Millions of pounds of rotting food have finally been removed from burned warehouse in Boyle Heights

After grappling with rancid odors and missed deadlines, Boyle Heights residents may finally get some relief, with air quality regulators confirming Saturday that millions of pounds of decaying food have been cleared from the burned Lineage facility.

South Coast Air Quality Management District said the company’s removal of the food waste marked the completion of a major phase of the cleanup process that has dragged on for more than two months since the warehouse fire was extinguished in late June.

The air quality regulator sent an enforcement team to inspect the site Saturday. Now, the clock starts on a seven-day process to remove other debris and power-wash and disinfect the cavernous freezer.

The warehouse has two freezers, on the east and west sides of the building. Workers had cleared out and sanitized the eastern freezer, which was largely destroyed in the fire, earlier in the cleanup process. Bulk amounts of mostly meat and seafood had remained in the western freezer, which was unaffected by the blaze.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado said Lineage had blown well past the city-imposed Aug. 14 deadline to remove waste from that freezer.

“A public-health deadline should mean something,” Jurado said in a Saturday news release. “The City gave Lineage 45 days to remove the biohazard food waste; today is day 60 on the City’s timeline.”

She said the completion of food waste removal was “overdue progress” and “not a completed cleanup.” And, Jurado said, “it does not erase two months of odors, pests, and disruption.”

Lineage, for its part, had contested the city’s deadline, arguing it couldn’t start working on cleanup until July 7, pushing the 45-day clock back to an Aug. 20 deadline — a deadline the company also exceeded.

Lineage said in an emailed statement Saturday evening that the food removal was “the result of hundreds of workers on site every day, first removing boxes and pallets and then, in the final stretch, removing loose food debris by hand.”

The company said it expects to spend more than $100 million in total on cleanup efforts.

“No cleanup of this scale and speed has been executed before, and we have dedicated every available resource to this effort,” the company said. “We will not stop until the job is done.”

The air quality management district said it has received more than 4,900 odor complaints related to the Lineage warehouse “reporting persistent rotten, sour and garbage-like odors.”

The agency has issued the company 38 violation notices for public nuisance.

Three neighborhood community groups on Friday filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue Lineage in federal court.

The groups accuse the company of not disclosing all chemicals emitted during the fire, posing health risks for local residents.

Lineage did not respond to a question about the new legal action.

Air quality regulators said that during the sanitation process this week, Lineage will need to maintain negative air pressure and keep air pollution equipment running to help mitigate fumes.