Something is in the air

Residents near the southern border of the Arts District have to coexist with a stench when the wind is right and the air is clear. In a flurry of e-mails, the seasonal sport of identifying the smell is now in it's third day. The noms so far are the Farmer John factory,  Bandag Tire, or a rendering plant. Maybe it's the City of Vernon in general.

My money is on the rendering plant. West Coast Rendering Co takes unwanted animal parts to "recycle" . . . well, I'll let you read it.  Under another name "D&D Disposal" - (once) honored City and County contracts to rid of euthanized pets...well, I again will let you be on your own again.

I think Farmer John is off the hook on this one

Added 10.7

An excellent report from "Kevin" can be seen in the comments below. He went to the scene of the grime and gets a medal and a round of thanks for going beyond the call of blogger duty. 

According to the website for Bakers Commodities, they manufacture products to be "marketed domestically and internationally to meet the growing demand for animal feed and as ingredients for a variety of consumer products." Sure sounds vauge.

I also been told off the blog that Vernon has the Kal Kan's headquarters  ( 3250 East 44th Street) where they produce pet food.  My informant who once had Kal Kan as a client told me it "stank, stank, stank."

Vernon's Chamber of Commerce ("Progress through Industry") pride themselves on being an industrial town. The City Council will stay in power, having April election results held up in court. No changes soon.

I don't know what the residents of the LA Arts District can do since these factories are in a different city,  where the officials have been part of the same old boys club focusing on business and profit for a number of years. Yes, there has to be some sort of facility where some of the grunge work of life needs to get done, or to help feed the pets of catlovers; but what does it say about a city where they welcome it all of it with open arms?

So my earlier comment wasn't far off the mark. The source of the smell is not just one factory. It's the city of Vernon.

Comments

[Kevin]

Tonight my girlfrind and I went for a drive in the Vernon area to try to find the source of the smell. We started off heading toward B&B Services (4105 Bandini Blvd, Los Angeles, CA). As we got closer to the address the smell got stronger and stronger. When we got there, it was so bad I thought I was going to vomit.

Across the street from B&B is a large rendering plant under the name "Baker Commodities". While the D&D facility was definitely disgusting looking, the plant across the street seemed to be the main processing facility generating the smell. I suspect that the two work together, and that D&D is probably the receiving area for the euthanized pets and roadkill and Baker is where most of the processing happens.

D&D had some equipment too, not nearly the scale of Baker. We saw large bins labeled "USDA" at the D&D facility. Everything looked like it was coated with a yellow, greasy tar-like substance, and there were thousands of sea gulls around to scavange off the whole lot.

I'm not sure if I can continue to live downtown. The next time the breeze brings that smell to my apartment building I'll know that what I'm inhaling is the burning bone, blood, fat and hair of dead pets.

[e@v]

Great report! Thanks for looking into it. The e-mails from the arts district residents say it's not a year round smell. As much as I advocate downtown as a place to live, you went to the source of the smell; and nothing may help erase the experience.