Sickly fumes

Bryce Alderton

They say the fumes make them close the windows to their homes and have

caused unwanted coughing and wheezing.

A group of several residents were not about to let their thoughts go

unnoticed.

They spoke during last week’s Huntington Beach City Council meeting,

complaining of nauseating fumes coming from the Cambro Manufacturing Inc.

plant on Clay Avenue.

They say invisible, noxious odors coming from the nearby factory are

making them gravely ill with coughing fits, sore throats and shortness of

breath, and want the nauseating emissions to stop.

These symptoms and the oily soot they say sticks to their cars,

driveways and houses have them worried about their health, said J.M.

Lopez.

Lopez, 48, has lived in the same house on Clay Avenue all his life.

His family first moved into the area in the 1920s, before Cambro built

its plant there in 1961.

Cambro, which also has a plant on Skylab Road, a more industrial area

of Huntington Beach, makes plastic and Styrofoam plates, cups and bowls

and containers to transport food. Cambro officials did not return phone

calls.

Lopez and others have long complained that the plant is not a good fit

for a residential area and wants it out of the neighborhood.

“The stench sticks back to your palette,” he said. “It’s gotten out of

hand. We have problems with breathing and we don’t know what chemicals

are coming out [of the plant].”

Lopez first began noticing odors in the 1980s. He began writing

letters to city officials about the fumes and about noises he heard from

forklifts, trucks, saws and Cambro employees parking on Clay and

Huntington streets 24 hours a day.

In 1983 officials from the South Coast Air Quality Management District

determined that noise and fume levels coming from Cambro exceeded legal

limits, and Cambro officials were notified.

Dick Hammond, Cambro’s general manager in 1984, said he would comply

with the law and would hire a consultant to help reduce noises.

But residents say not much has changed.

Theresa Farrar has managed the 77-unit Huntington Manor apartment

complex since October 1999, and said some days and nights she can’t leave

the windows to her apartment open because of the fumes.

“The smell is gut-wrenching and there’s a black oily soot that ruins

everything and is everywhere,” she said. “We don’t know if [the

emissions] are contaminating our water. Something is happening and we

don’t know what it is.”

Since moving to Huntington Beach in 1999, Farrar claims that the

majority of her family -- herself, her husband Mark, and two of her three

daughters -- have suffered health problems, which they believe were

caused by the emissions from the Cambro plant.

“My 12-year-old daughter and myself are on asthma medication and my

husband has to use a breathing machine at night and he is a healthy guy,”

Farrar said.

Since 2000, the air quality management district received 12 complaints

from residents about the fumes and the noise, a number that far exceeds

the normal amount of complaints required before the district issues a

public nuisance violation, said Ed Pupka, senior compliance manager for

the district.

“We need more than one complaint, typically six to 10,” Pupka said.

“The idea [for issuing a public nuisance] is that it doesn’t happen

again. We’re asking our engineering staff to look at controlling

emissions.”

District officials most recently issued two citations to Cambro, a

public nuisance violation on March 7, and a citation in October 2001 for

operating a foam machine without a permit.

A public nuisance violation requires a company to fix whatever is

causing odors, said Sam Atwood, spokesman for the air quality management

district.

The district has the authority to shut a business down if it doesn’t

comply with acceptable standards, but the district hasn’t received any

complaints from residents about the fumes since March 7, Pupka said.

“The intent is to work with the company to make sure it doesn’t occur

again,” Pupka said. “[We want] to make sure there are no maintenance

problems and the equipment is running properly.”