Lineage says cleanup at Boyle Heights warehouse is "in the final stretch"
A massive food waste cleanup operation at the Lineage cold storage warehouse in Boyle Heights is "in the final stretch", the company announced on Thursday.
It's taken over 60 days to clean up 85 million pounds of rotting food. While Lineage said today that 100% of food waste has been removed from freezer 2 and 101.8% from freezer 1, there is still more to be done. Mayor Karen Bass questions the progress and said that city personnel were inside the warehouse earlier today and that food waste remains. "The City will inspect again tomorrow," Bass wrote.
On Thursday, Lineage reiterated what it had said two days ago: that crews are working to remove loose food product lodged within a six-story rack system spanning 40 miles of shelving that heavy equipment cannot reach.
"Workers in full protective gear are climbing into racks more than six stories high to manually push product down. Others clear it bay by bay from the floor," Lineage wrote.
Aside from food waste, there is debris and materials used in firefighting and cleanup efforts that also have to be removed, and that is where the 101.8% comes from—food waste plus debris. The shelving also has to be cleared out.
"The cleanup is in the final stretch, with hundreds of workers working around the clock on removing residual food waste, power washing, disinfecting, and deodorizing the facility," Lineage wrote in its Aug. 20 update.
Mayor Karen Bass had imposed a 45-day deadline for Lineage to clean everything up as neighbors complained of rotting smells, rodents and flies. That day passed on Aug. 14, but a Lineage spokesperson argued that the 45-day deadline did not begin until July 7, after "persistent flare-ups made it unsafe to enter."
That deadline is today, Aug. 20. The company said earlier that it will complete spot cleaning, disinfecting and detailing work by Aug. 27.
Fire erupted at the 500,000-square-foot warehouse on June 17 and roughly one week later, fire crews were finally able to extinguish it. Then came the cleanup of the rotting food, which included two freezers. The freezer in the burned portion of the building proved difficult to access, requiring manual labor because equipment could not reach it.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District said it issued Lineage 25 notices of violation for the smell. In July, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health also cited Lineage for rodent and pest-control violations, fining the company $500 per day until the violations were corrected.
"No cleanup of this scale and speed has been executed before, and we have dedicated every available resource to this effort, expecting to spend over $100M on our total cleanup," Lineage wrote, saying an average of 400 workers were on site every day.
The warehouse operator sought a City of Los Angeles permit to rebuild, but Bass ordered a pause on that in July. Today, she took a more aggressive stance, saying, "Lineage and Chill Build do not deserve to rebuild."
"I have also called on our City lawyers to pursue litigation, a lien, and all legal options for cost recovery and penalties," Bass said.
Lineage said it believed the fire started while contractors tested the third-party owner's solar array. Altus Power, the owner of the solar panels, said that the cause of the fire had not been determined.
