SANTA ANA (CNS) – Operators of a Garden Grove plastics manufacturing plant have agreed to a $125 million settlement over a chemical leak that forced thousands of residents and businesses to evacuate in May, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer announced.
Under the agreement, up to $100 million will be reserved for roughly 50,000 people displaced by the hazardous materials emergency at the GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems Inc. facility.
First responders who worked during the Memorial Day weekend crisis will receive $8,471,385.50 in reimbursement. The settlement must still be approved by an Orange County Superior Court judge, according to Spitzer’s office.
GKN also agreed to undergo seven years of monitoring, including supervision by an independent expert who will verify the plant’s compliance with applicable laws and regulations. The company will pay $1.4 million to cover the monitoring program.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office will receive $15 million in state-law penalties, which will be directed toward consumer protection enforcement.
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Spitzer said his office consulted outside chemical safety specialists to examine the incident and that GKN cooperated fully with the investigation.
In July, Orange County officials sent the company a demand for $4,071,305 to reimburse resources deployed during the response to the leak. The incident involved the cooling system of a chemical storage tank with a capacity of 34,000 gallons.
The hazardous materials emergency began May 21, when officials detected a leak at the facility at 12122 Western Ave.
Tens of thousands of people in Garden Grove, all of Stanton and neighboring communities were ordered to leave their homes for several days over Memorial Day weekend. Crews worked
to neutralize a toxic chemical stored in tanks that had overheated, prompting fears that one could explode.
A crack eventually formed in the damaged tank, releasing the pressure inside and removing the threat of an explosion.
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