Garden Grove calls special council meeting on GKN Aerospace chemical emergency

Garden Grove will hold a special City Council meeting Thursday to pursue accountability from GKN Aerospace after a chemical tank emergency over Memorial Day weekend forced roughly 50,000 residents to evacuate.

The Memorial Day weekend evacuation displaced roughly 50,000 residents in Orange County, prompting community members to pressure city leaders for legal and financial action. GKN Aerospace has pledged approximately $5 million in response, according to ABC7 Los Angeles.

The special session is set for 4:30 p.m. Thursday at the Garden Grove Community Meeting Center and will be livestreamed online, according to ABC7 Los Angeles. City leaders plan to receive guidance on the legal and financial options available to pursue accountability from the aerospace manufacturer.

County crews are continuing to pump neutralized chemicals from tanks at the GKN Aerospace facility and transfer them into sealed trucks for off-site disposal. County health officials monitoring air quality throughout the operation said chemical concentrations remain well below health concern thresholds. Residents near the site may notice a "distinctive fruity or plastic-like odor" during cleanup, but officials said the smell does not indicate a health risk.

At a recent public meeting, residents pressed city officials to act. "Mayor, you said that GKN must be held accountable, and it is your responsibility to ensure that this takes place," one resident said, according to ABC7 Los Angeles. "It is the responsibility of every single person on this council to do everything in your power to ensure GKN is held accountable."

Another resident attributed the emergency to broader systemic failures. "This is not the result of one mistake, this is the result of an industry and company that treats our community as disposable in order to line their pockets," the resident said, ABC7 Los Angeles reported.

GKN Aerospace has pledged approximately $5 million in response to the emergency. County officials, city leaders and community members are all expected to attend Thursday's special session.

Thursday's special session represents Garden Grove's first formal move toward holding GKN Aerospace accountable for a Memorial Day weekend emergency that displaced tens of thousands of Orange County residents from their homes.