Garden Grove council demands GKN Aerospaceaccountability after hazardous materials incident

Garden Grove— City officials on June 4 received updates from emergency responders and county health officials about a chemical incident at the GKN Aerospace facility and unanimously directed staff to send a formal letter demanding the company provide a public accounting and appear before the council.

Battalion Chief Mike Young of the Orange County Fire Authority said response teams first received a call "at 3:22 on Thursday, May 21st" reporting a spill of methyl methacrylate (MMA) in three tanks, one of which was compromised. Young described unified command actions, large-scale evacuations, drone and aerial monitoring, temperature checks of tank integrity and the use of inhibitors to stabilize nearby tanks. He said crews were able to repopulate about 65% of displaced residents on May 25 and fully lift the evacuation order on May 26 at 7:30 a.m., while maintaining a 300-foot hazard zone around the tanks. "Due to this whole entire incident, there were no injuries and no illnesses due to this incident," Young said.

Daryn Chang of the Orange County Health Care AgencyEnvironmental Health Division said the agency issued a cleanup order requiring the company to take "all necessary response actions to mitigate and dispose of all hazardous waste related to this incident" and that GKN has hired a hazardous waste contractor to offload and transport materials under ongoing oversight. Chang said South Coast AQMD has deployed air monitoring and that the Health Care Agency is coordinating with state and federal partners, including CalEPA and the governor's office of emergency services.

The council then opened an extended public comment period in which dozens of residents and community groups called for stronger action. Speakers repeatedly urged an immediate moratorium on GKN's expansion, called for denial of future permits and for the company to be removed from the city. "Moratorium now, stop the expansion, and shut them down," said Sophia A., a Garden Grove resident. A student evacuee said shelter capacity was limited: seven Red Cross shelters at roughly 200 beds each meant approximately 1,400 guaranteed spots for nearly 50,000 people under evacuation orders.

Several speakers criticized a $3 million pledge from GKN to a United Way resilience fund as insufficient compensation and said it should not substitute for direct accountability. Community groups cited a history of regulatory fines and workplace-safety citations and linked concerns about local risk to the chemical MMA used in F-35 canopy production.

City Manager Lisa Kim presented a draft letter requesting a full accounting from GKN, public engagement with affected residents and a meaningful plan to prevent recurrence. The mayor read the draft and councilmembers asked that the company respond promptly; staff suggested and the council agreed that the company be asked to appear at the council's next public meeting on June 9. "We look forward to your expeditious response," the letter says as read to the council.

The council took formal action to approve the correspondence. The City Attorney advised a vote was required; the motion was made and seconded, and a roll-call vote recorded five yes votes from attending members (Council members Nguyen, Tran, Muneton, Adesteghi and the Mayor) with Mayor Pro Tem Brieger and Council member Joe Dovin absent. The motion carried.

Next steps: the letter will be finalized and sent to GKN, and the council is expecting a company response and representative at the June 9 meeting. Meanwhile, the Orange County Health Care Agency continues to oversee cleanup operations and South Coast AQMD continues air monitoring.

What the council did not do: the council did not adopt an immediate moratorium or shut down order at the meeting; multiple public speakers pressed the council to pursue those steps but the formal action taken was to send the correspondence and request a response.