The city-imposed deadline for Lineage to clean up millions of pounds of rotting food from a burned warehouse in Boyle Heights is Friday, and it does not appear that the company will finish the work on time, a city official said.
“I am deeply disappointed and angry,” said Councilmember Ysabel Jurado in a news release. “For nearly two months, families in Boyle Heights have lived with unbearable odors, flies and pests, truck traffic, uncertainty, and disruption to their homes, businesses, and daily lives. They were told there was a deadline, and they had every right to expect that deadline to mean something.”
On Thursday, Jurado called on the mayor’s office to enforce the deadline, which officials say is 5 p.m. Friday, and apply consequences to the company. Lineage has made significant strides and the work is nearly done, but that’s not enough, Jurado said.
“Finishing late does not erase … everything residents endured getting here,” Jurado said in the statement.
Lineage did not immediately provide a response to Jurado’s statement.
On June 17, a fire began on the roof of the 500,000-square-foot Lineage cold storage facility that gutted the building and destroyed half the structure over several days. On June 29, Mayor Karen Bass signed an executive order calling for the company to clear out the food waste within 45 days.
According to a company-run tracker of the work, 93% of the food waste was removed as of Wednesday.
“I recognize that Lineage has made significant progress and may be within days of removing the remaining food,” Jurado said in the statement. “I want them to finish the job immediately. But 93 percent is not 100 percent, and almost on time is not the same as on time.”
Even if the work is completed near the Friday deadline, Jurado said Lineage should face consequences. What exactly that would mean, however, remained unclear.
“I am not going to tell residents who have spent weeks unable to comfortably open their windows, let their children play outside, or operate their businesses normally that ‘almost done’ should be good enough,” Jurado said. “I fully support the Mayor leveraging all the enforcement, cost-recovery, and accountability tools available to make clear that when the City establishes a public-health deadline, corporations are expected to meet it — and there are consequences when they do not.”
Last week, Lineage said it expects to spend $80 million to $100 million to clean up the Boyle Heights site. The company has also been accruing fines as air regulators demand the company take additional steps to mitigate the smell and vermin that has been drawn to the site and surrounding neighborhoods.
Since the fire, residents have reported experiencing scratchy throats, headaches and nausea because of the ongoing smell.
At least one Boyle Heights resident, a cancer patient, has filed suit against the company alleging they spent money on air purifiers and utility costs because of the fire. The suit alleges public nuisance and unlawful business practices among the claims.
Earlier this week, students in the Los Angeles Unified School District returned to school with teachers and volunteers at the sites around the warehouse handing out face masks. Eight LAUSD schools are located within one mile of the burned warehouse.
LAUSD officials said they have coordinated with the South Coast Air Quality Management District and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to install air monitors and continue collecting date at nearby schools. The school district has also sent out air purifiers to affected campuses.
Since the fire, Lineage has also donated $3.3 million to local nonprofits to assist with the response, company officials said in an Aug. 5 earnings call. The Boyle Heights warehouse, according to the call, amounted to about 1% of the company’s total global capacity so the long-term impact to the company’s bottomline was nil.
Lineage has since filed for a permit to rebuild the Boyle Heights warehouse, which was met with fierce backlash from the community and city officials. Bass called the permit request a “slap in the face,” and criticized the company for looking to rebuild before the cleanup had been completed.
According to Robb A. LeMasters, chief financial officer for Lineage, the company would be seeking some sort of action with Altus, the company that was working on solar panels on the warehouse roof when the fire started.
“We’re pursuing all options to hold them accountable,” LeMasters said during the call. “In the meantime, we carry insurance for exactly this kind of event, and we’re working with our insurance partners to cover immediate remediation costs and financial impact while responsibility gets totally worked out.”
On Thursday, the city invited residents to an online forum at 6 p.m. to receive an update on the incident.
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