{"id":316604,"date":"2026-05-15T03:41:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T03:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/316604\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T03:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T03:41:11","slug":"after-years-of-complaints-harbor-gateway-souths-fight-against-jones-chemicals-reaches-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/316604\/","title":{"rendered":"After Years of Complaints, Harbor Gateway South\u2019s Fight Against Jones Chemicals Reaches Washington –"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"EPA<\/a>EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin (left) as Rep. Barragan rips him a new one. <\/p>\n

By Rick Thomas, Columnist<\/p>\n

\u201cNow recognize the Gentlelady from California, Ms. Barrag\u00e1n.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was the introduction inside a Congressional hearing in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

The \u201cGentlelady\u201d was Congresswoman Nanette Barrag\u00e1n \u2014 the representative for California\u2019s 44th Congressional District, which includes my neighborhood in Harbor Gateway South.<\/p>\n

The witness sitting before Congress was EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.<\/p>\n

And finally \u2014 after years of residents being ignored, dismissed, and treated like collateral damage \u2014 Harbor Gateway South was no longer invisible.<\/p>\n

Because one of the issues raised during that hearing came directly from this community.<\/p>\n

Directly from the neighborhood surrounding Jones Chemicals, Inc.<\/p>\n

At this point, I\u2019m tired of even typing the company\u2019s name. I hoped this story would already be over. Instead, families in Harbor Gateway South are still living next to a facility with a documented history of hazardous violations, while politicians, agencies, and institutions spent years looking the other way.<\/p>\n

This is people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

This is a working-class community where residents raise children, walk their dogs as I do every day, attend school events, and try to live in peace \u2014 while wondering what exactly is being released into the air around them.<\/p>\n

Congresswoman Barrag\u00e1n knows this neighborhood personally. She grew up here. She attended school here. She still lives here when she\u2019s not in Washington.<\/p>\n

And now the issue sitting in the middle of Harbor Gateway South has reached the United States Congress.<\/p>\n

That matters.<\/p>\n

Because for years, too many people acted like this community didn\u2019t matter enough to protect.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow recognize the Gentlelady from California, Ms. Barrag\u00e1n.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good.<\/p>\n

Because somebody finally did.<\/p>\n

Jones Chemicals, Inc. has operated for decades in the middle of a residential community while government oversight repeatedly failed the people living around it. According to current public records, the Los Angeles Fire Department documented 48 fire code violations at the facility.<\/p>\n

Forty-eight.<\/p>\n

Not four.<\/p>\n

Not eight.<\/p>\n

Forty-eight.<\/p>\n

And somehow the people demanding accountability are still treated like the problem.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s backwards.<\/p>\n

Residents of Harbor Gateway South are not extremists because they want clean air, safe streets, and basic accountability from a chemical facility operating next to homes, schools, and the Cheryl Green Boys & Girls Club.<\/p>\n

That is not unreasonable.<\/p>\n

That is the bare minimum any community deserves.<\/p>\n

During the hearing, Congresswoman Barrag\u00e1n questioned EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin directly:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026in my district the EPA\u2019s risk management program inspected a chlorine transfer facility\u2026 JCI Jones Chemicals\u2026 in 2015 and in 2017 and they found serious safety problems, including corroded equipment handling hazardous chemicals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then came the part that should alarm everybody:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the EPA returned in 2024 it found many of the same issues again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again.<\/p>\n

That single word says everything.<\/p>\n

Because communities like Harbor Gateway South are too often expected to simply absorb risk, stay quiet, and be grateful for whatever scraps of accountability eventually arrive years later.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, residents are told to \u201cengage in dialogue\u201d with corporations that continue operating despite repeated violations and ongoing public concern.<\/p>\n

Dialogue matters.<\/p>\n

But accountability matters more.<\/p>\n

And the people living here are exhausted.<\/p>\n

They are exhausted from being talked down to.<\/p>\n

Exhausted from watching agencies protect relationships instead of neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

Exhausted from hearing carefully worded public relations statements while families live with real fear.<\/p>\n

This is not a game to the people living here in Harbor Gateway South.<\/p>\n

Residents should not have to keep \u201cshelter in place\u201d kits inside their homes just because they live near an industrial facility.<\/p>\n

That should disturb everybody.<\/p>\n

Congresswoman Barrag\u00e1n also pointed out that repeated violations were not treated as repeat offenses because inspections occurred years apart and penalties remained minimal.<\/p>\n

A few thousand dollars.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s apparently the price tag attached to years of hazardous conditions inside a working-class Los Angeles neighborhood.<\/p>\n

And people wonder why residents are angry.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles City Councilmember Tim McOsker has now called for stronger oversight and enforcement involving the facility, writing that constituents have demanded clarity regarding safety and enforcement authority.<\/p>\n

Truthfully, the residents already have clarity.<\/p>\n

The clarity came from 48 fire code violations.<\/p>\n

The clarity came from repeated inspections identifying ongoing problems.<\/p>\n

The clarity came from years of residents feeling unheard while institutions protected process over people.<\/p>\n

What Harbor Gateway South needs now is no more excuses.<\/p>\n

It needs enforcement.<\/p>\n

It needs transparency.<\/p>\n

It needs leadership willing to prioritize residents over corporate comfort.<\/p>\n

And to be fair, leadership is finally beginning to emerge.<\/p>\n

Congresswoman Barrag\u00e1n and Councilmember McOsker previously worked together to address truck idling in Harbor Gateway South, another quality-of-life issue that residents were forced to endure for years.<\/p>\n

That effort made a visible difference.<\/p>\n

People noticed.<\/p>\n

The trucks stopped idling.<\/p>\n

The neighborhood got quieter.<\/p>\n

Residents felt heard.<\/p>\n

We did.<\/p>\n

I did.<\/p>\n

That matters because Harbor Gateway South is not asking for luxury.<\/p>\n

People here are asking for dignity.<\/p>\n

For safety.<\/p>\n

For basic respect.<\/p>\n

There is still a long fight ahead. Jones Chemicals, Inc. has already responded aggressively through legal channels, and nobody should pretend this issue disappears overnight.<\/p>\n

But for the first time in a long time, residents can see elected officials publicly confronting the issue instead of avoiding it.<\/p>\n

That changes things.<\/p>\n

Because Harbor Gateway South deserves the same protection, urgency, and respect as any other community in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

No family should feel abandoned simply because they live next to industry.<\/p>\n

And no resident should be attacked for refusing to stay silent about it.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin (left) as Rep. Barragan rips him a new one. By Rick Thomas, Columnist \u201cNow…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[66191,132366,132367,131,133,132,9722],"class_list":["post-316604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-harborcity","tag-joneschemicals","tag-nanettebarragan","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-rln"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}