The senior vice president of GKN Aerospace, the company at the center of last month’s chemical crisis in Garden Grove, spoke with the public directly for the first time on Tuesday in a special city council meeting.
Steve Carlin addressed a crowd of Orange County residents who were impacted by last month’s evacuation orders following the discovery of a compromised storage tank at GKN Aerospace’s facility. He took pointed questions from city leaders and provided statements directly to community members.
“On behalf of GKN and the Garden Grove plant, I want to say I am sorry that this event occurred,” he said before a crowded meeting.
About 50,000 residents and business owners in Orange County were forced out of their homes and shops in May after a damaged chemical storage tank was discovered at the aerospace company’s facility. The compromised tank contained thousands of pounds of methyl methacrylate (MMA), which at some point created concerns of a possible explosion.
When asked by Garden Grove Mayor Stephanie Klopfenstein whether the company would remove the chemical from its site, Carlin did not answer directly.
“We are still very early in the stages of actually investigating and reviewing exactly what happened on May 21st,” he said. “So, it’d be too early for us to draw any conclusions one way or the other.”
With Carlin not providing concrete answers to questions at the meeting, he was asked for a timeframe on when he’d be able to provide further information.
“Given the amount of factors that play into that, I don’t think I can give you a ballpark at this stage of the game,” Carlin said.
Some residents expressed frustration and disappointment over a lack of direct answers, they said.
“There was just a lot of deflection. There was no accountability being taken,” said Tharwa Khalid, who lives in Garden Grove. “And overall, GKN just continues to disrespect our community over and over again by not giving us answers and continuing to put us at risk.”
In response to the emergency, GKN Aerospace pledged $4 million in community initiatives to help individuals and business owners who were impacted by the days-long evacuation.