Irvine residents are voicing concerns over the potential exposure to carcinogens and other volatile organic compounds, as foul odors being produced by the All American Asphalt facility continue to sweep through the neighborhoods of Irvine.

Eastwood resident Lesley Tan, who has lived in Irvine for more than a decade, said she can still recall the first time she smelled a powerful asphalt odor one evening, after learning about it from a WeChat group.

“I remember that night, it was around 10:00 p.m. I went to open my window upstairs, and I tried to smell it,” Tan explained during a phone call with Irvine Weekly. “Oh, the moment I opened the window I could smell that strong asphalt – and that was the first time I launched a report [with AQMD].”

The AAA facility, located on Jeffrey Road, manufactures hot mix asphalt. Since 2019, the facility has become the subject of more than 800 complaints filed with AQMD regarding a foul odor wafting into the surrounding residential areas.

Now, residents claim that the recent AQMD study, which took place between December 2020 and March 2021, specifically to monitor air toxics in the area, lacked enough data to be conclusive.

On Wednesday, March 3, the South County Air Quality Management District held a community meeting via Zoom to discuss the results of the air samples taken near the All American Asphalt facility in Irvine.

In reference to the findings, Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan, who attended the meeting via Zoom, said she was surprised AQMD did not offer her an opportunity to speak during the five-hour meeting. But she added that it was clear that the data presented did not satisfy residents, and said she can understand the frustration.

Khan said she is also looking forward to more sufficient data.

“The data is there. The UCI consultants are talking about there being some spikes, but also they cannot conclude whether it is toxic or not. The data collected by the city and AQMD show that it’s within reasonable levels, and I think the frustration from the public is wanted to be told for sure, that what we’re breathing is not toxic,” Khan explained in an interview with Irvine Weekly. “I think that’s the answer they’re looking for and that didn’t come out at the meeting.”

In a Facebook post on Monday, March 15, Khan said, “it was clear” that AQMD needed to collaborate with UC Irvine and that with the support of Council member Anthony Kuo would be requesting a meeting with the AQMD board to see if more specific testing can be provided.

“I, along with Council member Kuo, am requesting to meet with OC Supervisor/AQMD Board member Lisa Bartlett and AQMD Board member Carlos Rodriguez to develop a testing program with input from UCI experts to test and collect enough data to clearly show what is in the air and where it may be coming from,” the Facebook post read.

In terms of the specific testing, Dr. Barbara Barletta, Donald Blake Research Group, Chemistry Department at UC Irvine, explained that her group detected nearly 100 different species of volatile organic compounds within their air sampling efforts.

However, even with state-of-the-art equipment, Barletta’s team discovered that the VOCs being produced by the All American Asphalt facility might be too large for her team’s detection.

“Our system is quite sophisticated and quite complex. We can measure hydrocarbon three parts per trillion,” Barletta explained. “We can measure a wide variety of VOCs – we measure mostly light volatile organic compounds – we realized that many of the compounds that could be associated with emissions from an asphalt facility, we cannot measure them because they are too heavy for our system.”

In addition to the immeasurable size of the VOCs being produced by the AAA facility, Barletta also added that in terms of collection devices, her research group distributed just over a half-dozen, which she called very low.

“Eight canisters is a very very low number to actually have a detailed picture of what the atmosphere and what the troposphere looks like,” Barletta explained.

During the public comment section of the March 3 meeting, many residents expressed concerns and demanded more answers.

For Tan, the search for clarity continues. As a mother of five, she said she has come too far to give up the fight for answers.

“I didn’t want to give up – we only have two choices: We fight, or we move out,” Tan said.

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