All Things Mold

“Mold” is a word that strikes fear into the hearts of most property owners. The mere thought that your home or business could contain mold growth conjures images of armies of technicians, interminable repair schedules and mountains of cash to cover the whole thing. Worse yet, as public awareness of mold issues has increased, so has the number of unscrupulous scammers in the mold industry. It can be a tricky situation but with some education, patience and common sense, property owners can avoid the pitfalls and come through the process with a sense of confidence. It all starts with making informed decisions about whether mold growth is truly a problem in your home or business.   

Over a hundred thousand different types of mold have been identified by science. Only a very few are truly “toxic” and a threat to health, but many varieties can cause allergic reactions in sensitive people. Up to 25% of the population are reportedly allergic to mold. They will experience symptoms ranging from sniffles and sore throats to blinding headaches. Even if the specific variety of mold is not overtly dangerous, a significant number of people will have health issues caused by the building’s environment. In our opinion, if you see visible mold and can definitively identify the source of water which led to mold growth, a mold investigation isn’t truly necessary. You can move directly to mitigation. The EPA states that most homeowners can handle mold cleanups if the area is less than 10 square feet, while a professional mold abatement company should be utilized if there’s lots of water damage and the area of mold growth is greater than 10 square feet.

Mold Testing

Guzi-West provides mold inspection and consulting services across northern California. If you’re worried that mold may be growing in your house or business, give us a call! We’ll answer any questions you have and we’ll provide an accurate mold inspection to determine what kind of mold you’re dealing with if you choose to hire us.

Opting-In Late for the Fawn Fire Clean Up

If you started asbestos testing with our office but then the federal option becomes available, you could still opt-in and you’d only potentially be out the funds required for our services to date – we say ‘potentially’ because if you have insurance coverage for debris removal, then our services would be covered under that and the State or Federal program will only utilize the amount of funds remaining/available for debris removal. 

If you have no insurance or are paying out of pocket, then you would be out the funds if you paid for our services only to opt-in later if the funding became available.  The State or Federal program would do the same work our office completed but they utilize their own contractors – and we know from experience that they’ll not reduce costs or even accept the survey work completed by anyone else. This option is probably the best one for people who are anxious to get the process started but want to wait as long as possible to see if the funding becomes available. If the funding doesn’t become available, then you’ll already know whether asbestos is present, all your paperwork will be in place, and you can simply move forward with the excavation contractor of your choice as soon as you elect to do so. If you’re not in a hurry to complete the process, or don’t have insurance coverage, then we still recommend you wait.

Option 1, Government Cleanup:  Let’s assume that the government funded option becomes available and you’ll have the choice to ‘opt-in’ to participate or ‘opt-out’ and use your own insurance to clean up the ash and debris and perform required testing.  We put together a flowchart, found here, to show how this process works regardless of which option you choose. If you sign a right of entry (ROE) form authorizing access and the cleanup of your property, the government and their subcontractors do the work, and you eventually get cleared to re-build.  

Option 2, Private Cleanup: This is your chosen option or the only option that ends up being available.  Shasta County is aware this is a tremendous burden on homeowners who are already struggling, so they’re doing what they can to lessen the burden. There are no fees for the associated permitting required for cleanup, it appears no waste profiling of the waste debris will be required for disposal beyond completion of an asbestos survey, no soil sampling is required at completion of the cleanup, and there is a $2,000 disposal voucher for West Central Landfill which will be given to homeowners who had 50% or greater damage to a residential structure.  The process is essentially to have an asbestos survey done on the structures lost in the wildfire, submit a demolition permit application to Shasta County – and a National Emissions Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) notification in some instances – obtain your $2,000 disposal voucher to West Central Landfill, dispose of all ash, debris and any contaminated soil, and retain any disposal documentation. You should then be cleared to pursue a building permit.  

Availability of Federal or State Funding for the Fawn Fire Clean Up

UPDATE: As of 12/14, Federal/State money is now available for homeowners affected by the Fawn Fire. Learn more at the link below!

Federal/State Money Available for Fawn Fire Cleanup

It’s still not clear if state or federal money will be available for homeowners who lost homes in the Fawn Fire. We still believe there’s a decent chance funding will become available because there are rumors of a federal contract coming for the work. We haven’t seen that in writing, although we’re working on federal contracts currently on other fires across the state. We’ve advised many of you to wait if you don’t have insurance coverage at all or if your insurance coverage is low. 

Here’s what you can do if you want to get the process started: spend as little money as possible, and participate in the state or federally funded option if it becomes available:

Prior to hauling away ash and debris to a local landfill, the County requires property owners to have an asbestos survey done on the structures lost in the wildfire, submit a demolition permit application to Shasta County – and a National Emissions Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) notification in some instances –  you can then obtain your $2,000 disposal voucher to West Central Landfill for disposal, and ultimately dispose of all ash, debris and any contaminated soil from your property. 

This is work our firm does. It costs roughly $2,000 to complete the asbestos surveys, prepare the applications and notifications, map the property and prepare a total package for submittal. The work can be done at any time and it takes roughly 10 days for our office to schedule and complete the work. Homeowners have the option of moving forward with this work, paying for services, and then ideally by the end of December a final decision will have been issued on state or federally funded options you can choose from.

Will There Be State/Federal Funding for the Fawn Fire Cleanup?

As of 10-28-21, it’s not clear if there will be a state/federal funded clean-up option made available for the Fawn Fire. We believe there’s still a good chance one will become available if you’ve lost your home.  If you already know your insurance coverage is poor – or you don’t have insurance coverage at all – then you 100% should hold tight and wait to see if the government-funded option becomes available. We know that’s easier said than done when you just want to get your life back to normal but waiting could save you tens of thousands of dollars. Assuming the government option does become available, then the debris removal, associated testing and more will be completed at no out-of-pocket cost to you. We have lots of information and articles on how you can maximize your insurance coverage for debris removal, the pros and cons of opting in vs. opting out, and more that can be found on our general wildfire information page here.

Learn more here!

We have offices and personnel in the areas of Arcata, McKinleyville, Eureka, Chico, and Redding, California that can help you with fire debris characterization and debris removal. 

Redding: (888) 351-8189

Arcata/Eureka (North Coast): (707) 388-3008

Fawn Fire Cleanup – What are My Options?

Starting the fire debris cleanup process?

You have one of two options:

Option 1, Government Cleanup:  Let’s assume that the government funded option becomes available and you’ll have the choice to ‘opt-in’ to participate or ‘opt-out’ and use your own insurance to clean up the ash and debris and perform required testing.  We put together a flowchart, found here, to show how this process works regardless of which option you choose. If you sign a right of entry (ROE) form authorizing access and the cleanup of your property, the government and their subcontractors do this work, and you eventually get a clear to re-build.  

Option 2, Private Cleanup: is your chosen option or the only option that ends up being available.  Shasta County is aware this is a tremendous burden on homeowners who are already struggling, so they’re doing what they can to lessen the burden. There are no fees for the associated permitting required for cleanup, it appears no waste profiling of the waste debris will be required for disposal beyond completion of an asbestos survey, no soil sampling is required at completion of the cleanup, and there is a $2,000 disposal voucher for West Central Landfill which will be given to homeowners who had 50% or greater damage to a residential structure.  The process is essentially to have an asbestos survey done on the structures lost in the wildfire, submit a demolition permit application to Shasta County – and a National Emissions Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) notification in some instances – obtain your $2,000 disposal voucher to West Central Landfill, dispose of all ash, debris and any contaminated soil, and retain any keep disposal documentation. You should then be cleared to then pursue a building permit. 

Learn more here!

We have offices and personnel in the areas of Arcata, McKinleyville, Eureka, Chico, and Redding, California that can help you with fire debris characterization and debris removal. 

Redding: (888) 351-8189

Arcata/Eureka (North Coast): (707) 388-3008

 

SHOULD I WAIT TO DO MY FIRE CLEANUP?

Fire debris cleanup is a heart-wrenching process. If you’re in a hurry and just want to get the process over with, we get it! Many will go this route.  However, if insurance coverage or money is an issue, then you could benefit by ‘opting-in’ to the federal cleanup program where all testing, removal, disposal and reporting is completed under the state program either at no charge to you (if you don’t have fire insurance) or for whatever coverage your insurance policy has for debris removal (i.e. the state will bill your insurance directly but will not collect amounts beyond your coverage limits).  

If you are ready to move forward with debris removal cleanup and you lost your home in the Dixie, McFarland, Monument, Fawn or Beckwourth fires then you’ll have an option for participating in the state/federal run program or opting-out and handling the waste yourself.  A landfill waiver was issued for landfills to accept waste from those fires without performing waste profiling first.  Identifying the presence or absence of asbestos in the fire debris is still required however.  The opt-in/opt-out process typically becomes a heavily debated topic in a local community; we’ve written a guide for property owners affected by previous fires and you can review that guide. 

 

WHERE DO I TAKE MY FIRE DEBRIS WASTE?

Where should I take my fire debris waste? That’s the question many homeowners and building owners have been asking lately.  Despite all the chaos and destruction the fires are causing throughout the State of California, we’re actually fairly ‘early’ in the cleanup process for most fires.  If you’re already at a point where you’re ready to clean up your property and are trying to figure out where to take the debris, then you’ve probably found out that’s not a simple question. We’ll give you the short answer first, then explain the long answer, then which could be best for you.

The short answer is you that need to determine where the closest landfill is located, then you need to contact that landfill to see what the waste profiling requirements are for that landfill.  Each landfill has their own unique process for profiling waste, and while there are some standards across the state for what’s classified as “hazardous waste” there is some wiggle room landfills have to accept fire debris from natural disasters. The fastest way your waste gets profiled is to find a consulting outfit that’s experienced and knowledgeable about the process; that outfit will need to survey the fire debris on your property and sample any materials that may contain asbestos. 

During the same site visit, they’ll also collect a sample of the waste stream – most frequently this is a composite sample of a cross section of your waste stream (i.e. you’re attempting to get a sample that’s is representative of all the fire debris from your property).  That waste stream sample is sent to a CA-certified laboratory for analysis of whatever your local landfill requires for waste profiling (typically at minimum, this includes metals, PCBs, and pH). Once you get the results back, you’ll prepare a waste profile report and submit that report to the landfill for a decision on whether their facility can accept your waste.

We’ve prepared a guide for previous fires that can be reviewed here on making this decision.