The Brief

Living among Southern California’s industrial facilities can have adverse effects on residents’ health and quality of life.

Rendering plants produce odors that are among the most offensive. These facilities receive dead animals, as well as kitchen grease and wastewater, and turn those materials into ingredients for pet food, cosmetics, and other products. Odors from the plants sometimes seep into neighboring communities and can cause health problems.

Four rendering companies are clustered together a few miles southeast of downtown L.A., in and very near the city of Vernon, along with a handful of slaughterhouses, meat processors, and many other industrial facilities. Public health experts interviewed by LAist say the density of these facilities, coupled with the hazardous chemicals rendering plants can emit, pose serious health risks to nearby residents.

But SoCal residents don’t have to face these issues alone. If you encounter a foul odor in your neighborhood, you can reach out to the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD).

This agency is tasked with monitoring air quality in the area. In 2021, it received nearly 400 complaints about rendering plants in the region — and many more in the years before that, according to Wayne Nastri, the regulatory agency’s executive director. The number of complaints dropped significantly this year, but the issue still persists.

An LAist review of AQMD records found that these odor complaints have been lodged from homes and businesses in surrounding neighborhoods, as well as from local schools. One person who reported air problems said they’ve been waking up to the stench of “burning animal carcass” for the past 32 years.

Where else have odor issues emerged? 

Since 2000, most air quality complaints to AQMD have involved odors. Agency officials say the spike in 2021 was in response to problems at Dominguez Channel and the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant.

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Back in 2021, South Bay residents endured the smell of rotten egg for several days. The stench was later attributed to a large warehouse fire that caused chemicals in beauty products to seep into the Dominguez Channel. Those chemicals killed off vegetation along the channel, releasing high levels of hydrogen sulfide, a colorless gas that can be harmful to human health. Residents reported headaches, fatigue, and respiratory problems.

That same year, the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant in Playa del Rey discharged 17 million gallons of raw sewage into the Pacific Ocean. Community members experienced nausea, headaches, and eye irritation. To ward off the smell, they shut their windows and avoided going outdoors. Some of them wore masks inside their homes.

What is the South Coast Air Quality Management District, and what does it do?

AQMD — sometimes also referenced as SCAQMD — is a regulatory agency that manages air quality in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties. The agency’s employees work to control emissions from stationary sources of air pollution, including power plants, refineries and gas stations. AQMD issues permits and inspects these businesses to evaluate their compliance with local air quality rules, which are aligned with federal and state standards.

Emissions from mobile sources, like cars, trains, and airplanes, are monitored by other agencies.

If you live in northern L.A. County, there’s one exception to keep in mind: The Antelope Valley — which includes cities like Lancaster and Palmdale — is outside AQMD’s jurisdiction. That area is monitored by the Antelope Valley Air Quality Management District.

Why is air quality important?

Jill Johnston, associate professor of population and public health sciences at USC, underscores that strong odors don’t just diminish local residents’ quality of life, they can also impact their health.

Emissions from rendering plants can contain hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide, she said. These chemicals can exacerbate asthma symptoms and elevate blood pressure, Johnston added, and long-term exposure can adversely affect respiratory and cardiovascular systems.

On its website, AQMD warns that air pollution can “cause or worsen many health problems, including asthma attacks, respiratory disease, heart disease, certain types of cancers, and premature death.”

How can I report a foul odor?

For residents who live within AQMD’s boundaries, there are three ways to file an odor report:

• Call 1-800-CUT-SMOG (1-800-288-7664) 
• Visit AQMD’s online complaint system
• Download and use AQMD’s phone app

All options are available 24 hours a day. During business hours (7 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday), your call will be answered by an attendant. Outside of business hours, you’ll be asked to leave a voice message.

The app is especially useful because it enables you to track the status of your complaint. You can also attach any images related to the issue.

How to report an odor complaint via the AQMD's app. Click for more information.

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How to complete the complaint form via the app. Click for more info.

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In addition to odor complaints, these options can be used to report excessive dust or smoke in your neighborhood.

If you live in the Antelope Valley, you can file a complaint by completing a form on this website or by calling 661-723-8070. You can also email the agency at complaints@avaqmd.ca.gov.

What information should I have at hand?

If you encounter a strong odor, think of specific ways to describe it (like “rotten eggs,” “burned plastic,” etc.) and try to identify its source, said Victor Yip, who oversees compliance and enforcement at AQMD.

Air quality agencies will ask you for the following information:

• The time the air quality incident occurred and whether it’s continuing at the time of your report
• The type of air quality complaint (dust, odor, smoke, etc.)
• Whether you have experienced this type problem in the past
• The wind direction, if known
• The name and address of the alleged source and the type of facility, if known
• Your contact information

When it comes to recurring odor issues, it’s useful to tell the agency the full scope of the problem, for example, "This happens every night at this time," Yip said. These details help inspectors “track [the odor] and get more information to be able to launch our investigation.”

Yip urges residents to file complaints when an odor issue is happening, instead of waiting for it to pass, which can make it difficult to confirm and investigate.

He also noted that AQMD takes anonymous complaints. However, if you choose not to provide your contact information, the inspector won’t be able to contact you to learn more about the issue or provide any follow-up information.

What happens if the smell is occurring outside of business hours?

When the agency receives complaints after hours, they’re routed to a standby supervisor who reviews them to determine if it’s necessary to take immediate action. Unless the air quality incident appears to pose a serious threat to the health or safety of the public, the supervisor usually dispatches an inspector to follow-up the next business day, Yip said.

If AQMD receives three or more complaints from different households about the same issue, an inspector will be dispatched after hours.

How are air quality complaints resolved?

Some complaints can be resolved over the phone without additional follow-up. For example, after getting a call back from an inspector, a community member might say the odor they encountered is no longer present.

Other odor complaints require more work. If the source of a stench is unknown, an inspector will investigate potential sources based on the description in the complaint.

In these cases, the inspector assigned to your complaint might call for additional information. Yip said investigations are sometimes delayed when community members don’t answer follow-up calls.

“We understand everyone's busy,” he added, “but it would be just very, very helpful to our inspectors if you can pick up the phone.”

Following that chat, the inspector will locate and attempt to verify the source. Then, the inspector will survey the facility to determine the cause of the air quality problem.

When there are serious violations, penalties for the offending business can go up to $10,000 per day.

The Los Angeles World Cup host committee has quietly posted its guidance on human rights after months of speculation over where the plan was and when it would be published.

Advocates had pushed the committee, an arm of the Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission, to produce its plan. But now that it's out, they're not satisfied with what they're seeing.

The human rights guidance is required by FIFA and outlined on the host committee's website. It includes a list of online resources including where to file complaints with various local and state level agencies and a summary of local, state and federal laws protecting human and civil rights. The committee is also touting a partnership with L.A. County in which people can call 211 to report a concern during the tournament.

"Los Angeles is weeks away from hosting one of the largest sporting events in the world, and yet what has been posted is not a plan,” Stephanie Richard, director of the Sunita Jain Anti‑Trafficking Initiative at Loyola Law School, said in a statement. “It is a list of laws and hotline numbers."

The human rights document also skirts fears around ICE and its potential presence at the tournament and surrounding celebrations. Todd Lyons, the agency's head, said earlier this year that ICE's investigatory branch will play a key role in security for the tournament.

But ICE and immigration enforcement aren't mentioned on the host committee's web page on human rights or in its outline of its approach to human rights. "Immigration status" only gets a mention in the list of existing anti-discrimination laws.

"It certainly could have been much stronger," Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, said of the plan. She added that her organization participated in a roundtable on the plan, and she was disappointed ICE and recent immigration sweeps weren't mentioned in the resulting document.

"In order for all of this to happen, immigrant workers are part of it," she said of the World Cup. "Your hotel workers, your service workers, stadium workers, drivers." 

LAist reached out to spokespeople for the host committee for comment via email, phone and text, but did not hear back in time for publication. FIFA's press team also did not respond to an email from LAist.

According to the host committee's website, the human rights plan is the result of coordination with the city and county of Los Angeles, the city of Inglewood, and 14 roundtable discussions held in the fall of 2025.

"As a non-profit organization, the Host Committee’s role is primarily and necessarily focused on aligning and collaborating with governmental and non-governmental organizations," the document sums up the committee's approach.

The plan also promises more actions, including "Know Your Rights" training for L.A. residents and visitors and "Know Your Responsibilities" training for businesses and vendors. The committee also says it will develop a "rapid response" strategy to respond to potential problems at the tournament.

Available details on those plans were scant. And with the tournament just 30 days away, labor unions and community groups are continuing to voice concerns about potential ICE presence at SoFi Stadium and other potential consequences of the tournament coming to town.

The mayor of Arcadia has agreed to plead guilty to a charge she acted as an agent for China, federal prosecutors announced Monday. She has resigned from her position with the city.

Eileen Wang, 58, faces one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The charge carries a potential sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison.

What we know about the criminal case

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Wang and Yaoning “Mike” Sun of Chino Hills worked at the direction of the Chinese government and with individuals based in the U.S. to promote pro-People’s Republic of China propaganda in the United States. Those actions occurred between 2020 and 2022, prosecutors said.

According to federal prosecutors, Wang and Sun operated a website — known as U.S. News Center — billed as a news source for the local Chinese American community in Los Angeles County. They posted content on the site, described as "pre-written articles," based on directives from Chinese government officials.

Sun, 65, pleaded guilty in October 2025 in federal court to acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government. He is serving a four-year federal prison sentence.

Prosecutors also said Wang communicated with John Chen, whom they described as “a high-level member of the [Chinese government] intelligence apparatus,” in November 2021, and asked him to post an article from her website.

In a group chat, Wang referenced the article and wrote: “This is what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to send,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Chen pleaded guilty in New York to acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China and conspiracy to bribe a public official. In 2024, he was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison.

What's next

Wang, who was elected to the City Council in November 2022, was expected to make her first appearance in U.S. District Court Monday afternoon.

Citing a plea agreement, prosecutors said she's expected to enter the guilty plea within the next few weeks.

Arcadia's mayor is selected from the elected council members. A post on the city's website announced that Wang had resigned her position as of Monday and that a new mayor would be picked from the remaining council members at the next meeting.

The Supreme Court on Monday gave itself more time to consider a national ban on telemedicine access to the abortion pill mifepristone.

Justice Samuel Alito extended an earlier order he issued by three more days, so rules for prescribing mifepristone online or through the mail remain in effect through Thursday at a minimum.

The case at issue

The tumult over the future of telemedicine access to mifipristone started on May 1 with a ruling from the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. That ruling re-instituted prescribing rules from before the pandemic that required patients to receive mifepristone in person in a doctor's office or clinic.

The Food and Drug Administration determined that the rule was medically unnecessary in 2021. The state of Louisiana sued last fall, arguing that telemedicine access undermines the state's abortion ban.

What is telemedicine abortion?

The telemedicine abortion process starts with a patient connecting with a healthcare provider on the phone or online. If the patient is eligible, that provider can prescribe two medications — mifepristone and another pill called misoprostol. Patients can pick up the medicine at a local pharmacy, or providers can mail the drugs to a patient's home.

That access is a big part of the reason why the number of abortions nationally has actually increased since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022. Now, most abortions in the U.S. use this combination of medications, and one quarter happen via telemedicine.

After the 5th Circuit ruling, some providers said they would continue offering telemedicine access to abortion medication using a different protocol that involves higher doses of misoprostol and no mifepristone.

Researchers say that method is just as safe and effective, but tends to cause more pain for patients and more side effects, like nausea and diarrhea. Misoprostol has other medical uses, such as treating gastric ulcers and hemorrhage, and has been on the market longer than mifepristone. It is likely to remain fully accessible, even if mifepristone is restricted.

Since the FDA's prescribing rules for medications apply to the whole country, a change to the rules about how mifepristone can be accessed has national impact. That means it affects states with constitutionally-protected access to abortion, states with criminal bans, like Louisiana, and all states in between.

States' rights

Nearly two dozen Democratic-led states submitted an amicus brief in this case, writing that the appeals court decision put the policy choices of states with bans above the choices of states "that have made the different but equally sovereign determinations to promote access to abortion care."

There are also stakes related to the power of FDA and other expert agencies to set rules. While the Trump administration's FDA did not respond to the Supreme Court's request for briefs, a group of former leaders of the agency, who served under mainly Democratic and some Republican presidents, wrote about this in an amicus brief.

They defended the FDA's process in approving the medication and modifying the rules for prescribing it, and say the appeals court decision "would upend FDA's gold-standard, science-based drug approval system."

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