The chemical leak that caused the evacuation of Orange County on Friday was traced to GKN Aerospace, a manufacturing company based in the United Kingdom.
A leading aerospace company
The company manufactures landing gear, jet engines and other components for commercial and military aircraft.
GKN Aerospace's Garden Grove facility, located on 15.5 acres on Western Avenue, designs, analyzes, tests and certifies military canopies, cockpit windows and passenger widows, according to their website.
The company has been at the site since 2004, according to city documents.
“GKN Aerospace manufactures the world's leading canopy for the F-35 from its Garden Grove facility, as well as transparency for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 737, Airbus A350, HondaJet and Bombardier C-Series,” the company's website says.
What does the company say
A spokesman for GKN Aerospace told The Times on Friday that they were responding to the situation and working with the fire service and special hazardous materials teams.
“There are no reports of injuries at this time, and the top priority is the safety of our workers, responders and the surrounding community,” said a spokesperson for the department. “The situation at our Garden Grove facility is ongoing, and we are fully focused on working with emergency responders and the appropriate authorities to ensure the safety of our employees and the local community.”
The problem
There are three large tanks containing a highly toxic chemical called methyl methacrylate, or MMA, which is used to make plastic, at the site in the 12000 block of Western Avenue in Garden Grove.
Another tank that officials say is “in trouble” has about 7,000 liters of chemical left in it. Temperatures began to rise on Thursday, forcing people to go out for a while. But the fire department was called to the area again on Friday.
Craig Covey, chief of the Orange County Fire Authority and incident manager, described two scenarios that may have been created on top of the tank during a news conference Friday afternoon.
“The first one, it fails and cracks, and all the product seeps down,” Covey said, and efforts are underway to try to prevent the liquid “from going into storm drains and into our rivers and oceans.”
Or, it will explode, he said.
Officials have been working to come up with what Covey called “outside the box” ideas to prevent as much damage as possible.
“Our party will do everything it can to come up with the third, fourth, and fifth elections,” he said.
OSHA inspection
The company's Garden Grove facility has been inspected four times by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration since 2018, resulting in 10 violations, public records show.
Additional information about that violation was not immediately available.
In 2019, the California Department of Industrial Relations filed a petition in Orange County Superior Court to have a judge order the company to pay $2,898 in unpaid civil penalties.
The citation, detailed in court records, alleges the company in April 2018 “failed to ensure that all machinery and equipment in operation is inspected or maintained as recommended by the manufacturer.”
The company was also found in violation for allegedly failing to “implement and implement a written injury and illness prevention program” in accordance with state law.
There do not appear to be any violations related to the tanks at the center of Friday's incident.
The documents do not say how the company responded to the inspection reports.
“Safety at our facilities is of the utmost importance,” a GKN spokesperson said in response to questions from The Times. “We follow all standard safety practices and procedures and are regularly audited by multiple federal and state agencies.”
“Our focus and our priority today is to work with the emergency services and the relevant authorities to deal with the problem at hand and protect the local community,” said a spokesperson for the department.
This year the company requested permission from the Garden Grove Planning Commission to build a new employee lounge on the site. The plans included the construction of a new 1,504-square-foot building, a rooftop deck and an open courtyard, according to city documents.
Questions from the authorities
Congressman Derek Tran, an Orange County Democrat, said Friday night that he spoke with the leadership of GKN Aerospace and “urged the company to take full responsibility for the fear and inconvenience tens of thousands of citizens are experiencing right now.”
“We agreed that the priority is public safety and dealing with the emergency,” Tran wrote in a social media post.
“I continue to work with emergency responders to ensure residents are safe and have the necessary supplies while officials work to minimize the impact of a hazmat incident.”
