Officials say Lineage will miss warehouse cleanup deadline. Lineage claims city has date wrong

The city-imposed deadline for Lineage to clean up millions of pounds of rotting food from a burned warehouse in Boyle Heights is Friday, and it does not appear that the company will finish the work on time, city and county officials said.

“I am deeply disappointed and angry,” Los Angeles City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado said in a news release. “For nearly two months, families in Boyle Heights have lived with unbearable odors, flies and pests, truck traffic, uncertainty, and disruption to their homes, businesses, and daily lives. They were told there was a deadline, and they had every right to expect that deadline to mean something.”

A Lineage executive confirmed to The Times that the cleanup of rotting food would not be completed by Friday and insisted that the company still had a week to meet its deadline.

During an online town hall for residents, Mayor Karen Bass said one of her deputy mayors had toured the facility Thursday and found that, “no surprise to anyone, we know the work is not done.”

Bass accused Lineage of failing to meet the Friday deadline and said the multimillion-dollar company had “run out its welcome.”

“How far they are to meeting the deadline is anyone’s guess,” Bass said. “We know what Lineage has said. Meanwhile, the families of Boyle Heights and East L.A. continue to live with the consequences.”

On Thursday, Jurado called on the mayor’s office to enforce the Friday deadline, and if it is not met, as expected, ensure that there are consequences for the company. Lineage has made significant strides and the work is nearly done, but that’s not enough, Jurado said.

In a statement, Bass said she was “calling on our City lawyers to pursue civil litigation and all legal options for cost recovery and penalties and to put a lien on the property.”

But Lineage officials are contesting the date of the mayor’s deadline, arguing that the company still has another week to complete the cleanup.

“There is a 45-day deadline that we’re running hard toward,” said Jeff Rivera, Lineage chief operating officer, in an interview with The Times. “In the executive order it states that the operation clock starts officially when we were handed the building.”

On June 29, Mayor Karen Bass signed a pair of executive orders regarding the fire, including requiring the “full biohazard food waste removal within forty-five (45) calendar days of site transfer.”

City officials have stated that day was June 29, which would place the deadline on Aug. 14. Lineage officials argue they were unable to start working on the cleanup until July 7, which would make the deadline Aug. 20.

“The progress has been amazing,” Rivera said. “We still have 400 contractors on site, 24 hours a day.”

But Rivera acknowledged the disagreement between the company and city officials on when the deadline clock would run out.

“We just had a conversation with a rep from the mayor’s office,” Rivera said, in which the discrepancy was discussed. “I think that was a gap that we should have aligned on earlier.”

Rivera said the process to remove the remaining waste was complex, requiring crews to go through tall racks and pallets that are still in place but must be removed safely.

“We’re going to work through the commitment that we made, and get this site fully cleaned up,” Rivera said. “It’s been a Herculean effort.”

Asked whether the company would complete the cleanup by Aug. 20, Rivera said the company hoped so.

“It’s going to be close,” Rivera said. “It’s going to be day by day. It’s not easy. The last 3% is the hardest, and it’s a battle.”

City and county officials said the deadline is Friday.

Bass accused the company of moving timelines and offering no clear answers on the cleanup progress.

“The timeline seems to keep changing while the community is left waiting, and we know that is unacceptable,” Bass said.

During Thursday’s online town hall, Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis said she was disappointed the company had failed to meet the 45-day deadline, especially after the county facilitated permits so that trucks could transport waste 24 hours a day, and so that landfills would accept waste around the clock.

“Lineage, bottom line, must do its part to fulfill its responsibility to everyone who has been hurt in this disaster,” Solis said.

Documents reviewed by The Times show that the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety notified Lineage that the building was in violation and required it to remove debris and dead organic matter.

“All necessary work shall be completed within 45 days from the effective date of this order,” the document reads. The four-page document is dated June 29.

Since the fire was knocked down, Bass said, city officials had been unable to get a definitive answer from Lineage on when it would complete the massive cleanup.

“Getting a straight answer has been nearly impossible,” Bass said.

Bass said it had also been difficult for city officials to verify Lineage’s reports on where they stood on the cleanup as it was underway.

On June 17, a fire began on the roof of the 500,000-square-foot cold storage facility that gutted the building and destroyed half the structure over several days.

According to a company-run tracker of the work, 93% of the food waste was removed as of Wednesday.

“I recognize that Lineage has made significant progress and may be within days of removing the remaining food,” Jurado said in her statement. “I want them to finish the job immediately. But 93 percent is not 100 percent, and almost on time is not the same as on time.”

Even if the work is completed near the Friday deadline, Jurado said Lineage should face consequences.

“I am not going to tell residents who have spent weeks unable to comfortably open their windows, let their children play outside, or operate their businesses normally that ‘almost done’ should be good enough,” Jurado said. “I fully support the Mayor leveraging all the enforcement, cost-recovery, and accountability tools available to make clear that when the City establishes a public-health deadline, corporations are expected to meet it — and there are consequences when they do not.”

Last week, Lineage said it expected to spend $80 million to $100 million to clean up the Boyle Heights site. Lineage also has been accruing fines as air regulators demand the company take additional steps to mitigate the smell and the vermin drawn to the site and surrounding neighborhoods.

Since the fire, residents have reported experiencing scratchy throats, headaches and nausea because of the ongoing smell.

At least one Boyle Heights resident, a cancer patient, has filed suit against the company, alleging they spent money on air purifiers and had higher utility costs because of the fire. The suit, among its claims, alleges public nuisance and unlawful business practices.

Earlier this week, students in the Los Angeles Unified School District returned to school with teachers and volunteers at the sites around the warehouse handing out face masks. Eight LAUSD schools are within one mile of the burned warehouse.

LAUSD officials said they had coordinated with the South Coast Air Quality Management District and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to install air monitors and continue collecting data at nearby schools. The school district also has sent air purifiers to affected campuses.

Since the fire, Lineage has donated $3.3 million to local nonprofits to assist with the response, company officials said in an Aug. 5 earnings call. The Boyle Heights warehouse, according to the call, amounted to about 1% of the company’s total global capacity, so the long-term effect on the company’s bottom line was virtually nil.

Lineage has since filed for a permit to rebuild the Boyle Heights warehouse, which was met with fierce backlash from the community and city officials. Bass called the permit request a “slap in the face” and criticized the company for looking to rebuild before the cleanup had been completed.

Asked about the permit Thursday, Rivera declined to discuss the company’s plans to rebuild or its next steps after the site was cleaned up.

“We are 100% focused on getting the cleanup done,” Rivera said. “We’ll take those next steps when it’s appropriate.”

According to Robb A. LeMasters, chief financial officer for Lineage, the company would be seeking some sort of action against Altus, the company that was working on solar panels on the warehouse roof when the fire started.

“We’re pursuing all options to hold them accountable,” LeMasters said during the call. “In the meantime, we carry insurance for exactly this kind of event, and we’re working with our insurance partners to cover immediate remediation costs and financial impact while responsibility gets totally worked out.”