Officials and staffers at the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant, the region’s largest and oldest wastewater facility, must respond more quickly to odor complaints, communicate better with regulatory agencies and fix malfunctioning doors that could be letting odors seep out into the community, regional air quality watchdogs say.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District hearing board voted this week to update and add more conditions to an order of abatement, first issued in 2022, that’s meant to push Los Angeles Sanitation and Environment, the agency that oversees Hyperion, to make infrastructure fixes to mitigate lingering odors from a massive 2021 sewage spill.
The board, in the same vote, set another hearing for Nov. 19. The current order is set to end on Jan. 3.
The AQMD hearing board has added conditions to and extended the order several times over the last two years. This time, the board wanted to put some teeth into the demands to urge Hyperion leadership to make complying to the order a more serious priority, including responding to community members’ complaints, properly reporting odor investigation results and keeping main odor sources sealed.
“This order and the modifications provides a pathway for Hyperion to further improve operations, not create nuisance and be responsive to the community,” said Erika Chavez, senior deputy district counsel for AQMD. “If there’s a problem in future, like ongoing nuisance, we wouldn’t hesitate to extend the order, or pursue other modifications as necessary.”
The conditions Hyperion must meet include:
Verify odors at the location complainants provide.
Call back complainants during odor investigations, or within the hour.
Send reports to and call complainants with investigation findings.
Submit a report by Oct. 6 detailing all equipment undergoing or scheduled to undergo refurbishment, repair or construction, with monthly updates to be posted on Hyperion’s website.
Repair or replace doors to truck loading facilities by Oct. 5 and inspect doors daily.
Update work practice operating procedures to include maintenance procedures by Oct. 11, and implement and train staff on the new practices by Oct. 25.
Train shift supervisors, operators and outreach team members on adhering to the order of abatement.
Notify AQMD of order-related equipment breakdowns.
Submit its emergency prevention plan to AQMD.
A representative for LASAN agreed to the new terms Thursday.
“Hyperion restates its commitment to continuing to work cooperatively with the district,” said LA Deputy City Attorney Adena Hopenstand, “and take the steps necessary to respond to the concerns from this board, AQMD staff and members of the community.”
AQMD inspectors, during the previous meeting in July, at said Hyperion staffers were not thoroughly completing investigation reports and responding to people who submit odor complaints, and that truck loading facility doors were being left open when they shouldn’t be — letting odors out into the community.
“Residents said they felt somewhat dismissed when they’d get report findings later saying, ‘We looked around the plant, we didn’t see anything wrong,’” Chavez said. “This (new condition) requires operators to go out, look for themselves and talk to complainants.”
Because AQMD staffers had previously identified the primary battery tanks as primary odor sources, Hyperion civil engineer Nicole McIntosh said Thursday, the plant prioritized replacing the corroded tank covers and didn’t look at loading facilities as areas of concern.
But even though new covers were put on in June, El Segundo residents have still complained all summer about smells and high hydrogen sulfide readings.
“We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” El Segundo resident Tamara Kcheowski said Thursday. “Unfortunately for us, the only way that’s going to happen is with additional conditions.”
El Segundo City Manager Darrell George sent a letter to the AQMD hearing board ahead of Thursday’s meeting, outlining ongoing concerns and failures at the plant and recommending measures that city officials say are critical to fixing them.
In the letter, El Segundo officials asked for Hyperion to provide the city with more than one day’s notice of all long-term maintenance plans, get smaller trucks that would allow loading facility doors to remain closed, upgrade or replace bar screens that sift out large trash, set up a preventative maintenance plan and keep a back-stock of vital equipment parts, implement a bar screen overpass system, and ensure compliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Nearly 30 trucks go through the doors daily, McIntosh said, so they’d have to open and close constantly regardless, and that it takes much more time to get replacement pieces for the specific wastewater treatment equipment than it would a typical hardware part.