Desert dumping

LAist investigates waste at Antelope Valley sites

Jacob Margolis covers science, with a focus on environmental stories and disasters, as well as investigations and accountability.

Published May 19, 2025 5:00 AM

A green tractor is seen behind a large berm of what appear to be woodchips. Hills roll in the distance.

Tractors are regularly used to spread material, including at a 70-acre site LAist visited in Kern County.

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Jacob Margolis

LAist

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Topline:

One of Southern California’s largest waste companies has participated in what environmental officials describe as a large-scale illegal dumping problem in the Antelope Valley.

The problem: Illegal dumping in the high desert has gotten so bad that CalRecycle, the state agency in charge of waste, said in February that it has become an emergency that is degrading the environment, causing fires and posing a risk to human health and safety.

Who and what are affected: Local residents deal with bugs, stench and eyesores from the waste. Trash fouls the desert environment, heating and combusting into fires with noxious smoke.

Read on … to meet one woman who is fighting back with a lawsuit.

Drive along one of the Antelope Valley’s long, open roads and you’ll see wood chip-covered berms rising from the flat desert landscape.

Some piles are taller than single-story homes and stretch for more than a half mile.

Inside those piles you’ll find more than wood: thermometers, tampons, electronics, street signs, and bits and pieces of dismantled buildings.

Dirt looking material with wood chips and metal with mountains int he background.

“If we took one wheelbarrow full of this and put it in a yard in L.A., anywhere, it would be a $500 ticket,” Frank Lloyd, an Antelope Valley property owner, said at a community meeting last year.

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Diapers, concrete and construction debris. The open secret about trash in Southern California is that some of the waste people assume is being properly handled is actually being disposed of on remote sites in the California high desert. The state agency in charge of waste, CalRecycle, has said the scale of illegal dumping has become an emergency. LAist science reporter Jacob Margolis investigated several illicit sites in the Antelope Valley. His investigation raises questions about illegal dumping practices, accountability and the toll it all takes on nearby residents.

The dirty secret of trash: Illegal dumping in the Southern California desert

The problem goes well beyond one wheelbarrow.

“Now we have hundreds of thousands of tons,” said Lloyd, who added that the community has been complaining to L.A. County officials for at least seven years. “We’re killing our environment.”

Things have gotten so bad, that CalRecycle, the state agency in charge of waste, said in February that the scale of illegal dumping in the high desert has become an emergency that is degrading the environment, causing fires and posing a risk to human health and safety.

Yet large-scale illegal waste disposal in the desert is an open secret among government officials, first responders, waste industry experts and the people living nearby. It’s difficult to stop or hold anyone accountable — how to prove which pile of garbage in a remote location came from which facility 100 miles away?

A large white semi-truck turns into a property surrounded by short dry bushes and large piles of dirt.

The problem was generating outrage and lawsuits well before January’s firestorm brought new attention to what happens to debris left behind when homes and businesses are demolished.

Since last summer, LAist has been investigating the flow of debris to three desert sites. The dumping there in part spurred CalRecycle to issue its emergency regulations.

What are 'C&D fines'?

The residual material from construction and demolition projects, or "C&D fines," are a byproduct of the recycling process. After material arrives at a processing facility, things that can’t be recycled are sifted out. The so-called fines can include bits and pieces of asphalt shingles, concrete, metals, treated wood, insulation, electronics and drywall.
Multiple waste industry experts LAist spoke with said such material is supposed to go to licensed disposal facilities, such as landfills, in an effort to protect public health and the environment.

One site involves more than 182,000 tons of debris left over from the processing of construction and demolition material, which in waste industry parlance is known as “C&D fines.” The debris was processed at a Sun Valley facility called Crown Recycling Services, according to reports Crown submitted to the city of L.A. Crown is operated by one of Southern California’s largest waste companies, Arakelian Enterprises Inc., which also operates Athens Services.

Between September 2020 and February 2024, Crown sent that debris to a company called Cal-Spreading, owned by Sean Irwin of Ventura, according to the reports Crown submitted.

The address Crown lists for where the debris went is a Lancaster property known as Three Points.

Debris from Crown also ended up at another nearby dump site, not far from the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve, according to interviews and L.A. County investigation records. Cal-Spreading operated at that property, which is owned by the same Sean Irwin.

Aerial footage shows waste piled next to Kristina Brown's property.

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Courtesy Colin Roddick

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Athens was told to stop sending waste to Irwin’s property in early 2024, according to a record of a meeting between L.A. County Public Health and Irwin. In that meeting, an official recounts that a law enforcement agent focused on regulating waste for the city of L.A. explained that the construction debris was not compostable and couldn’t be dumped there. Athens and Crown were not cited by the city for illegal dumping. Only Irwin was cited, in a county notice of violation, which described him as an “operator of an illegal solid waste operation” and required him to clean up massive amounts of waste.

At a third site in Kern County, officials observed Irwin facilitating the disposal of construction and demolition debris from an unspecified source, according to Al Rojas, code compliance officer for the county. In April 2024, not long after L.A. County’s violation notice was issued, Kern County Public Works told the property owner to clean it up because it “creates an immediate and ongoing threat to the health and safety of the public.”

A thermometer with other trash sits in a pile of wood.

Kern County is now preparing to fine the property owner and Irwin, Rojas said in April.

Rojas said Kern County has experienced large illegal dumping cases over the years. "This one would rank in the top 10," he said.

Irwin did not respond to a recent request for comment.

City of Industry-based Athens Services did not answer detailed questions posed by LAist. Through a spokesperson, the company said in a statement that it “disposes of all material from our processing facilities in a responsible manner that complies with state and local regulations."

The statement continued: "The material sent to Cal-Spreading was beneficial soil material that was appropriate for land application. It was not, as asserted in your question, C&D material not appropriate for land application. Any allegation to the contrary is false."

"Properties accept material from multiple waste processors, often at the same location, and it can be impossible to determine the source of any specific material," Athens continued. "However, as Athens does not improperly dispose of construction and demolition material or contaminated green waste, we can state with confidence that we are not the source of any such disposal. Athens is committed to full compliance with all applicable regulations concerning material disposal.”

Antelope Valley residents want to hold accountable those they believe are responsible for the dumping. They’re looking to do that in court, by suing Athens, Irwin and others, seeking compensation for lost property value, cleanup of the waste and punitive damages. (No court date has yet been set.)

One of those residents is Kristina Brown.

A woman standing in front of a large pile of what looks like mulch.

Site No. 1: ‘We live next to a dump now’

I first met with Brown and her ex-husband, Colin Roddick, in the summer of 2024.

The pair have owned a 12-acre property west of Palmdale for about a decade. Just a few miles from the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, fields of wildflowers and groves of Joshua Trees aren’t an uncommon sight.

Brown and Roddick spent years working on the bright white plaster walls and sparse interiors of a dozen 1940s adobe homes there, envisioning a go-to spot for photo shoots.

“ We live next to a dump now,” Brown said while sitting at her kitchen table with Roddick.

She reached out to me last year, desperate to tell the story of what had been going on next door. She was feeling helpless, having sent scores of emails to government agencies, which LAist reviewed, asking for help.

L.A. County investigative reports and satellite imagery show that between January and February of 2024, waste piles on the 160-acre lot next to Brown’s grew to more than 12 feet high and 20 feet wide. They stretched about a half a mile.

A timelapse of material being spread across Sean Irwin's property in 2024.

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Planet Labs

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When I visited, the sweet smell of fermented garbage reminded me of tailing a trash truck with my windows open.

“On days when that smell comes through, I get the worst headaches,” Roddick said. “Once it comes in, it’s just surrounding you. This is where I sleep, this is where I eat, and it's just constantly with you all day.”

They explained that the piles began appearing in January 2024, and it didn’t take long until dozens of trucks were showing up every day, dumping from early in the morning until late at night.

Light material next to dark material in a pile.

Though they looked to be depositing piles of wood chips from afar, Roddick found something different.

“I walked over to the edge of the property line to see what was in there, and that's where I ran into plastic buckets, old pieces of plywood, drywall composites that had been crushed up, and pieces of electronics wiring from your house,” Roddick said. “Basically anything that would come off a construction site.”

Out front, a sign read “Recycled Materials Diversion Project,” an operation run by Cal-Spreading, Irwin’s company. He owns the land as well.

Irwin said in an email to LAist last year that his company spreads mulch on agricultural properties.

“We take what we do seriously and operate with the upmost standards,” he wrote. He added that he provides “a service that reputable recycling companies pay for.”

Piles of material in the desert. Gray and brown.

California state law supports the spreading of wood chips on agricultural sites to improve soil health and to keep the material out of landfills. But the organic matter has to meet strict standards, including being virtually free from contaminants. It also can’t be piled higher than 1 foot in most instances, and CalRecycle’s recent emergency order dropped that limit to 6 inches.

What became clear to L.A. County investigators who visited Irwin’s property in January 2024 was that the material being dumped there didn’t merely fail to meet those standards. They also determined that Irwin was running an “illegal solid waste operation,” according to the county Public Health notice of violation letter addressed to Irwin.

The investigators reported finding stockpiles of construction and demolition waste, broken glass, styrofoam and plastic, covered with multiple feet of mulch, according to the records. CalRecycle says this is a tactic used to conceal illegally dumped materials.

Irwin acknowledged that he was paid by Athens-operated Crown to take the debris, according to an L.A. County Fire Department report. Irwin also said he was assured by the company that the waste was pure enough to be lawfully spread on vacant land, according to a letter he sent to L.A. County Public Health.

L.A. County Public Health told Irwin early last year to stop dumping and to remove the waste.

Berms extend into the distance on a desert landscape.

When I met with Brown and Roddick in July, Irwin was in the middle of that removal process.

Around that time, Irwin sent a text message to Roddick: “You can stop the squealing to the city. I don’t owe a thing, but I will inform you we are preparing to remove the material … So chill.” When LAist called the number the text came from, Irwin picked up.

By early September, Irwin complied with the order to remove the construction debris from his property, according to the Department of Public Health. Irwin has said in court papers that Athens helped with the cleanup. (He makes that assertion in a defamation lawsuit he filed against Brown.)

County officials report Irwin was also present at two other Antelope Valley sites contaminated with construction debris.

Site No. 2: Three Points

A picture of a pile in front of mountains with a road closest to the camera.

One of those sites is known locally as Three Points.

In July, Brown and I drove to Three Points, about 5 miles from her home. It’s the same site that Athens lists as the destination for more than 182,000 tons of material on reports they’re required to submit to L.A. city. In its statement, Athens said what it sent to Irwin's Cal-Spreading was "beneficial soil material that was appropriate for land application." In an email, L.A. City Sanitation told LAist the material sent to Three Points was "C&D fines."

As we approached, Brown pointed out where people were raising goats and tending beehives.

There were also the familiar berms — with gray construction waste mixed with wood chips.

A lighter colored material surrounded by darker material in a big pile.

“You can just see it goes on, and there's pockets of gray, and it's covered up by the mulch,” Brown said. “And plants have started to grow in. It's all Russian thistle, so it's all tumbleweeds.”

That worries her — the invasive weed feeds fires out in the desert.

As they did with the property Irwin owns next to Brown's last year, L.A. County Department of Public Health officials cited Three Points’ owners for operating what amounts to an illegal dump site. The citation lists construction and demolition debris, particle board, laminate countertops and ground up cabinetry as well as “trash, plastic bottles and aluminum cans.” Much of it hidden beneath mulch. Officials saw Irwin there while inspecting, according to that notice of violation.

When CalRecycle officials visited the site several months later, they documented construction and demolition debris dumped at the property and noted that trucks "come every 20 min[ute]s."

A test message saying "Fyi complaining is not anonymous, I know," from Sean Irwin to Colin Roddick.

In August, Roddick drove to Three Points and saw Irwin there, he told LAist. He then received a text message from Irwin’s phone number: “Fwi complaining is not anonymous, I know.”

Much of the land at Three Points is owned by Jung Min Shin and the Shin Family Trust, according to L.A. County assessor’s office records.

Jung Min Shin’s wife, identified by a company receptionist as Jenny Shin, told LAist she did not know much about the situation, but the family had passed the county’s citations to a tenant.

“My husband has a lot more information,” she said. After saying she would get back to LAist, she never did.

Her husband, a beauty company executive, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

As of last month, the Three Points site was under administrative and legal review by L.A. County Public Health investigators and had not been cleaned up.

At least two mulch-related fires have occurred at Three Points over the past two years, including one in July, according to Los Angeles County Fire Department records.

Site No. 3: Kern County

When Brown and I visited another Shin-owned property in Kern County, just about 5 miles from Three Points, I saw a street sign, an electric thermometer, a toothbrush and other garbage sticking out from towering berms, taller than a large SUV.

The site was more remote than Three Points or Irwin’s property, and Brown became concerned for our safety. She said she was worried about the “gnarly dudes” she called "guardians of the trash heaps.”

“ So there's usually somebody that's on site that's like a caretaker — the one here at this site screams,” she said. “He doesn't want anybody there, and he's very threatening.”

No one confronted us, but her concern may have merit.

A person standing on top of a pile of material.

Kern County in March 2024 began investigating the dumping of construction debris at the 70-acre site, where they saw Irwin facilitating dumping, according to Al Rojas, code compliance program manager for the county.

When the county sent contractors to assess how to clean up the dumping, someone tried to run them off the road.

“Suddenly they were being chased,” Rojas said. “And our contractor just used their truck to ram them."

Kern County is preparing to issue administrative penalties against Irwin and the Shins, potentially issuing daily fines until the mess is cleaned up, according to Rojas.

There’s money in the trash

The economics of waste disposal is a key driver of the problem.

“They're saving money by dumping in the desert — point blank — instead of dumping at a legal dump site,” said L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputy Carlos Herrera, who patrols the Antelope Valley area.

Public documents and postings at licensed landfills show fees from $60 to more than $120 per ton of trash.

“ To dump in the desert ... it's always significantly less than a legal dump site,” said Hererra, who said he has been told that material can be dumped for as little as $4 a ton.

Karen Tandler, a former L.A. County deputy district attorney who prosecuted illegal dumping cases until her retirement in 2023, agrees with Herrera.

“If you went to a legal dump site, you would be charged for that dump,” Tandler said.

Tandler spoke generally about the economics of dumping, not about Athens or specific cases.

In addition to cost savings, construction and demolition debris processors have another incentive to dump on private desert land. The state wants to keep as much material as possible out of landfills. And in L.A. specifically, waste contracts depend on it.

Athens, for example, must meet a minimum recycling rate of 70% or face potential decertification, according to L.A. city requirements. City sanitation officials credit Athens-operated Crown with an 83% recycling rate.

Various pieces of trash including plastic bags, a tennis ball and a soda can laid out on a white plastic bag.

That rate is calculated using reports waste processors submit to the city and indicates how much material is kept out of landfills.

According to the L.A. Sanitation Department, Crown's listing of material as “land application” on their reports should have instead said it was construction and demolition debris fines.

Material that should have gone to a landfill was instead spread on desert land and counted on the reports as though it were organic material meant to improve soil health.

If the material that was sent to the desert was instead sent to landfills, Crown’s landfill diversion rate would fall closer to 50%, according to calculations by LAist that were verified by a longtime waste industry expert.

Heather Johnson, spokesperson for the city of L.A. Sanitation Department, said in December that her department was aware of allegations that Athens-operated Crown was improperly disposing of construction debris and is “conducting a thorough investigation into Crown’s operations and other C&D facilities.”

Johnson wouldn’t comment further "until the investigation is complete” and didn’t respond to a request for an update this month.

Dumping under the cover of darkness

If the incentives are large, the disincentives are small.

An L.A. County task force to deal with illegal dumping in the Antelope Valley has been in place since 1996. But an LAist review of enforcement practices found landowners, not waste processors, are typically cited in cases of illegal dumping and required to rectify the problem.

Tandler, the retired prosecutor, said dumpers take advantage of the remote landscape and lack of law enforcement staffing across the desert, at times operating under cover of darkness.

Waste processors and dumpers are rarely held accountable, according to multiple industry experts and law enforcement officials LAist spoke with.

L.A. County Public Health said it doesn’t have the authority to take enforcement action against generators of waste, haulers or those who facilitate illegal dumping.

“The property owner has the sole legal responsibility for the proper removal and disposal of any unlawfully disposed solid waste onto his/her property,” an agency spokesperson wrote in an email to LAist in December.

CalRecycle’s emergency regulations are in part aimed at holding waste generators, transporters and dumpers responsible.

Neighbors have made emotional appeals to L.A. County officials to take strong action against dumpers and landowners who allow illicit disposal on their lands. They have raised concerns about potential health and environmental risks caused by waste being spread over open land in a region that experiences high winds as well as extreme weather.

In October, L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger introduced a motion to increase fines for illegal dumping that can result in mulch fires and to strengthen county rules to hold scofflaws accountable.

The prospects for recovery

Even if the dumping were stopped tomorrow, swaths of the desert would still be covered in trash. And it’s unclear who’ll step in to pay for that cleanup.

“ That is one of the biggest problems,” Tandler, the former prosecutor, said. “Even when you catch and prosecute these illegal dumpers, what you've got left behind is a mess.” The dumpers say they can’t afford to clean it up, she continued, “and there is nowhere for people to really go to get the resources for cleanup.”

Wood, foam, cloth and rubber on what look like wood chips.

Lynn Barnes, an Antelope Valley apple grower, told LAist that he went into business with Irwin’s company four years ago, thinking he was going to have clean mulch spread on his farm to improve the soil.

But Barnes said that he found it all but impossible to use the land for farming because the material Irwin’s company dumped was so contaminated with trash.

Barnes said when he works on the land, he’s still pulling out pipe fittings, diapers, hammers, screw drivers, plastic decorations from aquariums, small toy cars and dolls.

“Anytime I disc or plow, that stuff comes up,” he said.

Kristina Brown, meanwhile, is waiting for her lawsuit against Athens, Irwin and others to move forward. A court date has not yet been set. Irwin has filed a defamation lawsuit against Brown, seeking $4.5 million in damages. Brown has asked the court to strike Irwin’s suit.

But she is determined to drastically curtail, if not completely end, the dumping that fouled her home for so long.

“I’d like environmental crime to be taken as seriously as other types of crime,” Brown said through her lawyers. “Companies won’t stop illegally dumping if fines aren't increased and jail time isn’t a real consequence.”

A landscape, a sunset and dust being kicked up by machines.

Climate & Environment

May gray

Highs to reach 70s and 80s

Gillian Morán Pérez writes about your daily weather forecast.

Published May 15, 2026 6:00 AM

A wide shot looking down a wide sandy beach, with city in the distance.

Santa Monica to see a high of 66 degrees today.

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Mel Melcon

LAist

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QUICK FACTS

Today’s weather: Cloudy morning then mostly sunny
Beaches: 65 to 71 degrees
Mountains: Mid-70s to low 80s
Inland: 76 to 83 degrees
Warnings and advisories: None

What to expect: Morning clouds even patchy fogs for some areas followed by a mostly sunny afternoon. Temperatures are going to rise up a bit with highs in the 70s and 80s today.

Read on ... to learn about warnings for beach goers this weekend.

QUICK FACTS

Today’s weather: Cloudy morning then mostly sunny
Beaches: 65 to 71 degrees
Mountains: low 70s to 80s
Inland: 76 to 83 degrees
Warnings and advisories: None

May gray skies will continue to keep the mornings on the cooler side, but come later this afternoon we'll see some sunshine and slightly warmer temps.

High temperatures along the beaches will stay in the mid 60s to around 70 degrees, and reach the lower 70s for the inland coast.

For the valleys, temperatures will reach the upper 70s. Meanwhile the Inland Empire will see highs up to 83 degrees.

Coachella Valley will see highs from 95 to 100 degrees.

Looking ahead to the weekend, the National Weather Service is forecasting high surf and dangerous rip currents for nearby beaches.

Come Saturday afternoon around 3:00, Ventura County will be under a high surf advisory. That will last until 9 a.m. Monday. Waves could be five to eight feet tall.

Meanwhile, the Malibu coast and L.A. County beaches will see dangerous rip currents and breaking waves starting Saturday evening through Monday morning. Swimmers, surfers and beach goers should be careful.

How to attend Huntington Beach City Council meetings

Huntington Beach holds City Council meetings on the first and third Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 2000 Main St.
You can also watch City Council meetings remotely on HBTV via Channel 3 or online, or via the city’s website. (You can also find videos of previous council meetings there.)
The public comment period happens toward the beginning of meetings.
The city generally posts agendas for City Council meetings on the previous Friday. You can find the agenda on the city’s calendar or sign up there to have agendas sent to your inbox.

Ultimately, McKeon withdrew the contract with Wolffhaus under pressure, and the city is currently evaluating alternative bids (including from Wolffhaus).

The rift comes at a fraught time for the MAGA movement: Nationally, the coalition is splintering over the war in Iran; Locally, a deepening budget crisis in Huntington Beach has caused some residents and local leaders to look more closely at the city’s recent spending decisions.

At the heart of the city’s problems is cronyism, critics say. But not everyone agrees on what falls into that category.

The backstory

The latest controversy started when a proposal to award a $720,000 contract to Wolffhaus appeared on the city’s April 7 council meeting agenda, proposed by Mayor McKeon. The two-year contract was for revamping and maximizing the city’s “brand,” including ramping up sales of HB merch, opening a film commission, and improving the city’s public relations. The ultimate goal is to generate more revenue to help close a looming budget gap.

Several council members said they had no prior knowledge of the initiative before it appeared on the agenda — nor did they know that the city had already paid Wolff $30,000 to “audit” the city’s branding and communications strategy.

Critics, including Councilmember Williams, pointed out what they characterized as a number of other red flags, including Wolffhaus’ unfinished website which included a contact number that went to an adult hotline. (Wolff said it was a mistake and is now fixed.) The contract also contained a clause stating that, should the city want to cancel the contract at any time without cause, it would owe half of the remaining allocated funds to Wolffhaus. Williams called it a potential “windfall for work that was never done.”

“This was tailor made for Tyler [Wolff],” Williams said of the contract.

City Councilmember Andrew Gruel sided with Williams in vocally opposing the contract, calling its road to near-approval “sloppy.” Gruel told LAist he has a high regard for Wolff’s work, but was concerned about the transparency leading up to the contract’s sudden appearance on the council’s agenda. “I think the whole process was upside down,” Gruel said.

The council’s usual critics were livid, lambasting the personal connection between McKeon and Wolff and the lack of a competitive bidding process, which is generally required for large contracts.

“The whole thing just smacks of cronyism, backroom deals, sloppiness, lack of accountability, fiscal responsibility, I mean, pick some adjectives,” said Cathey Ryder, co-founder of the group Protect HB. The group has been a frequent foil to the current council’s agenda, including spearheading a ballot initiative last year that overturned the library censorship measure.

But indignation came in equal measure from the other side of the proverbial aisle, including from former backers of the mayor and his allies.

“I’ve supported most of the people on this city council for a long time,” resident Domnic McGee said during public comment at the April 7 meeting. “But it seems that certain people are ruling by fiat,” he said, referring to McKeon.

McGee, who serves on the city’s planning commission, told LAist he worried that the communications contract would give the mayor a direct line to “spin” the messaging coming out of the city during election season. McKeon is up for re-election this fall.

“Casey [McKeon] will be able to override anything he doesn't like and overemphasize what he does,” McGee said. “And he could pretty much use this for his campaign.”

McGee said he campaigned for McKeon in 2021 but would now “never vote for him again.”

Following the outcry, McKeon withdrew the proposal from consideration and the city put out a request for competitive bids. An ad hoc committee made up of the mayor and two allied council members will review the proposals in private and recommend their top choices. Williams said the bidding process had been “utterly tainted.”

A pattern of 'cronyism' complaints

The rift over the Wolffhaus contract may have temporarily shaken up Huntington Beach’s conservative factions, but the faultlines are blurry. At their latest meeting, the city council voted 6-0 to shift $10,000 in federal grants from an afterschool care program in the city’s Oak View neighborhood, and $5,000 from a local program for at-risk youth, to a nonprofit where Councilmember Gruel, a vocal critic of the Wolffhaus deal, is the executive director.

The organization, Save the Brave, which is based in Temecula, takes veterans on deep-sea fishing trips. Gruel left the city council chambers when the vote was taking place, but did not formally recuse himself, or publicly disclose his ties to the organization. Under California’s Political Reform Act, elected officials are required to publicly disclose and recuse themselves from voting on any issue that represents a potential financial conflict of interest.

Gruel told LAist he had disclosed his ties with the organization from the start of the grant process — well before the money came to a vote before city council. He said he takes no money for his work with Save the Brave, and that he didn’t know he was supposed to publicly disclose his ties to the organization at the time the vote took place. “I’m still learning all this stuff,” said Gruel, a chef and TV personality who was appointed to his seat last year after former Councilmember Tony Strickland won a seat in the state legislature in a special election.

Asked whether he thought the council’s vote to give his organization additional funds was a bad look, Gruel said “Of course.”

“Especially in the framework of previous council decisions, there’s this reputation now that there are these backroom deals,” he said.

Longtime critics of Huntington Beach’s city government say it has become commonplace to reward people with political and family ties with funds, contracts, and prominent positions in city government. They point to the following examples:

A decades-long, multi-million dollar settlement with the operator of the city’s annual airshow, who staged campaign events and printed signs for several of the city councilmembers who approved the settlement. The city has been fighting a state effort to audit the deal. But Williams and Gruel recently proposed settling the case and letting the audit go forward.
A special street renaming for a local conservative donor, Ed Laird, who helped fund the campaigns of several city council members. (Laird also helped negotiate the airshow settlement.)
The appointment, by Gracey Van Der Mark, of City Councilmember Gruel’s wife to the city’s Community and Library Services Commission in 2023. Gruel said he had nothing to do with the appointment, which is unpaid.
The appointment in 2022 of Kelly Gates, wife of Michael Gates, the former city attorney and now deputy assistant attorney, to the city’s Finance Committee, also an unpaid position. Van Der Mark also made that appointment.

California’s Fair Political Practices Commission, the state ethics body, has found legal violations related to some of these incidents. The commission recently ruled that former city attorney Michael Gates, and City Council members McKeon, Van Der Mark, and Pat Burns violated disclosure rules by failing to report that they had received free VIP passes to the airshow in 2022 when they were negotiating a settlement with the event’s operator. A similar complaint is pending against Kelly Gates — city finance commissioners are also required to disclose their income and gifts.

The mere appearance of a conflict of interest is problematic for good governance, said Tracy Westen, a public interest lawyer who has expertise in government ethics. For example, appointing the spouses of government leaders to key positions in city government. “It could be they were the best people for the job,” Westen said, “but it raises an appearance issue.”

Some Orange County cities, including Irvine, Westminster and Laguna Niguel, prohibit appointments of family members to city commissions. Huntington Beach does not have a similar rule, although the city council is prohibited from appointing relatives to salaried positions.

What it all means for the November election

Those looking to unseat the current city council majority see opportunity in the rift over the Wolffhaus contract. “We are pleasantly surprised to see that there's a crack in the cabal, for lack of a better word,” said Ryder of Protect HB. The group is backing a slate of four candidates in the November election in hopes of unseating the council majority. One of the candidates is Erin Spivey, who sued the city over the book censorship policy and won, including a $1 million judgment against the city for attorneys' fees. The city is appealing.

If elected, Spivey said she would propose a ban on contracts and city appointments for individuals with close ties to city councilmembers. “This has got to stop. The government is not the plaything of elected officials,” Spivey said.

Some of the city’s most controversial figures are seeking higher office this year. Michael Gates is running for state Attorney General in the June primary. Van Der Mark is also hoping to make a jump to Sacramento — she’s one of four candidates to represent State Assembly District 72 on the primary ballot.

At the local level, McKeon and Burns are up for re-election this fall, and Gruel will face his first test on a ballot.

McKeon, Burns, and newcomer Brian Thienes are running as a conservative slate, with signs reading “Don’t split the vote!”

But Gruel has chosen to run solo — distancing himself from the trend in Huntington Beach, over the last two election cycles, of Republican-backed council candidates running as a bloc. “I don’t necessarily look at everything through a party filter,” Gruel told LAist, adding that he considers himself a small-government libertarian.

Gruel said he shared critics’ concerns about the lack of daylight on some of the city’s recent contracts and decisions. “Generally speaking this is why I’m so frustrated by the look, because my whole thing is transparency,” he said.

How to reach me

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Civics & Democracy

OC halts toxic chemicals

County pauses spraying in local waterways

Jill Replogle covers public corruption, debates over our voting system, culture war battles — and more.

Published May 14, 2026 4:19 PM

A white man with a shaved head wearing sunglasses and running shoes stands next to a paved bike path on one side, and a concrete culvert with a small creek running through it and some vegetation on the other.

Brent Linas of Creek Tream OC leveraged election season to win a major concession from Orange County government on herbicide use in local waterways.

(

Courtesy of Brent Linas

LAist

)

Topline:

Orange County will stop spraying local flood control channels with toxic chemicals — an environmental issue that has morphed in recent months into a major theme in the June 2 primary race to represent South O.C. on the Board of Supervisors.

The backstory: The environmental activists who make up the three-person Creek Team OC began raising the alarm earlier this year about the county’s practice of spraying toxic chemicals to keep vegetation down in local waterways and flood control channels, which flow out to the ocean.

The political context: The herbicide spraying had become a major issue in the race to represent District 5 on the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

Read more ... about the politics behind this environmental victory.

Orange County will stop spraying local flood control channels with toxic chemicals — an environmental issue that has morphed in recent months into a major theme in the June 2 primary race to represent South O.C. on the Board of Supervisors.

In an emailed announcement, Supervisor Katrina Foley, who represents District 5, wrote that “following months of community outcry,” O.C. Public Works would halt spraying and “instead observe the growth patterns of invasive species to evaluate the safest and most effective procedures for removal.”

The backstory

The environmental activists who make up the three-person Creek Team OC began raising the alarm earlier this year about the county’s practice of spraying toxic chemicals to keep vegetation down in local waterways and flood control channels, which flow out to the ocean. Brent Linas, the group’s founder, had become concerned about the issue while noticing what he characterized as “dead” ecosystems during his runs along San Juan Creek, which empties into Doheny State Beach.

The political context

The herbicide spraying had become a major issue in the race to represent District 5 on the Orange County Board of Supervisors. Katrina Foley, a Democrat, is running for reelection against state Assemblymember Diane Dixon, a Republican. The conservative Lincoln Club, through its PAC, has spent around $200,000 thus far to try to influence the race. The PAC has latched onto the herbicide issue to attack Foley in ads and mailers.

The Lincoln Media Foundation, which shares an address and officers with the Lincoln Club, has simultaneously published content critical of Foley’s handling of the herbicide issue through the affiliated publication, California Courier.

Linas of Creek Team called Foley’s announcement about the countywide pause on herbicide spraying “a huge, huge victory for us.” Linas, who described himself to LAist as a lifelong Democrat, said his group ultimately used the political jockeying over the issue to their advantage. “ We took this firehose of money that exists and we redirected some of it towards what we saw as an urgent issue,” he said.

What’s next?

Orange County Public Works could still use herbicides in conjunction with maintenance work if they identify an “immediate need of vegetation management,” according to the announcement. But the county would give the public seven days' notice in advance of any such use. A pilot project along San Juan and Trabuco creeks is underway to evaluate the viability of replacing chemical spraying with manual and mechanical weed removal.

How to watchdog your local government

One of the best things you can do to hold officials accountable is pay attention. Your city council, board of supervisors, school board and more all hold public meetings that anybody can attend. These are times you can talk to your elected officials directly and hear about the policies they’re voting on that affect your community.

Read tips on how to get involved.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors meets on alternating Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m. at 400 W. Civic Center Drive, Santa Ana. You can check out the O.C. Board of Supervisors full calendar here.
Learn how to submit a public comment to the O.C. Board of Supervisors.

How to reach me

If you have a tip, you can reach me on Signal. My username is @jillrep.79.

For instructions on getting started with Signal, see the app's support page. Once you're on, you can type my username in the search bar after starting a new chat.
And if you're comfortable just reaching out by email I'm at jreplogle@scpr.org

News

Short flights

What's behind the decline in shorter flights

By Bill Chappell | NPR

Published May 14, 2026 4:00 PM

(

Charles Krupa

)

Topline:

U.S. domestic air travel has boomed in recent years, except for one segment. Short flights of a few hundred miles decreased over the past decade, while longer flights became more popular, according to data gathered by the aviation analytics firm OAG for NPR.

Short flights are more expensive to operate: The number of flights spanning less than 250 nautical miles had declined by 11% from 2016 to 2026. Aviation analyst John Grant emphasizes the inefficiency of these routes, saying, “That is an awful distance to be operating.” Nearly 4 million short flights are scheduled for this year. But as of mid-April, the number of flights spanning less than 250 nautical miles had declined by 11% from 2016 to 2026 — the biggest drop of any route length.

Jet fuel costs could contribute to the decline of short flights: Domestic jet fuel costs have roughly doubled since early February, before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. U.S. airlines spent more than $5 billion on jet fuel in March, a 56% increase from February, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Spirit Airlines blamed the soaring fuel costs when it announced it would shut down last weekend. Prices are even higher for Asia and other markets that rely more heavily on supplies transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. domestic air travel has boomed in recent years, except for one segment. Short flights of a few hundred miles decreased over the past decade, while longer flights became more popular, according to data gathered by the aviation analytics firm OAG for NPR.

Nearly 4 million short flights are scheduled for this year. But as of mid-April, the number of flights spanning less than 250 nautical miles had declined by 11% from 2016 to 2026 — the biggest drop of any route length. The decline comes as no surprise to John Grant, a senior analyst at OAG.

"That is an awful distance to be operating," he says, because short flights are more expensive for airlines than flights with a longer cruise time.

In contrast, every domestic flight category of more than 500 miles saw notable gains over the same 10-year span. The numbers depict the U.S. hub-and-spoke aviation system moving toward longer "spokes" for some routes.

The trend was well established even before rising fuel prices from the Iran war rattled U.S. aviation. It could now accelerate, as airlines raise prices and trim less-profitable flights due to jet fuel supply constraints.

Domestic jet fuel costs have roughly doubled since early February, before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. U.S. airlines spent more than $5 billion on jet fuel in March, a 56% increase from February, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Spirit Airlines blamed the soaring fuel costs when it announced it would shut down last weekend. Prices are even higher for Asia and other markets that rely more heavily on supplies transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

"Any time there is pressure like that, particularly a cost pressure, but also a resource pressure, airlines are going to concentrate flying where they can move the most passengers with the fewest pilots," says Faye Malarkey Black, CEO of the Regional Airline Association.

Short-hop flights are the most frequent, and least efficient

Every day, thousands of U.S. airline passengers step off planes without needing to check the local time and weather, because they've traveled less than 100 miles, on flights lasting less than an hour.

For example, there are dozens of flights between Milwaukee and Chicago each week, even though they're separated by less than 80 miles and have been connected by rail lines for more than a century. But there's a key snag for travelers in the Milwaukee area who might want to take the train to O'Hare International, says Joshua Schank, an urban planning professor at UCLA who's also a partner with the consulting firm Infra Strategies.

"Remember, that rail is going between the [cities'] two downtowns, and it's not between the airports," he says. "And that's the key distinction," he adds, noting that a majority of the route's passengers are likely connecting to other destinations beyond Chicago.

For routes like that to make economic sense, they require enough people willing to pay, says Black, of the airline association.

"It's not the distance, it's the density," she says. "If you have a short flight that has a lot of density because it's between two urban centers and it's a viable option, then people will take that option."

It's one of the shorter spokes in the U.S. hub-and-spoke system that helps airlines concentrate their traffic. That's why the sub-250-mile distance remains the second most popular domestic route, even with its double-digit decline. The most popular flight category over the past 10 years isn't much longer, with the 251 to 500 nautical mile distance scheduled 2.1 million times in 2026, despite a roughly 4% dip.

But all those repeated shorter flights come at a cost.

"A lot of the fuel is used in the takeoff and landing processes," Grant says. And every landing, he notes, adds wear and tear on the planes' equipment.

To hit the sweet spot of revenue versus cost, Grant says, "airlines typically try to be in that two-hour block time" – a category that includes flights over 500 miles, such as Washington, D.C., to Atlanta.

At airports, short flights also add to the workload for understaffed air traffic control systems and congested gates. A small regional jet carrying 50 people, for instance, is just as important to a controller as a wide-body airliner. And it takes up gate space repeatedly, as it shuttles passengers back and forth to a hub airport. As Black notes, the impact of all those short flights adds up.

"Regional airlines have always been the backbone of air service to smaller communities," she says. "In the early 2000s, they were the only source of scheduled air service for roughly three-quarters of U.S. airports. Today, that figure is closer to two-thirds."

A man wearing a neon yellow safety vest and red pants stands beside a white work truck, parked beside an airplane.

Where are we heading?

Despite their recent decline, short-hop flights are integral to the hub-and-spoke network, taking people from Colorado Springs to Denver, for instance, or from Birmingham to Atlanta.

But airlines have shifted more toward longer flights over the past decade, thanks largely to a new generation of narrow-body aircraft that are more efficient, making them an enticing option for longer-range routes. That's why the trendline favors routes such as the 501 to 750-mile category (e.g. Portland to Las Vegas, or Houston to Tampa), which grew by 11% to nearly 1.7 million scheduled flights in 2026. Flights of more than 750 and 1,000 miles each saw double-digit percentage gains, as well.

"Unfortunately for short-haul routes, the economics are not in their favor," says Ahmed Abdelghani, professor of operations management at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida. He notes that a smaller jet's higher costs must be borne by fewer passengers than a larger plane, prompting higher fares.

"Those new generation narrowbody aircraft will have much better economics than the smaller 50-seater, 70-seater aircraft," Abdelghani says, citing the newer jets' ability to spread costs over more than 160 seats, depending on how they're configured.

The newer planes align with airlines that prioritize route profitability, Abdelghani says. But he and Black both say that larger narrow-body planes aren't a good fit for every market – and as a result, smaller communities could see fewer flights and connectivity.

"The airports with the sharpest service losses tend to be small hub and non-hub airports," Black says, "and those markets are often built around shorter-distance flying." She notes that other problems, such as pilot shortages, are also affecting small markets. "As pilot availability tightened, airlines had to make decisions about where limited flying could be sustained," Black says.

As Abdelghani puts it, "The airline decides, OK, since now I'm going to fly only efficient aircraft, I'm going to sacrifice the routes that this aircraft doesn't fit."
Copyright 2026 NPR

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Short-hop flights are the most frequent, and least efficient

Where are we heading?