Residents of a north Irvine neighborhood have reached an impasse with city council on the issue of an asphalt manufacturing plant located less than a mile from their homes, Voice of O.C. has reported.
Although the Southern California Air Quality Management District has stated emissions from the factory do not pose a health risk to nearby neighborhoods, many residents reported respiratory issues, migraines, and chronic cough years before they knew asphalt was being manufactured nearby.
This pattern of self-reported illnesses has not been identified in areas of Irvine further away from the plant.
The City of Irvine has sued the All American Asphalt Factory on Jeffrey Road, claiming it poses a public nuisance. City officials have also brought in outside consultants to conduct air quality tests.
When those consultants delivered their findings to the city in March, they concluded that health issues reported by residents were not linked to the factory’s emissions. Still, locals insisted they were suffering physiological impacts from the plant’s activities.
Some expressed concerns to Irvine officials that the testing carried out by third-party consultants was erroneously limited in both time and geographic scope. Only four sites were tested for no more than 24 hours.
“It irritates my eyes and throat. I walk my children to a local elementary school and have to deal with this,” Irvine homeowner Tom Hazzard said in a public meeting.
The Voice of O.C. reported that Irvine city councilmembers have been reluctant to explore the issue at length. They said addressing problems originating with the plant is beyond the body’s legal jurisdiction.
Other councilmembers have cast doubt on the accounts of allegedly affected residents.
“I want to do anything we can possibly do to validate, but I’m feeling like we’re running around in circles right now,” Councilmember Tammy Kim told the Voice. “No one has been able to prove or indicate anything and at a certain point, I don’t know how much it is hysteria.”
Not all councilmembers are reticent on the issue, however. Councilmember Larry Agran told the Voice the situation in north Irvine is “untenable.”
“I know there aren’t other parts of town where you step outside and are not assaulted by overwhelming asphalt odors and debilitating air quality that makes it almost impossible for you to live day to day,” he said.
According to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), exposure to fumes from asphalt, or bitumen, can have health effects on humans, ranging from headache, skin rash, fatigue, throat and eye irritation and cough, all the way to skin cancer.
OSHA guidance on the matter generally has addressed close-contact exposure experienced by laborers who work directly with asphalt, however. There is little to no publicly accessible data on the health effects of environmental exposure to asphalt fumes.