Residents Protest Proposed Flour Mill

More than 40 residents and their children who live next to a proposed flour mill protested against the project in front of City Hall following this week’s City Council meeting.

Residents said they want an environmental study done for the project and carried placards with messages including “No Silos in Our Backyard!” Some wore dust masks over their nose and mouth to represent the health effects they believe the flour mill would cause.

“We’re out here just to make a public statement that we’re against this project because we have a lot of concerns,” said Bill Wotring, who lives next to the project site at the former Hunt-Wesson Inc. cannery off Commonwealth Avenue and Brookhurst Road.

The city’s Planning Commission earlier this month approved the project. Residents filed an appeal and a public hearing is scheduled Aug. 18 before the City Council.

The flour mill is being proposed by Hunt-Wesson’s parent company, ConAgra Inc. of Omaha, Neb., and would be built about 340 feet from a west Fullerton neighborhood.

The 129-foot-high flour mill would include 16 concrete silos, each 102 feet tall.

ConAgra officials have said the mill would be a safe operation, produce little dust and create 20 jobs.

Wotring said public neighborhood meetings will be at 3 p.m. Sundays at Adlena Park up until the public hearing. Residents also started a petition drive.