More than 100 Boyle Heights and East LA residents packed a boardroom in Diamond Bar on Wednesday to tell air regulators how air pollution and lingering odors from the Lineage warehouse fire have affected their health, homes and daily lives.
Some boarded buses before 8 a.m. to travel the 25 miles to the South Coast Air Quality Management District hearing, where the agency is considering whether to order stricter cleanup requirements and penalties against Lineage Logistics.
The hearing board is considering whether to issue an order of abatement, which would require Lineage to take specific steps to address air pollution from the warehouse fire and meet stricter cleanup standards at the site.
The hearing comes after AQMD said it received more than 4,000 odor complaints since early July and issued 19 notices of violation to Lineage, alleging the odors created a public nuisance. Lineage said it has removed about 80% of the food waste from the facility and expects to spend between $80 million and $100 million on cleanup.
The air district hearing board is expected to continue its review on Thursday as it considers issuing an order and possibly charging fines for the air quality violations. Board and Lineage representatives are scheduled tomorrow to give presentations on the cleanup and related pollution.
Here are five takeaways from the testimony.
1. Residents made the trip to make sure their voices were heard
Several speakers said it was frustrating that residents had to leave their communities, miss work and travel to Diamond Bar just to be heard. They called on AQMD to hold future hearings in Boyle Heights, closer to the people most affected by the fire.
On the bus ride to the hearing, residents told Boyle Heights Beat that they were coming to speak for their children, for neighbors who feared reprisal and because they had lived through environmental crises, like Exide.
2. People say they still don’t feel safe
Speakers told the hearing board they are still dealing with foul odors from rotting food and health issues, including nausea, headaches, bloody noses, rashes, sinus and eye infections, asthma flare-ups and breathing problems. Many said they worry about the long-term effects of exposure and whether the air will be safe when kids return to school.
Amanda Diaz carried her newborn son with her to the mic where she told the board the fire broke out when he was about two weeks old. She said, voice shaking with emotion, that she has had to take her child to the hospital after he broke out in rashes and is worried that the exposure has caused harm that isn’t yet apparent.
“The fire has robbed me of these chances to recover from childbirth in peace and enjoy these precious first weeks with my son,” she said.
Several said the impacts extend beyond the streets closest to the warehouse and that more people across Boyle Heights and East LA have been affected.
“Does the air have a ZIP code?” resident Margarita Gonzalez asked the board and Lineage’s representatives, inviting them to spend time in her home to better understand the extent of the odor problem. “Our community deserves fresh air,” Erika Jimenez, who lives near Mariachi Plaza, added.
3. Elected leaders call the lingering odors a public health crisis
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, District 14 City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado and State Senator María Elena Durazo urged the board to require stricter cleanup standards and impose financial penalties against Lineage.
Bass called on the board to use its enforcement authority to require a stronger cleanup plan, including financial support for impacted residents.
“What the residents of Boyle Heights are facing is not just a nuisance, but it is a public health crisis that requires urgent and actionable measures,” Bass told the board.
Bass said that Lineage should be required to establish a fund dedicated to the ongoing support of impacted residents, including relocating them until the issue is completely resolved. She added that the company has made some effort to provide help but only after pressure from residents and elected leaders.
Councilmember Ysabel Jurado said the sheer volume of complaints and notices of violations is evidence enough that Lineage’s management of the crisis has been inadequate.
“Residents should not have to file complaint after complaint to force a multi-billion-dollar corporation to contain the harm that it created,” Jurado told the board. She added that any order they issue should include firm deadlines, aggressive odor control, public reporting and meaningful consequences if it is violated.
State Senator Durazo echoed outrage that residents are expected to endure unsafe conditions while the cleanup unfolds at the “company’s pace.” She said the rotting material should be removed before students are expected to return to school on Aug. 12.
Durazo said Lineage should pay for the full cost of housing and home remediation for residents and the board should enforce the maximum financial penalty against the company. She also asked that another hearing be held in Boyle Heights rather than miles away during the workday.
“Residents deserve to be heard,” Durazo said.
4. Residents say they don’t want history to repeat itself
For many speakers, the Lineage fire was not an isolated incident. They said it was another example of Boyle Heights and East LA communities being forced to live with the impacts of policies and businesses that create health hazards for the community.
Several people compared the situation to the Exide battery recycling plant, which contaminated neighborhoods in Southeast Los Angeles for years. Others questioned why communities near industrial facilities are often asked to endure pollution and health risks while waiting for action.
“We are witnessing environmental racism,” Eve Sanchez said.
Some called for the warehouse and other industrial facilities to move away from residential neighborhoods.
“I need you to pay attention to what’s happening in our community and for these factories to move from their location please,” Cristina Fernandez, a resident of East LA, told the board with help from a translator. She also invited Lineage representatives to visit her home and experience the poor air quality.
5. Students and parents describe a disrupted summer and back-to-school concerns
Several youth who are members of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice spoke on behalf of their families and their neighbors and highlighted the uncertainty of going back to school in the aftermath of Lineage.
“Am I expected to go into my senior year in these conditions? It’s ridiculous,” said Isabella Hernandez, a Boyle Heights resident and member of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice.
“Lineage is banking on the fact that we’re poor,” Hernandez said. “They think we’re stupid and uneducated and that we’re just going to lie down and take this.”
“We’re not. We deserve clean air and a safe place to live,” she said.
Another Boyle Heights youth spoke about her multigenerational home and highlighted a lack of purifiers being distributed. “I come from a multigenerational home and we only have one air purifier … How does this make sense?” she said.
Maria Patiño Gutierrez brought her son to the meeting and said she’s not comfortable with him going back to school, which is less than two miles away from Lineage.
“Our summer plans were ruined because of this fire,” she said.
Her son also addressed officials during the hearing. “It was my birthday when the fire started. My baseball game was canceled. Everything was canceled because of the fire,” he said.
