neighbors and for the future generations who are on that property. The second type of material that's concerned are materials that in your normal house would not be that concerning. So think about your copper wiring, your plumbing, your plastic appliances. So in normal circumstances those are all not hazardous to your health and when they burn they release chemicals and toxins into the ash that's there. And these can be heavy metals, these can be asbestos, these can be polyaromatic hydrocarbons. And so that's why we have declared this a public health emergency because we want to make sure that across the county we're thinking about everyone's health and safety and the health and safety of everyone in the long term. And so that's why there are going to be standards to make sure that when we clean all of this up whether you opt into this program or do it on your own we have ensured a safe environment in the future. And so again we'll be working with all of the multiple agencies who are doing the clean up work to help ensure that they are helping think about your health and your future. And now I'll turn it over to Christine Salsville our director of environmental health. Thanks Dr. Milman and Christine. So these are some of the common questions that you've been asked for environmental health and safety director about the program and the first one is how do I sign up and then what about the opting out too? So hi I'm Christine Salsville I'm the director of environmental health and the question that was just posed is how do I sign up? We have opened an entry center that opened up yesterday and so we are processing all the forms for right of entry and that is at 625 Fifth Street in Santa Rosa. If you have any questions about that you can call us on the hotline the number is 565-6700 if you want to 565-6700 it's also in the fact sheet. And then if you want to come by and drop off everything we have specialists there who will help you and answer questions and they will be available for you from 9 a.m. till 6 p.m. we're going to keep that center open for at least two weeks including Saturdays and Sundays and we will do that until we see what the need is and if the need tapers off then we will taper those hours off but we will keep you informed throughout that process. Guys we've got a format here but to hold your question because we want to answer it how long do I have to sign up? How long? That's been a very frequently asked question. So we have not set the date that these forms will need to be signed up for and that program will close. Basically at this point we want to get you both options we want to present you with the option if you want to opt out of the program or opt into the program and we want to give you ample time to do research on your own and decide which way you want to go. It's really important to us that you all feel that you have adequate time before this program ends and that you're not rushing into making a decision. The other question that a lot of people are asking is how soon after the degree removal is completed will I be able to start to be building? So once the degree removal is completed whether you've done it through this program the consolidated program or whether you have done it through a private contractor you would then want to go to the planning agency you're building which would either be the city building department or permit Sonoma. So again I'm going to repeat that number the number to call the environmental health hotline it's five six five six seven zero zero five six five six seven zero zero. So with that if you have more questions for environmental health we want you to know in the back afterwards write them down we'll get them answers we'll get them out as fast as we can and we're going to put as many out on that website too just like we handed out the FAQS tonight. So thank you guys and the next person that's going to speak is the US Army Corps of Engineers degree subject matter expert Josh Jimmerfield My name is Josh Jimmerfield I'm the Army Corps of Engineers I'm a degree subject matter expert out of the Sacramento area and I'll be helping facilitate the debris removal through two large contracts that we've initiated we've got a team of people together that are working to execute those contracts right now our plan is to initiate the contractor this weekend and begin site assessments on Monday hopefully the debris removal will follow soon after. I'm going to start with a question that's not not on the list are we going to have local hire for these contracts and if so how are those people going to find a job? So absolutely one of the things we've written into our contract scope is that the contractors will to the fullest extent possible use local contractors the way they're doing that they've set up websites where the contractors can log in their certifications will be recognized and then they can come in as subcontractors under our prime contractor so will that folks know what local contractors have this work so they can contact them to apply for jobs? Absolutely so the court of engineers is setting up a public facing website once the contractors have determined what their subcontractors are those will be posted on our local website so that you'll be able to see exactly what subcontractors will be operating within your area. Okay will foundations and peers be removed as part of the cleanup process? They will not both be removed so our goal right now is we've learned some more about the areas that we will be removing foundations and in the fullest extent possible we will not be affecting peers and larger retaining walls so we will try to remove to the grade of the current existing grade of the dirt everything below that we will try to save as best we can so our contractor is aware of that and that's been written into our contract correctly We're getting to clarification of the questions what's the unclear burden? We will be removing foundations so stem walls and slabs will be removed the reason for that with extensive testing during past fires is we found that those foundations and slabs are structurally unsound to build on in addition to that the soil underneath those is found to be contaminated we did testing in over 200 slabs in the 2015 fires and every one of those came back with soil that was higher than accessible standards of contamination once we remove the foundation we'll be testing the soil and we're moving until that soil meets baseline quality control measures set by the state of California there's no option if you opt into the program to save your foundation that is correct if you opt into the program your foundation will be removed Okay we're going to get back to on script here will we need to be there during this process or can we be there during this process? You will not need to be there during the process but you can be there our contractors will be setting up an exclusion zone which is a safety area for the large equipment we'll be doing air monitoring testing and based on that we'll set up some type of a safety zone for the public however as the homeowner we will be notifying you 48 hours before we begin work on your project your house so that you can come to the area and you can be with the contractor prior to you are not required to be there while we do the free removal What impacts will the project have on the greater community? Ideally this will impact the community in a positive way as we get more and more houses clean we'll be reducing the effect of toxins in the air while we're doing this one of the things we're very concerned about is local schools and businesses we'll be setting up air monitoring and all the local schools that could be and we've been working with the state of California air quality control board to ensure that we're meeting correct standards so we'll be monitoring at schools as well as on the site to ensure that those contaminants are not being spread and how will I know that the process has started and completed? So this is phase two our process is once the work has been completed by the contractor they will submit to us a work of completion we'll verify the work has been completed so that your property that was not part of the free removal will be fixed when we sign off as the core engineers we will turn those work completed reports back to the county and it will be up to them to notify you that your property is cleared and ready for you to begin the rebuilding process Okay, thank you, Josh Next up is our FEMA division supervisor Robert Pesapane Can I get that right? And I'll be brief So as Congressman Thompson stated the federal government is committed to recovery here in Sonoma This meeting here is focused on debris but I wanted to highlight that we have FEMA teams in the back to talk about your individual assistance If you have not registered for FEMA please do so as soon as possible I know you may have many questions as you navigate through the individual assistance process I know insurance is on the minds of a lot of people in this room and how that plays into your assistance We have experts in the back that can navigate you through that process and additionally the local assistance center is still split up and again we have FEMA and the Small Business Administration there to support your needs One thing I wanted to highlight and stress is I know it's important to get pertaining to insurance It's one of those critical things when you apply for FEMA assistance that we didn't know sometimes in the application process as we identified that you have insurance you may quickly receive a denial letter It's important if you did receive a denial letter from FEMA that you would immediately follow up with us if you think you are eligible for assistance Our job is to ensure that you get everything that you're eligible for from the federal government We have teams in the back We have individual assistance specialists also as part of our disaster assistance teams and we're here to support you so thank you We know there are some questions that haven't been answered tonight and that's why we're putting the teams in the back so we can go to the back and ask your specific question As we get more questions answered I promise you we'll get these up online as soon as possible Again It is the County of Sonoma County Recovers.org Sonoma County Recovers.org These folks are going to be here answer your specific questions We're going to go to the back tables and try to get that done We're going to keep having these meetings until you stop coming to these meetings We're going to get the questions answered As I said, we're not going to have all answers tonight, but we will so thanks a lot for being here