Removal and cleanup has been completed of more than 89 million pounds of food waste left over from the June 17 fire that burned for days, leaving Boyle Heights area residents choking from the smell and under siege by vermin in the weeks following, authorities said tody.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District confirmed that Lineage Logistics has cleared away all of the food and debris, and power-washed and disinfected the interior of the 491,000-square-foot site in time to meet the Saturday deadline.
“The completion marks the end of major cleanup activities in Freezer 1 following weeks of persistent odors impacting surrounding communities,” the AQMD announced in a statement. “The number of odor complaints received by South Coast AQMD has drastically decreased since all bulk food waste was removed a week ago, averaging less than five complaints per day compared with several hundred complaints per day in July. Since July 12, South Coast AQMD has received more than 4,900 odor complaints from surrounding communities reporting persistent rotten, sour and garbage-like odors.”
A statement from Lineage said the cleanup was “an important milestone in the most ambitious and comprehensive remediation effort within the cold-storage industry following the fire that broke out on the roof of the facility.”
Lineage President and CEO Greg Lehmkuhl expanded on that statement, saying, “No cleanup of this scale and speed has ever been executed before, and none of it would have been possible without the extraordinary courage and dedication of first responders, remediation crews and Lineage team members who worked around the clock to ensure the fastest possible comprehensive response.”
“Core to who we are as a company is a deep commitment to show up for the communities where we live and work, as well as for the businesses and people who depend on us to store the food that ends up on dinner tables throughout our communities and around the world,” he said. “We approached the challenge of this cleanup with that same mindset and that same commitment to doing right by our neighbors.”
The remediation and clean-up cost Lineage $100 million and 210,000 worker-hours, the company stated, adding that it used misting systems around the building perimeter, temporary enclosure barriers to contain debris and reduce odors, and conducted continuous air-quality monitoring while providing regular updates to the community through its website, email alerts, door-to-door outreach and ongoing community meeting participation.
The work is not over, Lineage and the AQMD agreed.
“Lineage must continue to follow all measures required by the Order for Abatement, which includes the use of odor-neutralizing agents during certain activities and collection of all wastewater generated by cleanup activities to be placed in a sealed tank and vented to air pollution-control equipment,” the AQMD stated.
“Lineage is also required to notify the community of any future actions with potential to cause odors. The order also requires Lineage to continue fenceline and community air-monitoring,” according to the statement.
The AQMD noted that its inspectors will continue daily visits to the site to ensure Lineage complies with the abatement order until the odor-mitigation efforts are no longer required.