On the evening of Wednesday, Dec. 9, the South Coast Air Quality Management District hosted a community meeting via Zoom to address the concerns of Irvine residents regarding a foul odor coming from the All American Asphalt (AAA) facility near Orchard Hills.

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

Victor Yip, Assistant Deputy Executive Officer of AQMD’s Compliance & Enforcement Division, said AMQD has received 834 complaints about the AAA facility since February 20, 2019.

Residents expressed fear and frustration over a number of issues, including SCAQMD’s response time for after-hours complaints, the threat of wildfire, and the potential toxicity being released from the AAA facility emissions.

A petition on Change.org – “Stop Asphalt Fumes – Irvine” – now has more than 2,000 signatures.

At the city level, there is also an ongoing legal battle between the city of Irvine and AAA. In October, the Irvine City Council voted unanimously to initiate the process of revoking the asphalt manufacturer’s business license and land permit.

“In July, the city of Irvine filed a lawsuit against All American Asphalt and we are aggressively pursing this lawsuit, until this lawsuit has been settled,” Mayor Christina Shea said. “Additionally, we hired an expert to assess the technical compliance with the required conditions placed on All American Asphalt original permits.”

On Dec. 2, the SCAQMD installed two air sampling mechanisms, which use gas chromatography to collect air toxins, at Northwood High School and the other at Canyon View Elementary School.

The sites, according to Dr. Jason Low, Assistant Deputy Executive Officer of the Monitoring and Analysis Division, were chosen based on the proximity to the AAA facility, along “where complaints were reported.”

“Air sampling started on Dec. 2, and we initially will collect eight to 10 sampling events over a two-month period, and evaluate next steps from the data,” he said. “It is extremely challenging trying to find pollutants that cause fleeting odors through air monitoring. … We will evaluate these samples for gasses and air toxics to address the specific questions of public health.”

Low added that SCAQMD plans to post the findings of the air samples online as early as next week.

Yet residents say it is unclear why it took more than 800 complaints against the facility for SCAQMD to begin monitoring for the area for hazards.

Jo Kay Ghosh, Health Effects Officer Planning at SCAQMD, explained that SCAQMD will investigate the potential health hazard and environmental impacts these fumes pose to the city of Irvine.

“For us as a regulatory agency, we look carefully at what types of air pollution are coming from each facility that we regulate,” Ghosh said. “In response to the community concerns, we will be conducting air sampling in this community to try to identify what are the levels of air pollution.”

Specifically, residents say, the foul odor is nauseating, causes headaches and resembles an “asphalt and burnt rubber-type” of odor. Residents say the odor is most noticeable between the hours of midnight and 7:00 a.m, which is, “after-hours” for SCAQMD.

Yip also explained that AQMD views odor complaints as a public nuisance. He added that AQMD requires complaints from three different households, within one hour, to send AQMD personnel to investigate odor complaints after hours.

“We require three complaints to be received from separate households to dispatch an inspector during ‘after-hours,'” he said. “The reason for that is that for odor-type complaints, we’re pursuing a violation of our public nuisance rule.”

After an investigation in 2019, AQMD cited the AAA facility for not having the proper permits to operate a portable crumb-rubber/asphalt blending system.

Ultimately, both AAA and AQMD concluded that the crumb-rubber blending system was to blame the foul odors.

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