Residents Push Back on Landfill Smells Near Proposed Housing

Irvine city leaders wasted little time in handing over an industrial site to Brookfield Residential Properties for development, but the project is already causing a big stink — and dealing with one.

Earlier this month, demolition crews knocked down the last remnants of the All American Asphalt plant at 10671 Jeffrey Road; that same night, the Irvine City Council approved a deal with Brookfield Residential to build a new neighborhood in the area near the intersection of Jeffrey Road and Portola Parkway, Voice of OC reported. Irvine leaders approved the demolition of the asphalt plant in April 2023 after purchasing the site in April 2023 for over $285 million.

The housing location near the Bowerman Landfill might prove to be an issue due to the scents coming from the trash site. Since Jan. 1, the South Coast Air Quality Management District has registered more than 130 public complaints describing “rotten, sour, garbage-type odors” in the area, officials said, according to Voice of OC. Bowerman has received three notices of violation this year associated with odor emissions and five since 2020 related to excess nitrous oxide.

Irvine Mayor Larry Agran shot down hopes of shutting down the Bowerman Landfill, though he noted that the city was working with the county to determine ways to lower impacts on residents like building a new freeway off-ramp into the dump for trash trucks.

“The odor problem, which is an intermittent occasional problem, has to be managed and dealt with and it will be,” Agran told Voice of OC. “We’re dealing with it all the time, working with the county on this and working on longer range landfill plans and so forth.” Agran’s ideas for long-term alternatives to the Bowerman Landfill include a trash train throughout Southern California to transport waste to a new, larger landfill farther away from populated areas.

“In the immediate future, we want to be making sure that landfill practices are absolutely the best, the most protective of residents and others,” Agran said. The city has already forced people moving into the area to deal with the smell; in 2024, city leaders began requiring future residents of Brookfield’s planned Gateway Village to waive their right to sue the landfill over nuisances, unless it is found to violate the law.

— Chris Malone Méndez