My Public Comment for SM Conservancy on Soil Remediation
Warm greetings - I'm calling in tonight about item 12H on your agenda. My name is Devorah Brous, Creator of FromSoil2Soul, a consultancy committed to ecological justice, land-based healing, and regenerative cultural practices. I’m speaking today in strong support of the California Conservancy Foundation’s proposed grant to advance post-Eaton wildfire recovery and long-term community resilience in Altadena.
After a fire, the visible damage is only part of the story. What remains hidden in the soil — heavy metals, VOCs, dioxins, furans, PFAS, and asbestos — threatens to turn this region into a cancer cluster and endanger health and biodiversity of the community for decades to come. This grant under review tonight has the potential to lead with a community model that centers science, stewardship, and sound research through comprehensive soil testing and multi-phase remediation that can and must support the community and prevent further harm to the people of Altadena.
To that end, by resourcing our nimble coalition of trained soil scientists, healers and remediation experts already working on the ground, ready to implement a phased plan of phytoremediation, biochar integration, and Zeolite sequestration — all proven strategies in fire-impacted ecosystems across the country, bioremediation can take place. Depending on the level of contamination, soil remediation can take anywhere from eight months to three years - this process will require ongoing monitoring and continued testing.
Additionally, this grant can support research into landback opportunities by identifying Altadena landowners who are not planning to rebuild and exploring the feasibility of restoring land to the Tongva people, the original stewards.
This grant is more than disaster recovery. It is an opportunity to turn trauma into transformation — restoring land, culture, and community through a model rooted in soil science, regenerative practice, and climate resilience.
Our partners include but are not limited to: Southern California Bioremediation Coalition, CAER, Sponge Collective, CoreRenewal, Plant Community LA, Studio Petrichor, Seeds of Hope, Fungal Solutions, Fungal Fix, SoilWise, Resilient Palisades, LACompost, Mycelium Matters, and Birdhouse.)
We all know this is not our last wildfire - thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak with you tonight about an issue that is of grave concern to so many of us.
