Air regulators take action on Lineage stench complaints

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Set us as preferred 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.The South Coast Air Quality Management District’s 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.South Coast AQMD 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.The board’s 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.

“This is a very dynamic situation, it’s not anything any of us have seen before, with the rotting food waste,” said Jason Aspell, deputy executive officer at AQMD.“The 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.” Climate & Environment The operator of a cold storage warehouse that burned in Boyle Heights has said it expects to spend $80 million to $100 million to clean up the site.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 unrefri...