Simi Valley landfill gets rotting food from warehouse fire, raising odor complaints from neighbors

Millions of pounds of rancid rotting food cleared from a burned cold storage warehouse in Boyle Heights are now raising complaints from Simi Valley residents who say they’re grappling with the stench of the decomposing waste that was dumped into a nearby landfill.

At one point, one resident said, the smell of rot was so strong they believed a wild animal had died on a nearby hiking trail.

“We had the smell of rotten eggs or rotten meat,” said George Khalatian, president of the Big Sky Homeowners Assn. in Simi Valley.

Last week, the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District issued a notice of violation to Waste Management California, which operates the Simi Valley Landfill and Recycling Center, after several residents complained about an overwhelming smell coming from the landfill after it received food waste from the Lineage Logistics warehouse in Boyle Heights.

Inspectors from the agency investigated the site Aug. 11 and confirmed the foul smell was coming from the Simi Valley landfill, according to the notice reviewed by The Times.

The two inspectors “noted the particular odor emanating from the dumping of putrescent food waste,” according to the notice.

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So far this week, the South Coast Air Quality Management District has issued four notices of violations to the company related to the putrid odor at the cleanup site.

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Waste Management California did not respond to questions about how much Lineage waste the Simi Valley landfill received but in statement said it was a “very small percentage” of the total material it takes in on a daily basis.

The company added that food waste is a common component of the permitted waste at the site.

The company also noted that the waste from Lineage was treated to mitigate odors before being transported, and was treated again when it arrived at the Simi Valley site.

The stench is similar to what residents in Boyle Heights said they endured for more than two months after a fire broke out in the massive cold storage warehouse in June. The company said it removed approximately 88 million pounds of rotting food, including meat and fish, that was stored inside.

The rotting food drew swarms of flies and rats with a foul rancid smell that Boyle Heights residents said kept them indoors and that business owners said kept customers away.

Residents have reported nausea, itchy eyes and scratchy throats since the fire was knocked down.

One study by St. John’s Community Health, which opened up mobile clinics for residents after the fire, found that more than 35% of the 1,306 patients it treated during a six-week period showed symptoms linked to the fire, including acute upper respiratory infections,conjunctivitis and asthma exacerbation.

On Saturday, Lineage announced it had finished clearing the food from the facility, an effort that the company said it expects to cost more than $100 million.

“This is the result of hundreds of workers on site every day, first removing boxes and pallets and then, in the final stretch, removing loose food debris by hand,” the company said in a statement.

But city officials have criticized the company for not meeting city deadlines for the cleanup, including a 45-day deadline that the company missed to clear the rotting food inside.

Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, who represents the area, said in a statement the city would continue to push for independent verification that Lineage was meeting city deadlines to clean up the debris from the fire.

“We will keep pressing for independent verification, consequences, and the relief and accountability needed to make Boyle Heights whole,” Jurado said in the statement.

The work is not yet completed. Lineage is working to meet a seven-day deadline to power-wash and remove remaining debris from the facility.

California

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In Simi Valley, Khalatian of the homeowners association said residents received no warning that the Simi Valley landfill would be receiving waste from the Lineage warehouse.

“If we had, we would have, of course, objected,” Khalatian said.

Simi Valley resident Joyce White said her home seemed to escape much of the rancid smell because it sits atop of a hill, but she still detected a faint odor coming from the landfill.

Still, she’s concerned about the landfill getting the waste from another toxic disaster. Last year, the landfill also took in charred waste from the Palisades and Eaton fires, sparking concerns among residents and prompting the city to hold a public meeting to address their worries.

“It would be great if all these toxic events did not end up deposited in the Simi landfill,” White said.

The homeowners association received several complaints about the odor. But Khalatian said many of them, including himself, didn’t suspect the stench was coming from the landfill.

His own home, he said, is about two miles from the landfill, but the strong smell was able to travel the distance.

He and several residents have since filed complaints with the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District, he said, and have not detected the odor in the last five days.

The notice of violation issued by the air pollution control district requires the landfill to “return to operating in a manner that does not cause a public nuisance.”