FEMA Likely to Deny More Debris Funds : Recovery: Officials signal they probably will reject request for money to end quake cleanup.

Citing the $233-million cost of an 18-month quake debris cleanup program, federal officials signaled Friday that they will reject a request by the city of Los Angeles for an additional $15 million to phase out the program over the next year.

If the Federal Emergency Management Agency rejects the request as expected, Monday will be the final day of a program that has been extended twice and has collected 2.3 million tons of debris since the Jan. 17, 1994, Northridge quake.

Although FEMA officials said Friday that no final decision has been made on the request, FEMA Director James Lee Witt told Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) on Thursday that he was concerned with the overall cost of the program, according to a McKeon spokesman.

“Right now, it doesn’t look good,” said Armando Azarloza, McKeon’s chief of staff. “FEMA is looking at the overall figure that they have paid and it’s far more than what they expected.”

Furthermore, Witt seemed put off by the request because when FEMA approved an extension to keep the cleanup program going until July 17, city officials promised to include a phase-out program in that funding, Azarloza said.

FEMA spokeswoman Val Bunting confirmed that “the director does feel that the federal government has issued a considerable amount of money.” But she said an official decision on the request won’t be made until Monday.

Meanwhile, Mayor Richard Riordan issued a statement Friday, thanking FEMA for its funding of the debris cleanup program.

“We are very grateful to FEMA for supporting this important program which helped many Angelenos recover from damage to their homes and businesses,” he said.

*

City officials requested the $15-million phase-out program as a compromise after FEMA rejected a request for $98 million to extend the program through Jan. 17, 1996. FEMA has paid 90% of the program costs, with the state picking up the balance.

The phase-out program would provide overtime pay for officers and street inspectors to cite those who illegally dump on city streets. Violators of the city’s anti-dumping laws can be fined up to $1,000 and sentenced to a year in jail.

The program would also publicize the end of the cleanup program and advertise legal options for disposing of quake debris. An incentive program would also be included, offering rebates of up to $300 to people who collect debris in special bins and haul them to a recycling center. A portion of the program’s funds would pay to clean up debris that creates a health hazard.

With many residents only now completing quake repairs and debris continuing to pile up on sidewalks and streets, officials warned that the city will now concentrate on citing people who illegally dump quake debris.

“What is going to happen now is that citizens are going to realize they can’t put the debris on the streets because it’s now their responsibility,” said Andres Santamaria, project manager of the city’s quake recovery program.

Santamaria said residents who now have quake debris on a city street must hire a private contractor to haul it away. If the debris is not cleared away quickly, he said, the owner of the property where the rubble is located will be cited. He did not say how long the city will wait before issuing a citation.

Santamaria and other city officials worry that the city will ultimately be forced to pay to clean up debris that becomes a health hazard or cannot be linked to a resident.

“If FEMA doesn’t give us the money, the city will have to pay for it,” Santamaria said.

The city stopped taking quake cleanup telephone requests on May 30. But Santamaria said that in the week before May 30, his division got up to 4,000 calls per day requesting debris cleanup.

*

The city had planned to set aside money from the last FEMA extension to phase out the program but Santamaria said his division was overwhelmed with the amount of rubble and trash that continued to show up on the streets. Ultimately, the money set aside to phase out the program was used to continue the cleanup efforts.

“You go down the street and clean it up and the next day there would be more,” he said.

In the past few weeks the city has employed private firms to send out 65 crews--each with two trucks and a skip loader--to clean up street-side debris. But once the federal funds dry up, Santamaria said, the city can only rely on two crews to cover the entire city.

Councilwoman Laura Chick, whose west San Fernando Valley district is plagued with street-side debris piles, said the city has erred by failing to make a plan on what to do once the FEMA extensions end.

“We knew it had to stop and we had an illegal dumping problem,” she said. “The way I’m thinking right now is that we were sticking our heads in the sand to think the money would never end.”