An Orange County judge on Monday, Oct. 19 approved a $125 million agreement between local prosecutors and GKN Aerospace addressing the immense impact of a chemical scare from a failing tank at a Garden Grove plant that forced the multi-day evacuations of more than 50,000 people over Memorial Day weekend.
Nearly five months after the threat of a potential massive explosion or street-level chemical spill forced residents to flee and businesses to close in a half-dozen Orange County cities, the agreement between the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and GKN is expected to both compensate those impacted by the massive haz-mat response while also paving the way for the Garden Grove plant to restart operations.
Shortly before approving the agreement, Orange County Superior Court Judge Layne Melzer asked GKN representatives how they planned to get word of the agreement and the available financial compensation out to impacted residents. The company representatives told the judge that they will have a website where people can sign up and will be holding an upcoming town hall and other community informational events within the former evacuation zone.
“We are going to be very active in the community,” Manny Abascal, an attorney representing GKN, told the judge.
Outside the Santa Ana courtroom, DA Todd Spitzer, who attended the hearing in person, praised his team for quickly reaching what he described as one of the largest civil agreements in state history.
“We wanted to put the money in people’s pockets as quickly and efficiently as possible,” Spitzer said of the claims program.
The civil agreement ended what began as a criminal investigation started in the midst of the evacuations. Spitzer said GKN was fully cooperative with the probe, which included onsite inspections, record reviews and consultation with experts.
A safety plan within the agreement — including a multi-year monitoring program — is meant to ease fears about work at the plant resuming. Some in the community have questioned whether operations at the plant can safely resume near surrounding homes and businesses.
Spitzer said the agreement gives his office and experts they are working with oversight power over operations at the Garden Grove facility for seven years, including the power to go back to a judge if any safety issues come up.
“Our work isn’t done,” Spitzer said of the safety oversight part of the agreement.
The agreement specifically includes up to $100 million for the claims program for residents and businesses impacted by the evacuations, $8.47 million to reimburse emergency agencies who handled the haz-mat response and $15 million in civil penalties for GKN to be used for consumer protection efforts at the Orange County DA office.
Civil attorneys who filed dozens of lawsuits against GKN in state and federal court on behalf of residents and businesses impacted by the evacuations have taken a measured tone toward the announcement of the $125 million agreement.
Attorneys with the X-Law Group and Presidio Law Firm, who say they collectively represent thousands of affected residents and households, last week described the agreement between the OC District Attorney’s Office and GKN as a “positive step,” while also cautioning that it “may fall short of addressing the full extent of evacuees’ losses and could raise important questions about their ongoing legal rights.”
“We are not suggesting anyone should reject the program without a thorough assessment of possible benefits,” said Lawrence Conlan of the Presidio Law Firm in a statement released after the announcement of the $125 million agreement. “But in programs like these, the devil is in the details.”
GKN officials have indicated they are ready to quickly roll out the claims program.
GKN manufactures components for civil and military aircraft. The United Kingdom-based aerospace company specializes in producing cockpit windshields, jet canopies and aviation windows. More than 500 people are employed at the Garden Grove plant.
On May 21, vapors began to vent from a storage tank at the plant that contained methyl methacrylate, a toxic chemical used in the acrylics-plastics manufacturing.
The rapid build-up of heat and pressure within the tank sparked fears it would either explode and release a massive plume of chemicals into the air and surrounding community, or would rupture and allow the chemicals to flow out into nearby streets and storm drains.
As emergency crews raced to find a solution and head off a chemical disaster, a five-day evacuation impacted an estimated 13,000 to 17,000 households in Garden Grove and five surrounding cities.
A crack at the top of the tank ended up relieving pressure while not causing a spill, allowing authorities to bring the situation under control without the feared explosion or rupture.
GKN leaders have apologized for the chemical scare. The company has donated several million toward community relief efforts.
As GKN has moved toward a reopening of the plant, a coalition of community groups has pushed for either the closure of the Garden Grove plant or the creation of a “buffer zone” between the facility and nearby homes. The groups have said the $125 agreement provides reparations for residents but doesn’t go far enough in addressing structural issues at the facility. City leaders have described the closure of the facility as unrealistic, while acknowledging more could be done to alleviate safety concerns.
The recent failure of the chemical tank was not the first safety concern to come from the Garden Grove plant. GKN previously paid a nearly $1 million settlement related to numerous environmental violations at the plant. A history of spills, leakages and violations at the facility led city officials in 2023 to urge GKN to improve their “general housekeeping.”
The agreement between local prosecutors and GKN would not impact any potential federal probe of the Garden Grove facility or the chemical scare. A search of the plant by the FBI and EPA was carried out in early June. A spokesperson with the U.S. Attorneys Office said they can neither confirm or deny whether a federal investigation into GKN is ongoing.