Perez Applauds EPA’s Action On Mecca’s Foul Smell
A Riverside County lawmaker today applauded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its recent action to prevent offensive and disruptive emissions from a solid and liquid waste recycling plant in Mecca.
On Monday, the EPA issued an administrative order barring Western Environmental Inc. from accepting biosolids without the agency’s approval and to cover piles of untreated waste believed to be the source of a stench that has sickened area residents.
“The U.S. EPA’s temporary … order is a positive step to mitigate the noxious fumes emitted from the facility,” said Assemblyman V. Manuel Perez, D- Coachella.
“We are mindful that this matter goes beyond air quality,” he added. “Hazardous waste disposal in an unpermitted facility poses many potential threats, such as soil and water contamination, not to mention odorless contaminants that may be present in the air.”
Perez said he’s working with the Assembly’s Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials to figure out what mitigation measures might be implemented at the state level.
Western Environmental’s plant, located on the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians’ reservation, has been suspected since last fall of producing smells so putrid they’ve caused people to seek emergency treatment.
The company recycles petroleum-contaminated soil, sewage treatment plant flotsam and other waste.
According to the EPA, an investigation found 40-foot-high mounds of untreated refuse at the site.
EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Director Jared Blumenfeld said the agency’s order is intended to “protect the local community” by requiring Western Environmental to act swiftly in eliminating a “potential health threat.”
The administrative decree specifies that the company and an affiliated firm, Waste Reduction Technologies, must deploy agents that dilute the stench or use sheeting to prevent emissions.
Federal regulators are working with the Cabazon tribe, the state and the South Coast Air Quality Management District to address the situation, according to the EPA.
The action follows a letter last week from Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, in which the senator urged her to take immediate steps to resolve the matter.
The odor was first reported last fall, leading to a community outcry about potentially contaminated air. Students and staff at Saul Martinez Elementary in Mecca were so nauseated by the rotten odor on one occasion they were taken to a hospital for treatment.
Recess breaks at the school are now limited because of the stench, which has generated more than 200 complaints to the AQMD.
The agency has conducted five dozen investigations, isolating the origin of the stink to the Western Environmental soil recycling plant nearly half of the time, officials said. However, there was no evidence of toxic pollution.
The Cabazon tribe’s chairman, David Roosevelt, recently told concerned residents that Western Environmental’s operations are consonant with the tribe’s philosophy of turning bad soil into good.
