Orange County officials will start removing chemicals this week from two storage tanks at a Garden Grove aerospace company that prompted thousands to evacuate their homes in late May.
Sometime between Monday and Thursday, workers are expected tostart removing the neutralized methyl methacrylate, or MMA, from two of three tanks at GKN Aerospace, using specialized containers that incorporate “features that support temperature control and secure transport,” the OC Health Care Agency said in a news release Friday. The process will take several days to complete.
Residents might intermittently smell MMA, which emits a fruity odor, throughout the cleanup, but health officials said it will be only at concentrations below any threshold that would prompt health concerns.
“The drainage operation represents one phase of the cleanup and disposal process. Air monitoring will continue throughout cleanup operations,” the OC Health Care Agency said in a news release Friday.
Residents can monitor air quality via an online dashboard that the agency set up in response to the disaster.
GKN Aerospace is a Britain-based company that manufactures fighter-jet and commercial aircraft windows. The firm faces multiple class-action lawsuits filed on behalf of evacuated residents that allege the company was negligent in maintaining its facility. The company has said it will donate $4 million to local relief organizations serving residents forced to evacuate their homes in response to the crisis.
The crisis started after officials responded to GKN’s Garden Grove facility on May 21 and soon realized a volatile chemical tank was at risk of exploding or causing a major spill. About 50,000 people from six cities in Orange County were forced to evacuate their homes.
The final evacuation orders were lifted May 26 after officials found a crack in an overheating tank with 7,000 gallons of MMA had relieved the pressure inside and diminished the risk that it would explode. After the pressure was released through the crack, emergency crews peeled back the tank’s external wall and insulation to pump water inside to cool it down.
The clean-up was originally scheduled for June 4, but was delayed due to “unavailable resources,” the OC Health Care Agency said in a news release.
In the same news release announcing the delay, health officials said that workers had attempted to empty a stormwater and condensation tank in an area “unrelated to the incident site,” and spilled 50 gallons of water into the storm drain. Officials said the potential for any trace amounts of MMA to be found in the stormwater was low but would be monitored.
The FBI served a search warrant at the GKN facility six days after the clean-up was scheduled to take place, which an agency spokesperson said was part of an ongoing investigation into the business. A GKN spokesperson said the company would continue cooperating with authorities.
Times staff writers Nilesh Christopher, Clara Harter and Salvador Hernandez contributed to this report.
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