A California family is on the verge of breaking point as they struggle to get help from government authorities while warning their neighbours that their dangerous makeshift junkyard is “putting the whole community at risk.”
Los Angeles resident Elena Malone and her family purchased what they thought was their dream home in Sun Valley in 2021, but that all changed when their neighbors turned the property into a nightmarish storage shed filled with hazardous materials, trash, melted car batteries and even stolen vehicles.
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Malone, who is concerned about her two children and her husband, who is battling cancer, told Fox & Friends First that efforts to mitigate the hazardous waste site are “at a premium.”
“We’re at our breaking point here,” Malone told host Todd Pirro on Thursday. “I have two young children, they’re both working, I just got out of cancer treatment, and I’m stuck here. The last thing I want is to sell this property to another family and have them go through the same thing… I don’t know what I can do. I can’t sell the land, and I can’t seem to lobby the city or state or federal government to remove the hazardous waste from this property, so I’m stuck.”
Malone, who contacted 12 government agencies, claimed authorities shifted responsibility for what they did with the assets.
Elena Malone, a Los Angeles resident, appeared on “Fox & Friends First” to talk about how government agencies responded to her request for help and what pushed her “over the edge” as she continued to fight her neighbor’s junkyard. (Elena Malone)
She said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Highway Patrol (CHP) have both shirked responsibility for cleaning up the site, even as hazardous materials continue to build up.
“They’re shifting the blame. The EPA designated this site a hazardous waste site in 2021. They say the soil is contaminated, but they won’t clean up the soil until the California Highway Patrol removes some of the 100 vehicles, five of which have been identified as stolen or involved in crimes,” Malone said. “But the EPA won’t get on until the California Highway Patrol removes them. The California Highway Patrol won’t get on the property until they determine it’s safe for their officers. So the agencies are basically saying this property is not safe and we’re not going to engage with this person.”
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Despite her efforts, Rep. Monica Rodriguez’s office said in a statement: We will immediately discuss next steps with City departments to resolve this issue.”
Malone told KTLA she’s also concerned about the amount of debris from wildfires, saying she’s previously been trapped on her neighbor’s property by their car.
LA Times As previously reported, landowner Mary Ferrera has allowed her son David to live on the property and even delivers food to him daily.
“She’s worried about her son, just like any parent would, but she’s really putting the whole community at risk,” Malone said. “We’ve already had two fires in the valley this week. Two wildfires and it’s not even been a week yet.”
But that didn’t push Malone “over the edge.” She explained how her husband’s cancer treatments had elevated her anxiety.
“When my dad was in the middle of his treatment, going through chemotherapy and radiation every day, we were going in and out of the house and asking our neighbors to at least leave their gates open,” Malone said. “There were times when… [it] “It was a really tough day of chemo and my husband was vomiting and I needed to come and pick him up, but we were stuck inside the house because of cars blocking the gate. It was a really heartbreaking moment.”
“I can’t imagine that someone wouldn’t be considerate enough to move their car so their neighbor can pick up their husband or family,” she continued.
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