Irwindale Again Requests Sriracha Sauce Maker Halt Production

A judge has taken under submission the city of Irwindale's second request within a month to halt operations at a Sriracha chili sauce plant whose neighbors don't like the sting in the fall air when the peppers are mashed.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert O'Brien did not say on Friday when he would rule on the city's bid for a preliminary injunction against Huy Fong Foods Inc. But he expressed surprise that he did not receive more new details from plant attorney John Tate, including any additional findings by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

"I really had anticipated more information from your side," O'Brien said.

On Oct. 31, the judge rejected Irwindale's request for a temporary restraining order against the company.

Tate and lawyer Stephen Onstot, who represents the city, both said after the hearing that they had hoped for a ruling today. Onstot said there will be a trial of the issues in the case regardless of how O'Brien rules and that it would probably take place in the spring, depending on the court's schedule.

Tate said he has heard nothing new from the SCAQMD, which performed testing at the plant earlier. But he said there is currently nothing to enjoin at the plant because the season for grinding peppers at the plant has passed.

Onstot said that information is not reassuring to Irwindale residents.

"The problem is we don't know when they're going to start up again," he said.

Onstot also said that although both sides have submitted sworn statements by various people in support of their arguments, those produced by the city document that when the odor exists, it is a problem "from dusk until dawn The difference is night and day."

The city sued the sauce-maker on Oct. 28, claiming it is a public nuisance.

The chiles at the plant are mashed in the fall during a two-month period, according to the Rosemead-based company, which was founded by Vietnamese immigrant David Tran in Chinatown in 1980. Its plant on a 23-acre site in Irwindale opened in 2010.

The city's lawsuit seeks to enjoin "all operations on ... the subject property until (Huy) abates the public nuisance herein by preventing and causing the emanation of the strong, offensive chile odor."

According to the city's court papers, residents began complaining to the city in September about the smell.

"The odors are so strong and offensive as to have caused residents to move outdoor activities indoors and even to vacate their residences temporarily to seek relief from the odors," according to the suit.

The city staff met with Huy Fong Foods officials on Oct. 1, and the company representatives said they would "do everything possible to abate the odors." But on Oct. 16, the city staff was told by a company official during another meeting that no odor problem existed, the suit says.

The next day, the city sent a notice of violation of the Irwindale Municipal Code to Huy Fong Foods and demanded that a strategy be put in place to correct the problem, according to the complaint

-- City News Service