Lineage will fail to meet cleanup deadline for Boyle Heights warehouse, mayor says

Lineage will not finish cleaning up the rotting food from its burned Boyle Heights warehouse by the 45-day deadline, Mayor Karen Bass announced on Thursday. 

"That is unacceptable," Bass wrote in a post to X. "I will use every resource at my disposal to demand compliance and hold Lineage accountable for every day that Boyle Heights residents are forced to breathe putrid air and deal with the flies and rats, because of the company's negligence."

In June, Bass imposed a 45-day deadline for Lineage to clean up roughly 85 million pounds of decaying waste left in the once-500,000-square-foot warehouse. As of Aug. 13, Lineage said it has cleaned up all the decomposing food from one of the burned structures and 84% of the biohazardous waste from the other unscathed part of the facility, for a total of 93% of the rotting debris at the property. 

"Lineage is currently spending well over a million dollars per day to ensure that we're moving as ... quickly as possible," Lineage Vice President Dominic DiCarlo said last week. 

The putrid odors, insects and rodents coming from the millions of pounds of spoiled food have plagued surrounding neighborhoods, with residents submitting thousands of complaints to regulators.

"For weeks, getting a straight answer from Lineage on when they will remove all of the food waste from their warehouse has been nearly impossible," Bass said. First, they told us they were on track. Then they were two days behind. Then a week behind. The timeline keeps changing while this community is left waiting."

The mayor said she will have the city's lawyers pursue legal action to recoup recovery costs and to place a lien on the property. In June, Lineage said that the building is owned by Chill Build Los Angeles, LLC.

"At every turn, Lineage has failed to meet its responsibility to this community," Bass said. 

As of last week, the South Coast Air Quality Management District said Lineage has received 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. 

That same month, AQMD ordered the company to craft a mitigation plan after residents submitted 900 complaints within a week. While the company implemented the measures, the number of complaints grew to more than 4,200 as the odors persisted.

As a result, regulators ordered Lineage last week to implement 90 more conditions to tamp down on the smell through routine waste and water removal, odor neutralizers and further pollution control.

AQMD also moved to fine Lineage $70,000 per violation. 

"Certainly, if there's ongoing noncompliance, that is subject to heightened penalties, and that is authorized under state law."AQMD attorney Josephine Lee said last week. 

In a statement on Aug. 11, Lineage Chief Operating Officer Jeff Rivera, who apologized to residents during a heated town hall in July, said the company is focused on controlling pests and mitigating odors as it enters the final phase of the cleanup process. 

"We continue to make meaningful progress against this massive cleanup effort every single day, and we will keep working until the job is done," Rivera said.

The race to remove the biohazardous waste began after a fire that originated along rows of solar panels atop the 500,000-square-foot warehouse burned through the roof and into a cold storage facility in June, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. 

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. 

The fire continued to burn for more than a week, prompting Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency in Boyle Heights, enabling state resources to be used. After using unconventional tactics, such as water-dropping helicopters, LAFD crews knocked down the fire and returned the property to Lineage for cleanup. 

In the wake of the fire and amid the cleanup effort, Lineage said it has provided $3.38 million in donations, meals and utility assistance to the surrounding communities. The company said it has also handed out thousands of air purifiers, portable air conditioning units, masks, bottled water and grocery vouchers to residents.