California Town Officially Declares Factory’s Sriracha Odor A “Public Nuisance”

It wasn’t enough for the town of Irwindale, CA to simply call the Huy Fong Foods Sriracha factory a public nuisance, it’s now voted unanimously to declare it as much. The city council is expected to official adopt the resolution at the next meeting, at which point Huy Fong will have 90 days to mitigate the odor.

Residents had complained in an October lawsuit that the smell of hot sauce production burns their eyes and throats at certain times of day, leading a judge to temporarily halt production in November. The case brought by the town will be brought to trial next November.

And now that the factory is up and running again, the company is working to appease the town, reports the Los Angeles Times. Huy Fong’s lawyer had pledged to submit an action plan within 10 days and have the smell totally fixed by June 1 before last night’s meeting.

Huy Fong could have some help from the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which has been testing the air at the factory and indicated that the odor could be lessened with active carbon filters, something Huy Fong has used before.

“The City Council is determined to assert its authority regardless of the status of the odor remediation efforts,” Huy Fong’s lawyer said.

The town’s officials say the Council went for the public nuisance designation as a sort of insurance in case the factory doesn’t fix the smell. The Council says it’ll have the right to enter the factory and make the changes itself, if it has to. That being said, the town does want the factory to stay there, says one councilman.

“I respect the fact that they are here. But they know there’s a problem and it needs to be fixed,” Councilman Albert Ambriz said.

Irwindale Council declares Sriracha smell a public nuisance [Los Angeles Times]

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