Southern California air regulators Thursday adopted a slate of new requirements aimed at neutralizing the rancid odors from the fire-damaged Lineage warehouse that still contains millions of pounds of rotting food.<\/p>\n
The South Coast Air Quality Management District\u2019s hearing board, a five-member committee tasked with deciding enforcement matters, voted unanimously to impose more than 90 measures to strengthen odor-mitigation efforts and cleanup.<\/p>\n
South Coast AQMD<\/a> has been inundated with more than 4,000 odor complaints related to the Lineage cold-storage facility in Boyle Heights, prompting the agency to issue the company at least 20 violation notices for public nuisance. <\/p>\n The board\u2019s decision provides a legally enforceable baseline for the cleanup and requires the company to remove at least 8.8 million pounds of food waste each week. The pace would put Lineage on track to finish emptying its freezers within two weeks. The company must also sanitize the freezer within seven days of clearing out remaining food waste. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is a very dynamic situation, it\u2019s not anything any of us have seen before, with the rotting food waste,\u201d said Jason Aspell, deputy executive officer at AQMD. \u201cThe conditions encourage speed. Removing the source of the odors is the primary objective, here. However, that speed should not come at the detriment of the emission of odors or public health.\u201d<\/p>\n The warehouse has two cavernous freezers on the east and west sides of the building. Workers have cleared out and sanitized the eastern freezer, which was largely destroyed in the fire and was filled with spoiled food and charred debris. But millions of pounds unrefrigerated food, mostly meat and seafood, remain in western freezer that was unaffected by the blaze.<\/p>\n Cleanup workers will only be allowed to remove waste and fire debris through the warehouse\u2019s south loading dock, which is farther from neighbor homes. Lineage must operate an odor-neutralizing misting system around the warehouse and any openings<\/p>\n The air district\u2019s order requires Lineage to establish a public notification system to update residents on the cleanup progress and activities that could result in an increase in odors. <\/p>\n Lineage representatives said the company has already taken many of the actions required under the air district. So far, 80% of the food waste has been removed from the warehouse, according to the company. <\/p>\n \u201cFrom day one, Lineage has been dedicated to containing the fire, supporting the community and working cooperatively with all the agencies to get done with the cleanup as quickly as possible,\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cLineage understands the community\u2019s concerns and their frustration with the odors. We don\u2019t deny that there are odors coming from this facility.\u201d<\/p>\n The vote followed roughly six hours of emotional testimony from dozens of residents from across Southeast Los Angeles County who pleaded for the air district to take action to require Lineage to do more to suppress sickening odors. From Boyle Heights to Monterey Park, residents said they were overwhelmed by the smoke from the week-long fire, and then tormented by the horrible stench<\/a> from decaying meat and seafood. <\/p>\n