This browser does not support the Video element.
Lineage misses cleanup deadline
The cleanup has generated thousands of odor complaints from surrounding neighborhoods and concerns about flies, rats and other pests.
LOS ANGELES - The city's 45-day deadline for Lineage to clear rotting food from its fire-damaged Boyle Heights warehouse expired Friday at 5 p.m. with the job unfinished.
The company says 93% of more than 80 million pounds has been hauled away and disputes that Friday was ever the deadline, arguing its clock started July 7 and runs through Aug. 20.
Mayor Karen Bass says she is sending city lawyers after the company. Air quality regulators told FOX 11 the passing deadline does not change their own enforcement powers at all.
Residents on the block say they are still living with the smell, the flies and the rodents.
What we know:
Lineage says 93% of more than 80 million pounds of rotting food has been removed from the warehouse. What remains is loose food packed six stories up across roughly 40 miles of shelving, in areas the company says heavy equipment cannot reach. Crews in full protective gear are climbing into the racks to push product down while others clear it by hand.
The company never accepted Friday as its deadline. Lineage says its 45-day clock started July 7, after the Los Angeles Fire Department ended its 24-hour fire watch at the site, which puts its completion date at Thursday, Aug. 20. The company says it is on day 37.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Lineage Logistics set to miss deadline for Boyle Heights warehouse food cleanup
The mayor's office disputes that. It told FOX 11 the city has consistently communicated that all food waste must be out by Aug. 14, that the site transferred back to Lineage on June 29 and that food debris was being removed before that date. The office also said Lineage had not pushed back on the Aug. 14 date until this week, and had previously indicated it would finish removing all food waste by Aug. 15.
FOX 11 requested interviews Friday from Lineage, the mayor's office and the South Coast Air Quality Management District. All three responded in writing. None made anyone available for an interview. Lineage provided a statement it had released the night before.
The competing deadlines
The air district told FOX 11 that the city's deadline passing does not change or expand its own enforcement options, because its authority comes from a separate order for abatement.
Under that order, Lineage must remove at least 10% of the total food waste each calendar week, an amount the agency estimates at roughly 8.8 million pounds. Lineage reported at an Aug. 6 hearing that it had removed about 80% of the food. Based on that pace, the agency said, the remaining 20% would be due within two weeks of the hearing board order, which lands on Aug. 20.
That is the same date Lineage has set for itself.
Once all food waste is out, the company has seven calendar days to complete power washing and disinfection under the same order.
By the numbers:
- 25 notices of violation issued to Lineage by the air district
- More than 4,400 odor complaints since July 12, including 246 between Aug. 5 and Aug. 13
- More than 80 million pounds of food waste, with 93% removed as of the company's most recent update
- Roughly 40 miles of shelving still holding loose food six stories up
- $100 million, what Lineage says it expects to spend on the cleanup
- More than 100,000 hours of work, an average of 400 workers a day and more than 4,000 truckloads of debris removed, according to the company
What they're saying:
Martin Ramirez has run his shop across the street from the warehouse for 11 years. He found maggots under the cars Friday. Asked whether he believed the company would finish on time, he said: "Exactly. Supposedly it has to finish today but I don't think so."
Ramirez said he asked for fly traps and was told none were available, and that he ended up paying out of pocket.
"Yeah, I want to know where's the money, because we asked for the fly stripes and they told us they don't have it, so where's the money?" Ramirez said.
Consuelo Granados has lived at the end of the block for 50 years. She says the smell brings headaches, and that her doctor gave her medicine that has not helped.
"My voice gone. Like it right now, I don't have any voice. And it's no good. And nobody help. Nobody help," Granados said.
She runs her air conditioning all day. She watched her cat, Princesa, go after what she believes are rodents from the warehouse.
"Right now, yeah, I believe. Because my cat is catching right now something. I don't know what," Granados said.
In her backyard, she keeps a fly trap by the door. Asked whether the trap had caught that many flies in just four days, Granados said: "It's incredible, believe me. It's so many, they fall. They fall right there and I cleaned it up yesterday and I have to take it out today."
Bass told FOX 11 in a statement Friday afternoon: "I've asked our City lawyers to pursue civil litigation and all legal options for cost recovery and penalties and to put a lien on the property if they don't pay. I will continue doing everything in my authority to protect Boyle Heights and demand the answers and accountability this community deserves."
Lineage said in its statement: "The timeline is dictated by the reality on the ground, not by our willingness or our resources, and we are expected to spend $100M on our cleanup effort. We have spared no expense, held nothing back, and we are not slowing down. We will not stop until the job is done."
What's next:
Lineage says it expects to finish bulk food removal by Thursday, Aug. 20, followed by spot cleaning, disinfecting and detailing through Aug. 27.
The air district described its work on the 25 violations as an ongoing investigation, with its legal department working through the enforcement process. It said violations of its Rule 402 and state health and safety code can bring civil penalties ranging from $1,000 to $75,000 per day or higher depending on the circumstances.
The city's order carries deadlines beyond Friday's. Lineage has 90 days from the site transfer to remove all structural debris and construction waste, and 120 days to obtain a final environmental clearance certificate from a licensed environmental professional.
The Source: This report is based on written statements provided to FOX 11 by Lineage, the office of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, and the South Coast Air Quality Management District, alongside official updates from an Aug. 6 agency hearing board proceeding. On-the-ground impacts were gathered through direct interviews with Boyle Heights residents and business owners living adjacent to the warehouse site.