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Health official: no elevated benzene detected so far, but nuisance odors affect some residents
Summary
A health-related official said coordination with Fire Hazmat and the AQMD shows no elevated benzene during the incident; officials cautioned that nuisance odors have affected some residents and that air monitoring will continue during remediation.
A county health-related official told the briefing that staff are coordinating with Fire Hazmat and the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) and reported they have "not seen any elevated levels of benzene the entire incident and don't anticipate that, we would see that during the remediation either." The official acknowledged that for some people "the nuisance odors really affect their health."
The official said most nuisance odors have subsided but cautioned that ongoing and future construction work related to remediation could renew odors. County staff said Health Hazmat response teams will conduct air monitoring once a formal work plan is put in place and that coordination with AQMD will inform public messaging and protective actions if monitoring indicates elevated pollutants.
Officials emphasized outreach and notification to residents and businesses potentially affected by odors and said they will provide updates as lab and monitoring results become available. The briefing did not include quantitative air-monitoring results beyond the benzene comment and left sample results and timing as pending.
