The Brief

At least six fumigation facilities in southeast Los Angeles County have been using a toxic pesticide that could be harming people, yet air quality regulators have not analyzed the health risks in nearby communities.

West Long Beach residents have been angry since January, when they learned that potentially dangerous levels of methyl bromide used by two facilities were found near an elementary school — five years after the fumes were first detected by air quality officials.

Then, on Thursday night, at a virtual community meeting, officials of the South Coast Air Quality Management District revealed that four more facilities, located in Compton and San Pedro, are also using the chemical — at much larger volumes than two West Long Beach facilities.

Homes are located near the San Pedro and Compton fumigation businesses, but air quality officials said they do not have plans to monitor the air there.

State health officials have classified methyl bromide as a reproductive toxicant, which means it can harm developing babies exposed in the womb. In the short term, high levels can cause headaches, dizziness, nausea and difficulty breathing, while exposure over a year or more could cause more serious neurological effects, such as difficulties with learning and memory.

“Every day ... there was an explosion in this neighborhood and nobody knew where it came from, because it was silent,” said Theral Golden, a longtime West Long Beach resident and community advocate in an interview. “So how do you know what’s causing your illness? We should be in crisis mode, and everybody wants to act like everything is OK.”

Methyl bromide is used by the companies to kill harmful pests on imported fruits and vegetables that arrive through the region’s ports. The fumigant was widely used on crops, especially strawberries, for decades, but was banned internationally for most uses in 1987 under a United Nations treaty that protects the Earth’s ozone layer. Exemptions are granted for fumigation of produce shipped from overseas.

The two West Long Beach facilities — AG Fume Service and San Pedro Forklift, also known as SPF Logistics — are just a few hundred feet away from homes and Elizabeth Hudson Elementary School.

Daniel McCarrel, an attorney representing AG Fume, which also operates a facility in San Pedro, said the company has complied with its permits and has been open to making changes.

“We have cooperated with the agencies every step of the way to reduce any potential impact that our operations may have on ... our workers and the community,” he said. “We believe that our operations are safe and that we’re doing the best that can be done.”

Greg Augustine, owner of Harbor Fumigation, said his business in San Pedro is permitted and complies with local, state and federal requirements. He said he will be cooperating with air quality regulators if they request more information about his operation.

“In all processes in life you have to balance the cost and the benefits,” Augustine said. “We grow a lot of grapes in California. This process is designed to protect those grapes from (pest) species that exist in South America but do not exist in North America and would be harmful to domestic agriculture.”

A general manager of San Pedro Forklift declined to answer questions from CalMatters.

Global Pest Management, which has fumigation facilities in Compton and Terminal Island near San Pedro, did not respond to calls.

Global Pest Management’s Compton facility is near the 710 Freeway, with residential neighborhoods on both sides. It used 11,626 pounds of methyl bromide in 2022, more than double what volumes used at the West Long Beach facilities, according to data provided by the South Coast AQMD at the meeting on Thursday.

AG Fume and Harbor Fumigation, located at the same address in San Pedro, collectively used nearly 40,000 pounds of methyl bromide in 2022, according to the data. That’s seven to eight times more than the two businesses in West Long Beach. The facility is near San Pedro’s 22nd Street Park and neighborhoods to the west.

The South Coast AQMD provided information about the four facilities on Thursday after residents had earlier expressed concerns about whether more businesses use the fumigant.

No air monitoring has been conducted at the four Compton and San Pedro sites.

In West Long Beach, California Air Resources Board monitors detected spikes of methyl bromide as high as 983 and 966 parts per billion in February and March of 2024. At 1,000 ppb, methyl bromide can cause acute health effects, such as nausea and dizziness, air quality officials said.

The average concentration found at the West Long Beach sites was 2.1 ppb in 2023 through part of 2024; breathing as little as 1 ppb for a year or more can cause serious health effects, according to the California Air Resources Board. In March, the average monthly concentrations were the third highest since the state air board started monitoring in 2023.

Air quality officials told residents at Thursday’s community meeting that the West Long Beach school is not within the area that could experience health effects, although 50 homes are.

However, a monitor deployed by the AQMD near the elementary school in 2019 as part of a regional air toxics study found methyl bromide concentrations of 1.14 ppb, above the threshold for chronic health impacts. Yet the air district didn’t notify school officials about the elevated levels until January of this year.

In California, permitting for methyl bromide is often administered by air quality districts. But in the Los Angeles region, the air district delegated much of that responsibility to the Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner in a 1996 agreement.

In response to a public records request, a spokesperson said the county agency follows Department of Pesticide Regulation guidelines for its permitting process.

Maximiliano Regis, chief deputy of the agricultural commissioner, said during the first public meeting in January that the air district didn’t notify the county agricultural commissioner about the elevated levels until July 2024. Spokesperson Michael de Los Reyes declined to answer additional questions.

In 2024, the county commissioner imposed new permit conditions on the two west Long Beach facilities to reduce exposure. Included are closing doors and ventilating fumes higher in the air so it won’t be disbursed in high concentrations at ground level. The Compton and San Pedro facilities, however, do not have the same air quality controls in place.

West Long Beach community advocates have asked air regulators to install more monitors and analyze health risks from the last 30 years when methyl bromide has been used there.

The AQMD conducted a preliminary assessment determining which facilities could affect communities based on 2022 volume use data, weather patterns and proximity to residential neighborhoods. They said they will continue collecting data on the emissions to determine whether a health risk assessment should be conducted.

Whitney Amaya, a West Long Beach resident and member of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, said the agencies need to do a better job of protecting communities at risk.

“It's just bad news after bad news,” said Whitney Amaya, a West Long Beach resident and member of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice. “These are our lives, right? These are our family members, our neighbors that live here, and it's the future generation, it's kids. We can't normalize these operations and just say it's OK to continue doing business as is.”

Early every Saturday for the last three and a half years, William Campbell, 61, leaves his Silver Lake home to be at the Angels Flight station for the first ride at 6:45 a.m.

Campbell is one of a team of operators behind the proverbial wheel of the two near-identical funiculars — named Olivet and Sinai — that go up and down a 33% angle slope from Hill Street to Bunker Hill in downtown Los Angeles.

“You’re a part of living history,” said Campbell, who is dressed in an orange and black waistcoat and bow tie, and wears a bowler hat with a monarch butterfly on top. There’s a reason for that, he said mysteriously.

Angels Flight on Bunker Hill.

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James Bartlett

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Today, I am the first rider. Soon after, I am joined by a family visiting from Texas.

“I was just looking at a local tourist place, and I just saw this small, cute railway,” said Michael Nguyen, who was alongside his mother and sister. “I was like, oh, this looks interesting. And I saw that you can actually go on it. I was like, OK, that’s pretty dope.”

Masterminded by lawyer, politician and engineer Col. James Ward Eddy, the Angels Flight “hillevator” opened on New Year’s Eve 1901 as a way for people to travel up and down Bunker Hill, which was then the place where the city’s wealthy population lived.

The journey took them down to the streets and stores below and from 1917, Grand Central Market, with the first passengers paying just a penny fare for what was billed as the “shortest railway in America,” traveling just 298 feet.

When he’s not working his weekday full-time day job investigating animal cruelty and abuse, Campbell spends his spare time looking through online newspaper archives for any information about Angels Flight.

Angels Flight Railway.

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James Bartlett

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LAist

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Angels Flight Railway.

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James Bartlett

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LAist

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Originally located by the 3rd Street Tunnel — at the end of the block from where it is now — the train has been through several changes, as has Bunker Hill itself.

“All the wealthy people moved to Beverly Hills, and Brentwood, and Bel Air, and beyond. And all their wonderful Victorian mansions were turned into boarding houses, and it attracted a lower income, more diverse population, which resulted in blight and crime — at least according to the city,” Campbell said of Bunker Hill's transformation.

City officials authorized Bunker Hill to be all but razed in the 1950s and '60s, and Angels Flight was put into what was promised to be temporary storage for a year or two, despite protests from singer Peggy Lee and others.

The year was 1969. And it took nearly three decades for its return. Angels Flight welcomed passengers again in 1996 to its current location after test runs were made with cases of beer and soft drinks weighing 9,000 pounds. The cable cars were rebuilt exactly as before, but with modern safety requirements, such as Sinai having wheelchair space.

A 2001 accident in which one person died and seven were injured saw another long closure until 2010, and there was a derailment in 2014, which saw another short shuttering. But Angels Flight has been running ever since 2017, save the odd mechanical problem.

William Campbell.

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James Bartlett

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LAist

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Angels Flight keepsakes made by William Campbell for riders to take.

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James Bartlett

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LAist

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Campbell describes himself as a cheerleader for Angels Flight, and you can easily see why. During his shift he pins up a 1904 photo of the city’s landscape taken from an 80-foot-high observation tower at the original location, so people can compare it to the skyscraper skyline of today.

“At one time you could see all the way to Catalina,” he noted.

There is also a display about near-forgotten Bunker Hill folk artist Marcel Cavalla, and Campbell gives away Angels Flight bookmarks, stickers and maps, all of which he researches, designs and prints out of his own pocket.

One of his projects, old advertisements from 1901 to the 1940s, is displayed in the panels above the seats, and was installed a couple of months ago.

Interior of Angels Flight, showcasing old advertisements from 1901 to the 1940s that Campbell installed.

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James Bartlett

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LAist

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One of the vintage ads for Catalina Carrier-Pigeon Service.

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James Bartlett

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LAist

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There's everything from old Market Basket supermarket ads, to Barbara Stanwyck shilling for Lux toilet soap, to a standard power mower from John Bean manufacturing, to one for the Catalina Carrier Pigeon Service, which operated from 1894 to 1902, taking messages from Avalon to Bunker Hill.

And the monarch butterfly on his hat? That’s related to his Angels Flight “holy grail,” the one question he can’t definitively answer: why were they painted orange and black?

With that, Campbell grabs his binoculars and sees there are passengers waiting for a ride up, so I get into Olivet and wave goodbye as I travel down to Hill Street.

A group called Neighbors Helping Neighbors has been clearing overgrown weeds for free on fire survivors' empty lots in Altadena.

They’ve finished 10 with many more to go. They’re keeping at it not just to keep things tidy, but to avert another disaster as the region enters fire season — and their efforts are spreading. More than 200 homeowners have signed up, after hearing about the group from its Facebook page and through word of mouth.

“I'm 5 feet 2 inches tall, but there were weeds 6 and 8 feet tall,” said Antoinette “Toni” Bailey-Raines, the ringleader. She is also a co-founder of Altadena Talks Foundation, a nonprofit started in the wake of the Eaton Fire.

Bailey-Raines lives in San Dimas but grew up in Altadena. Her parents and sister all lost their homes in the Eaton Fire.

“I went to my parents' lot one day,” she said. “I loaded up the back of my car with my lawnmower, my blower, my rake, because I wanted to make sure their lot was cleaned up.”

It took seven hours, but she figured all that overgrown vegetation can't be good for Altadena with the fire season just around the corner.

And just like that, the idea for Neighbors Helping Neighbors was born.

Preventing another disaster

Antoinette “Toni” Bailey-Raines, founder of Neighbors Helping Neighbors.

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Fiona Ng

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LAist

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Antoinette “Toni” Bailey-Raines at one of the cleared lots.

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Fiona Ng

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LAist

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The very first lot, just south in Pasadena, was cleared in mid-April. Bailey-Raines said the property was getting notices from the city to clear the lot or face escalating fines. Pasadena conducts brush clearance inspections every spring and summer.

Toni said the family had moved to Mississippi after the Eaton Fire.

“You lost everything, and then somebody's gonna tell you they're gonna give you a fine because you have weeds on your lot and you're not even here to see that?” Bailey-Raines said.

That day, she rounded up a group of nine people, including her son and his friend. A neighbor across the street was suspicious at first, but eventually told her, "You have me for about an hour." He stayed for two.

The job took less than four hours.

A growing movement

On May 13, dozens of volunteers showed up in Altadena to clear seven lots in one morning.

One of them — a 14,000-square-foot lot — belongs to Sarkis Aleksanian and his family. He had reached out to Bailey-Raines in late April, after learning about the group from a neighborhood WhatsApp chat.

“I was looking into cleaning up the lot and really daunted by the prospect,” he said. “I was worried that the lawn would dry up and be a problem.”

Aleksanian and his wife were on hand to help out. It’s the one thing that Bailey-Raines requires — for the homeowners to be there.

“I've asked them that if they're able-bodied to be here and help,” she said. “You're here. You're encouraging people, and you're helping on your lot. [Sarkis] was doing everything from weed-eater, to chainsaw, to whatever, and that's what it's about.”

This 14,000-square-foot lot in Altadena was cleaned up in less than two hours on a recently Saturday.

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Fiona Ng

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LAist

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“It was just remarkable, I tell you,” Aleksanian said. He said he recognized some of the volunteers that morning — folks he sees in the community.

And he did encounter someone he knew — a high school acquaintance from years back. “It's neighbors helping neighbors, just like she called it, you know?” Aleksanian said.

His lot was finished in 90 minutes.

More is needed

With a growing waitlist, what is needed are people and equipment — from gloves and trash bags to the hardware.

“I have six brush cutters and two chainsaws and a couple trimmers, but I need, like, triple that at least,” she said.

Same goes for rechargeable batteries that power these tools — which Bailey-Raines juices up with generators they bring on-site.

A number of organizations — including Neighborhood Survants, Altagether, Project Passion, My Tribe Rise, Dena Heals — have granted money and donated equipment and manpower. Bailey-Raines has also put in her own money.

“My dream is one Saturday morning to have 500 people and that we clear a whole street, a whole block — so that this list of 200 can go down, and as others hear about it, they get on it, and we as a community do this as neighbors to help one another,” she said.

After fires and floods, Southern California’s only remaining native freshwater turtle recently got a boost.

Just last month, 15 southwestern pond turtle hatchlings were released into the San Gabriel River — a major milestone in an effort to restore the vulnerable turtle population.

But this wasn’t a typical raise-and-release scenario.

These turtles’ parents went on a harrowing journey before they were born.

A daring rescue

In early September 2020, amid a heat wave and dry weather, a tree branch hit a Southern California Edison power line, igniting the Bobcat Fire.

The fire eventually scorched more than 180 square miles — mostly forest in the San Gabriel Mountains. For comparison, the 2025 Eaton Fire burned about 22 square miles.

Lights from a fire truck illuminate firefighters working the Bobcat Fire in September 2021.

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Frederic J. Brown

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Getty Images

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As the Bobcat Fire spread, biologists grew worried. The fire was burning in the West Fork of the San Gabriel River, a biodiversity hotspot and refuge for bears and mountain lions, the federally protected Santa Ana sucker fish and the mountain yellow-legged frog.

It’s also home to the largest remaining — and possibly only — population of southwestern pond turtles in the entire watershed. Their exact numbers aren’t known, but it’s likely less than 200.

“Because this hadn’t burned in decades and decades and decades, there was big concern about debris flows,” said Robert Fisher, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

Scientists hoped the turtles would be able to ride out the fire itself by staying in the water, but any rain after would likely lead to a deluge of mud, trees and other burned materials. That would be akin to an avalanche for the turtles in the river, and it had the potential to wipe out the entire population.

Once the flames died down, Fisher and a team of biologists, in partnership with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and U.S. Forest Service, trekked to the home of the pond turtles.

“It was a moonscape,” Fisher said.

They waded through ashy, murky waters, eventually collecting 11 adult turtles.

A temporary home and 15 surprises

The turtles were taken to the San Diego Zoo, where the plan was to hold them until their mountain habitat recovered enough for them to return.

By 2024, the San Gabriel Mountains were looking far better — biologists even found some pond turtles that survived major debris flows.

But right before the turtles were set to go back home, scientists got a surprise.

“Just before we were getting to release, we found a baby turtle, which is amazing,” said Brandon Scott, wildlife care manager of herpetology and ichthyology at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. “You don't know how long it's going to take to restart that process of them actually being able to breed, with the stress and it's a new habitat.”

A juvenile southwestern pond turtle is weighed before being released to the wild.

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Ken Bohn

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Courtesy San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance

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The turtles and the new baby were all returned to their home in the San Gabriels. But then came another surprise. And another.

“We just continually, every day, started finding a baby in that habitat,” said Scott.

Female southwestern pond turtles lay and bury their eggs in late spring or early summer. Juveniles emerge months later, only about the size of a quarter.

Fifteen babies later, conservation staff were shocked and pleased.

Their goal for the 11 rescued turtles was to make sure they could thrive before being released back into their habitat. “But in the process,” Scott said, “yes, we made it comfortable enough for them to breed.”

A hopeful release

The new generation of southwestern pond turtles was released in April near the spot their parents were rescued from in the San Gabriel River.

Such rescues of vulnerable wildlife are becoming increasingly common in the face of more catastrophic fires. All but two of the biggest fires in recorded history have been in the last 20 years.

Fisher said a similar rescue of pond turtles had occurred only once before, after the 2009 Station Fire in the San Gabriels. That time, the turtles were quickly returned to their habitat.

A staff member of the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance releases a juvenile southwestern pond turtle into the San Gabriel River.

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Ken Bohn

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Courtesy San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance

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That rescue, in part, inspired the U.S. Geological Survey to work with the San Diego Zoo to build a conservation habitat for southwestern pond turtles nearly two decades ago. And the Bobcat Fire became the first time it was used for wild rescues, Fisher said.

Ironically, the Bobcat Fire could eventually help the local population, Fisher said.

“We’ve known about [the population] for decades, but it’s not really thriving,” he said. “So this helped give it a head start. And because the fire was so intense, it opened up a lot of habitat.”

With less tree canopy and more sunlight, the cold-blooded reptiles could thrive in warmer waters and on sunnier rocks.

But the new generation is key.

“Because the site was so forested and hadn’t burned in so long, we don’t think they were having good success at breeding,” Fisher said. “Now we think we’ve really enhanced the population by putting more animals out there, especially young animals.”

Scott and Fisher said the saga has inspired preliminary conversations about formalizing breeding efforts to support the population. The little turtles' myriad threats have yet to let up, so they’ll likely need more help in the future.

But at the moment, there’s a little more hope — at least 16 hatchlings and 11 adults' worth of hope, to be exact — for California’s only native freshwater turtle.