Under the program, administered by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) and the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), in collaboration with county officials, participating property owners incur no direct costs.

Property owners opted into the program by submitting a Right-of-Entry form (ROE) to their county, which allows the state to begin work on their property and incur no direct costs for the removal of burned metal, concrete, ash and contaminated soil from their properties.

Major Clearing Work: 98 Percent Complete

To date, state-managed crews have cleared all eligible debris generated by the 2021 wildfires from 1,729, or 98 percent of the 1,769 properties enrolled in the full debris removal program.

Wildfire survivors had the option to either use their own contractor or enroll in the state managed program. Of the properties with damage from the 2021 fires, 359 property owners chose to participate in the hazardous trees only element of the program.

* Data as of June 7, 2020 at 3 p.m.

Steps Left to Complete

Before homeowners can begin rebuilding, cleared properties need additional work including:

·         Separate contractors collect soil samples for verification at a state certified laboratory that they meet state environmental health and safety standards.

·         Contractors next may install erosion control measures.

·         Certified arborists or professional foresters assess wildfire-damaged trees in danger of falling on the public or public infrastructure for removal by separate contractors.

·         Finally, state officials inspect the property to verify all completed work meets state standards. Debris officials submit a final inspection report to local officials to approve the property for reconstruction.

To date, 47, or 95.9 percent, of the 49 cleared Nevada County properties have completed the entire debris removal process and been returned to local officials for the start of permitting.   Statewide, 1490 properties have completed the entire debris removal process and been returned to officials in their respective counties. The 1,490 returned properties represent 70 percent of the 2,129 properties participating in either the full debris removal program or the hazardous trees only element.

Property owners can track the above data on the Debris Operations Dashboard for the 2020 statewide wildfires. The dashboard is updated every hour and provides users with the ability to search by county or address.