Garden Grove chemical tank update: Cleanup efforts to begin and legal claims mount

"You can feel safe. There was no contamination. There were no fumes. There were no vapors that came from this incident," Health Officer Dr. CK said.

With thousands of Orange County residents returning home on Monday evening, local leaders and experts are ensuring that everyone can go home feeling safe.

Orange County Health Officer Dr. CK said there were no fumes and there are no vapors in the air that could harm residents.

"When you go home, you can feel safe. There was no contamination. There were no fumes. There were no vapors that came from this incident. There was no leak. You should feel comfortable going home," Dr. CK said at a Monday evening press conference.

Officials are stressing that there has been no leak of contaminants into the air. Chris Myers with the EPA said 20 real-time air monitoring instruments have been working around the clock throughout the evacuation zone. He said no exceedances have been detected at any time throughout this event, and air monitoring will continue.

Authorities say residents also do not need to worry about particles settling around their homes since the air quality has been consistently clean. There is no need to wipe down patio furniture or any belongings exposed to the open air.

In addition to safe air quality, officials are ensuring that the water quality is also unaffected. The Orange County Fire Authority said runoff flowing from the water being sprayed on the tank and into storm drains is beeing consistently tested, and it has been clean the whole time. If contaminants were to enter the water, OCFA Chief Craig Covey said downstream barriers are in place to capture anything floating in the water. Still, the barriers have not collected anything so far since the water remains clean.

Approximately 16,000 residents remain in a reduced evacuation zone.

The evacuation zone for a chemical tank crisis unfolding in Garden Grove for the past several days has been reduced.

The new zone impacts 16,000 residents. The new map barriers include Orangewood Avenue to the north, Dale Street to the east, Knott Street to the west and Garden Grove Boulevard to the south.

Evacuation shelters will remain open for the residents who live within the reduced evacuation zone.

Previously, 50,000 Orange County residents were within the evacuation zone.

At a press conference on Monday evening, Orange County Fire Authority officials announced that the evacuation zone for the chemical tank crisis unfolding in Garden Grove has been significantly reduced.

OCFA shared the new map in a post on social media. Approximately 65% of the impacted residents are now able to return home.

The new map barriers include Orangewood Avenue to the north, Dale Street to the east, Knott Street to the west and Garden Grove Boulevard to the south.

Garden Grove Boulevard will restore flows of traffic in the eastbound and westbound directions. All off- and on-ramps of the 22 Freeway will also remain open.

Orange County officials said the new, reduced evacuation zone takes into consideration the risk of a potential plume or fire at the tank.

In order to further reduce the evacuation zone or eliminate it completely, OCFA Chief Craig Covey said crews need to continue to observe a trend of decreasing temperatures inside the tank. That's what will decrease the risk of fire.

Officials said a high police visibility will remain in the area.

Evacuation shelters will remain open for the approximately 16,000 residents still within the reduced evacuation zone.

Fire and law enforcement agencies are re-evaluating evacuation zones following the elimination of a potential catastrophic explosion threat at the Garden Grove chemical tank, officials said.

Despite the development, officials urged the public not to re-enter affected areas in the current evacuation zones.

Officials said more information will be provided during a press conference scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday at the Incident Command Post in Los Alamitos.

Although the threat of a massive catastrophic explosion was eliminated, the crisis is not averted and there is still a chance of a significantly smaller explosion or leak.