During Memorial Day weekend, 50,000 residents in Garden Grove and nearby counties were issued evacuation orders.
The orders were issued because the GKN Aerospace Facility in Garden Grove had a tank at risk of exploding or spilling 7,000 gallons of methyl methacrylate, a flammable chemical.
Around 244,692 Californians live within 3 miles of GKN Aerospace.
The risk was caused by the storage tanks’ cooling system failing.
The Garden Grove plant ultimately avoided an explosion or dangerous chemical release, but thousands of families were still displaced.
A crack in the tank was part of the reason the plant was saved; it relieved the built-up pressure inside it.
Despite this, as of June 2, around 30 evacuees are suing the owner of GKN Aerospace.
Most of the lawsuits include six figures.
Orange County-based attorney Shawn Steel, who is representing the residents, said the evacuees are seeking compensation for transportation, hotel rooms, medical evaluations, moving costs and psychological and emotional distress.
The Memorial Day incident is not the first time the aerospace facility has been under scrutiny.
In 2014, GKN received a notice from the Garden Grove Fire Department after not submitting a hazardous materials business plan.
The business plan is supposed to include an inventory of hazardous materials on-site and what the company’s plans are in case of emergencies.
Additionally, in 2018, GKN Aerospace had to pay a $2,250 fine to the Department of Industrial Relations.
After an inspection, the department found that the facility was failing to keep track of and maintain its machinery and materials.
One of these violations included “fabricating and adding a top cover on the head cover of Fadel CNC machines and using appropriate cutting coolant.”
GKN was again cited in 2021 by the South Coast AQMD, an agency responsible for controlling air quality. The aerospace facility was not maintaining emission records for volatile organic compounds.
The AQMD further discovered that GKN was operating new machinery without the required, correct permits. Plant workers also modified their equipment without applying to change their permits.
Due to these several violations, the chemical plant had to pay $900,000 to the AQMD.
Yet according to the U.S. EPA’s 2024 Toxics Release Inventory list, Garden Grove’s situation is not as unique as it seems.
Per the federal tracking system, almost 2 million Californians live within three miles of a chemical plant containing methyl methacrylate.
Out of the 2 million, 1.6 million live in the Southern California area. 117,000 live even closer, residing around a mile away from a tank.
Across the 14 facilities the U.S. EPA looked at, 333,518 pounds of methyl methacrylate waste was produced in 2024.
In 2024, GKN Aerospace alone produced 131,779 pounds of methyl methacrylate, around double what it did in 2023. This spike in production was the facility’s largest in 30 years.
It is unclear as to what caused the significant jump.
After producing the methyl methacrylate waste, GKN usually sends it to an Arizona-based facility to burn and generate energy and heat.
In 2024, Tesla’s Fremont-based plant was a close second, generating around 115,136 pounds of the flammable chemical waste.
Approximately 2,200 residents live a mile or less away from the Tesla facility.
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