After a six-day chemical crisis that displaced tens of thousands of Orange County residents, elected leaders are seeking accountability from the company at the center of the chaos – GKN Aerospace.
On Wednesday, members of the Orange County Board of Supervisors asked the company to provide compensation to those evacuated when an overheated chemical tank at its Garden Grove facility threatened to cause a major explosion.
On Thursday, US Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach) and Derek Tran (D-Orange) sent a letter to GKN Chief Executive Peter Dilnot demanding answers about what led to the “catastrophic risk” to the community and what the company is doing in response.
“Now we must turn to the work of restitution and accountability to make sure this never happens again,” Tran, whose district includes Garden Grove, said in a statement Thursday. “The leadership of GKN must answer directly to the public for the chaos and disruption caused by this crisis.”
GKN Senior Vice President Steve Carlin, who oversees the Garden Grove location, said in a statement Wednesday evening that the company is “committed to understanding what happened and identifying ways we can support those affected” and apologizes for “the uncertainty and inconvenience this situation has caused.”
The statement did not provide details on what led to the tragedy or specific examples of how the company intends to support the community going forward. Company representatives declined multiple interview requests from The Times, referring questions to statements released on their website.
OC Fire Authority interim chief TJ McGovern said the problem was caused by a failure of equipment designed to cool the company’s tanks with methyl methacrylate, a highly reactive chemical used to make things like Plexiglass.
“What happened was that the cooling systems failed, for reasons we don’t know, but they failed along with the temperature [inside the tank] it’s growing,” McGovern said at Wednesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting.
He said the rising temperature is a “recipe for a BLEVE,” or boiling liquid vapor explosion. A catastrophic explosion occurs when a pressurized vessel containing a liquid explodes. Fortunately, as the temperature rose, the tank cracked, which relieved some of the pressure, he said.
A member of the public talks to police near a closed road in Stanton on Monday.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
This allowed crews to use water hoses to continue cooling the chemical as it solidified and stabilized, eventually allowing residents to return to their homes as evacuation orders were completed Monday and Tuesday.
Although the potential crisis was averted, fears about the company’s management of the industrial environment remain.
“GKN Aerospace exposed Orange County and Garden Grove to the risk of a catastrophic chemical explosion,” Rep. Garcia said in a statement Thursday. “Thousands of families have been forced to leave and people live in fear.
“We need answers about what happened, why it happened, how they will prevent this from happening again.”
Garcia and Tran asked GKN to provide a list of documents and information by June 10. These include documents related to facility inspections, compliance history, maintenance logs, staffing levels and emergency agreements.
They also ask for a detailed explanation of the events that brought the tank to the brink of a chemical explosion and the steps the company will take to prevent the risk of a future incident and to ensure that the surrounding communities are informed of the risks of the facility.
Orange County. He said. Todd Spitzer opened a criminal investigation into the incident and demanded the company keep all relevant records. More than half a dozen lawsuits have been filed against the company in Orange County Superior Court, and several law firms have vowed to file class action lawsuits on behalf of the 50,000 displaced residents.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors is working with the California Office of Emergency Services to apply for FEMA reimbursement for local, county and state costs incurred in responding to this crisis. However, the administration said the responsibility for compensating the affected residents may lie on GKN’s shoulders.
“We encourage them to establish a petition system and accept their responsibility,” board Chairman Doug Chaffee said at Wednesday’s meeting. “We are looking for that to happen, so that the public can get a refund.”
He said that compensation must be available to businesses that had to close because they are in the evacuation zone, people who cannot go to work and lost money during the disaster and the expenses incurred by citizens, such as staying in hotels.
