LAKEPORT, Calif. – In the midst of extending declarations of local emergencies due to the county's wildland fires of this year and last, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday got an update on the final stages of the Clayton fire cleanup work.

Environmental Health Director Ray Ruminski once again accompanied Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Karen Tait to the board meeting to seek the continuance of one of several local emergencies, which he said is expected to continue with regarding to the Clayton fire through early February.

The August Clayton fire burned 300 structures in Lower Lake, of which about 200 were homes, according to county officials.

As of the end of business on Friday, Ruminski said 148 lots had been registered for the state-led cleanup program headed by CalRecycle, the agency which also was in charge of the Valley fire cleanup. Of those, cleanup on 134 lots has been completed.

Earlier this week, crews were finishing up some erosion control measures and also had added in one property that had been signed up late for cleanup in the Copsey Creek subdivision, he said.

Through Friday, Ruminski said cleanup crews has removed 32,969 tons of material from properties impacted by the Clayton fire, which included items that went to recycling, such as metals and concrete, other materials that went to the landfill for disposal, along with greenwaste.

He said the financial aspect of the cleanup – specifically, the operation's cost to date – is behind the work itself, with information only available at that point through Dec. 9.

As of that date, the Clayton fire cleanup program led by CalRecycle had cost $7.9 million, which is quite a bit less than the running average for Valley fire cleanup, Ruminski said.

Ruminski said that in addition to the state-led program, private contractors working with property owners have cleaned up or nearly finished a total of 44 additional lots.

“The town looks quite different,” he said of Lower Lake.

Ruminski said the last component of the cleanup is the county's issuing of nuisance abatement orders on properties that have yet to be cleaned up by their owners.

Last week, the county mailed out 11 abatement orders and on Monday posted notices at the properties. Ruminski said the county has since been in contact with owners of five of those properties who are now working to get the cleanup process started.

As for the remaining six properties, Ruminski said the owners will have the opportunity to clean them up themselves before the county takes action.

He said he anticipated asking the board to renew the proclamation of a local health emergency issued by Tait after the Clayton fire occurred every two weeks until the first or second week of February, at which point the Clayton fire cleanup process would be considered complete.

“I'm impressed at how much has already been done and where we are,” said Supervisor Jim Comstock, who thanked Ruminski for his efforts before moving to renew the proclamation.

The board voted 5-0 in support of Comstock's motion.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.