Mayor Bass Provides Testimony During South Coast AQMD’S Hearing Board in Support of Order of Abatement against Lineage

En Español

한국어

Roughly 4,000 Odor Complaints Lodged with SCAQMD Against Lineage to Date

LOS ANGELES - Mayor Karen Bass today provided testimony with residents of Boyle Heights and East LA at the South Coast Air Quality Management District's Hearing Board to advocate and support an Order of Abatement against Lineage. Read Mayor Bass' letter to the SCAQMD Hearing Board here. The offices of Mayor Bass, Councilmember Jurado, Assemblymember Gonzalez, and Senator Durazo worked with community partners to support and drive 130+ residents on buses to SCAQMD headquarters in Diamond Bar to speak at the hearing.

During the meeting, Mayor Bass called for Lineage to:

• Translate all signage and communication materials into Spanish and establish a bilingual hotline and claims center to provide residents with ongoing assistance.

• Host weekly community meetings in Spanish and English to provide updates on the cleanup, monitoring results, and to receive concerns directly from the community.

• Provide direct notification to the community of significant cleanup activities with the potential to increase odors.

• Minimize noise impacts from cleanup activities during nighttime and early morning hours, consistent with applicable laws.

• Install permanent odor monitoring stations at the locations closest to surrounding residential neighborhoods, including Indiana Street.

• Establish a dedicated fund to support residents and small businesses with essential products and services, including but not limited to air purifiers, masks, smoke, toxin and odor cleaning services, and housing relocation, financial resources, and other essential assistance.

Read Mayor Bass' remarks below:

Thank you so much for allowing me to speak with you today… I am here because I want to speak alongside the Boyle Heights and East LA community who have endured unacceptable conditions for nearly two months. When fire engulfed the Lineage cold storage facility in Boyle Heights, the impact extended far beyond the loss of a warehouse.

To this day, the putrid offensive odor coming from the tens of millions of pounds of rotting food in the warehouse is unbearable. Now flies, rats and other pests have infested the community and we are most concerned that schools are preparing to reopen amid unresolved concerns around air quality.

Small businesses have lost customers, and families have experienced a variety of physical and health conditions. From the beginning, my top priority has always been to protect the health and safety of the community. On June 29, I issued two executive orders establishing an aggressive framework for community recovery and environmental remediation following the Lineage incident. These orders created the Boyle Heights Unified Recovery Command to coordinate the regional response and ensure the community receives the support it needs.

But let's be clear, 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.

I have been on the ground in the community every few days and speaking directly with the residents each week since the fire began. I have experienced firsthand the impact that this has had on families…. and the smells.. I have to admit, it is unlike anything I have ever experienced.

While Lineage has taken some steps, these actions have only occurred with consistent and persistent pressure from government agencies and most importantly, from residents. So I strongly support the issue of an ordinance of abatement, and I am also requesting additional requirements be included to ensure accountability and to protect the Boyle Heights community.

First of all, all written materials have to be translated into Spanish. There needs to be weekly briefings from Lineage in Spanish and English. Lineage has to issue direct notifications to the community when there are activities with the potential to increase odors, as is going on right now as they remove the meat from refrigerator number one.

We need to require Lineage to install permanent odor monitoring stations at locations and to establish a dedicated fund for ongoing support, most importantly to relocate residents and to relocate them not just for a week or two, but until this issue is completely resolved.

…So, my office has emailed the Board Clerk a formal letter spelling out these requests in greater detail. We need a process that is transparent and enforceable to ensure that Lineage is held accountable to the maximum extent of the law including: fines, effective mitigation, and a complete and thorough cleanup.

The residents and business owners in Boyle Heights and East LA deserve to breathe clean air in their homes, in schools, and in their workplaces.

So, I urge the Hearing Board to leverage the full extent of its oversight and enforcement authority to issue a strong Order of Abatement with the maximum penalties for the ongoing air quality violations, including maximum financial fines.

Again I will end as I started. My concern is 100% the health and safety of the residents of this community - of both Boyle Heights and East LA. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak with you today.