Carson warehouse owners could be fined $17M due to rotten-egg like odors

CARSON, Calif. (CNS) -- Carson warehouse owners could be facing a $17 million penalty after the warehouse was identified as a source of material causing odors in the Dominguez Channels and illnesses within residents in the South Bay.

Some residents complained of headaches, burning eyes, nausea and other discomfort due to the odor.

The Los Angeles Water Quality Board announced the penalty for the warehouse owner of Liberty Property Limited Partnership, and its parent company, Prologis Inc. and for building tenants Day to Day Imports Inc. and Virgin Scent Inc., doing business as ArtNaturals.

This penalty was determined after a few months of investigating the odor, the result was organic material decaying.

The odor was said to smell like rotten-egg lingering over multiple regions, including Carson, Gardena, Torrance, Redondo beach, Wilmington and Long Beach.

The owner insisted, they quickly stepped in to begin cleanup efforts after the building caught fire on Sept. 30, 2021 and sent chemicals into the channel. The fire was large and took several days to put out.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District concluded last year many chemicals were contained in storage. Ethanol being the main one and because of the fire it managed to pass through the sewer system into the local flood control waterway of the Dominguez Channels. This was followed by the decay of organic materials in the channel, which caused elevated levels of hydrogen sulfide to be discharged into the air.

According to regulators, the building tenants stored large quantities of wellness/beauty products at the warehouse located at 16325 S. Avalon Blvd. in Carson.

If approved by the LAWQ board during its Oct. 12 meeting, the fine will be the largest ever imposed by the agency.

In a statement, Prologis denied any wrongdoing.

"We vigorously dispute any suggestion by the Regional Board that Prologis and Liberty did not take appropriate actions as property owners following the Sept. 30 fire,'' according to the company. Neither Prologis nor Liberty caused the fire. Nevertheless, in the days following the fire, after the tenant Day to Day failed to clean up the fire debris, Liberty and Prologis stepped forward to remove the debris and prevent storm water runoff."

The LAWQ board officials said they received more than 4,000 complaints about the odor.

On Dec. 9, 2021 the AQMD issued a "cleanup and abatement order" to the properties requiring that all waste be removed by Dec. 31 of 2021.

To date, they have failed to complete all activities required by the order, leading the board's prosecution team to propose an additional administrative civil liability of over $600,000 for this violation,'' the LAWQ board said.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors last year declared a local emergency and the Department of Public Health conducted door-to-door outreach to more than 8,970 Carson residents, including medically fragile individuals.

In addition, the Department of Public Works coordinated with multiple experts and spent an estimated $5.4 million on remediation and providing or reimbursing residents for air filters, air purifiers and temporary relocation.

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