Neighbors in east Altadena awoke Monday, March 31 to the sound of dump trucks hauling concrete, metal and tree limbs from burned out properties to a new processing facility within Los Angeles County’s Altadena Golf Course.

The Army Corps of Engineers began its first day of a 10-month operation at the golf course, with plans to move about 200 trucks a day — filled with debris from about 6,000 Eaton fire parcels. Each load is then processed and packed, then sent out via long-haul trucks to recycling centers.

At the closed nine-hole golf course, concrete will be sorted and crushed, then put back into the supply chain for new roads and buildings, while aluminum and steel will be crushed and banded, then reused elsewhere, said Col. Eric Swenson, recovery field commander for the Southern California wildfire response.

“All our trucks are inspected and are safe. We also have air monitors up,” Swenson said during an interview at the site Monday morning. The agency said every aspect of its operations, including sorting, recycling, and air quality monitoring, meets or exceeds federal, state, and local safety regulations.

Despite safety reassurances, the operation on day one was met with about a dozen, unhappy nearby residents, whose homes survived the fire. Many don’t have faith the process is safe and are having second thoughts about living there. They expressed concern that processing large chunks of fire waste in their neighborhood will send dust into the air, creating unhealthful air quality for them and their families.

“We live across the street. We are really, really upset. It is horrible,” said Tiprin Follett, whose home still stands. “They should not be crushing concrete near a population.”

She and her family have been living elsewhere since the Jan. 7 Eaton fire, but are rethinking plans to return to their Altadena home even after it was cleaned of smoke and dust. “We can’t come home. So I am trapped,” she said. “Those of us who stayed (with intact homes) also need to recover.”

The sorting and crushing operations are spread out in the closed 12-acre golf course, located between New York Drive on the south, E. Mendocino Street on the north, N. Hill Avenue on the west and Sinaloa Street on the east. On Monday morning, the trucks lined up and were directed by flagmen around the streets of a tony, Altadena neighborhood of surviving homes.

On Sunday, a larger group held a protest, saying the operations will foul the air, clog the streets with trucks, and create noise from concrete crushing. The Army Corps plans on operating the facility 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week.

Peter Jaynes, 73, who peered into the site on Monday as trucks entered and exited, said he has taken his concerns to Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger. He said she did not take his calls, but a staff member acknowledged receipt of his emails. He asked if the operations could be moved into an industrial area where concrete and metal scraps are already being recycled, such as along Arrow Highway in Irwindale.

“Instead they put an industrial plant in my front yard,” Jaynes said. He said some who oppose the location of the temporary processing plant call the action: “The disaster after the disaster.”

But the Army Corps said the location — very close to the burned out properties — make for a more efficient operation that will result in a quicker cleanup of debris, leading to faster rebuilding.

The Army Corps said in a statement, “The use of the golf course site for material recycling is a critical component of debris removal operations, designed to safely and efficiently support the community’s recovery. Keeping recyclable material closer to the impacted area significantly reduces the number of trucks on the road, shortens haul distances, and speeds up the entire process, helping residents move forward in their recovery journey as quickly and safely as possible.”

The site will crush large chunks of concrete — such as the foundations of destroyed homes — into small, one-inch or less pieces, which can then be loaded on a larger truck to a concrete recycling center. Metals, such as aluminum and structural steel from homes and garages will be crushed and compressed, “like a car-crusher for steel.” The metal is then wrapped in bands and sent to a recycling center, Swenson said.

Household hazardous waste, such as electric vehicle batteries, pesticides and propane canisters, have already been removed and taken to a hazardous waste landfill either in California or Utah. That part of the process, called phase one, has already been completed. None of these materials are going to the Altadena Golf Course, the Army Corps stressed.

Also, regular ash and debris from burned out structures — such as concrete blocks, bricks from houses, stucco material and six inches of soil from around the property footprint, are taken directly from the property in covered trucks and sent to a lined landfill and not to the Altadena Golf Course site, Swenson said.

If an EPA or Army Corps inspector detects asbestos, the asbestos material is removed and taken to a hazardous waste landfill. The “clean concrete” that is left goes to the golf course site for processing, Swenson explained.

Jaynes, who has remained in his intact home since the Eaton Fire, which destroyed 9,414 structures and killed 17 people, said the presence of the waste processing plant has triggered memories of the night of Jan. 7, when the wind-whipped fire moved so quickly that no one knew which property would burn, and which would be spared.

“I have been having nightmares since the night of the fire when I saw embers hitting my lawn,” he said on Monday. “I was afraid I was going to die.”

Like many whose homes are mostly unaffected by the Eaton fire, he said he has survivors’ guilt. But he said reaction from officials on pushback about the processing site in his untouched neighborhood has made him feel more guilt, something he said has affected his mental health.

“This is adding to my anxiety and my lingering fears,” he said.

The Army Corps hopes to finish the processing of recyclable waste at the site well before the one-year anniversary of the fire, Swenson said.