The emergency in Garden Grove is a warning to communities

By Veronica Herrera, especially for CalMatters

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Tens of thousands of Garden Grove residents recently returned home after a ruptured chemical tank prompted evacuations. The incident at the end of May revealed a major and ongoing threat: California communities are vulnerable to hazardous incidents related to the plastics supply chain.

GKN Aerospace owns the tank that burst. It produces chemicals used to make plastics. A tank like the one in Garden Grove is a key part of the plastics supply chain and storage raw materials for the plastics industry.

Methyl methacrylate, the chemical that threatened the spill, is a raw material derived from oil and gas that is mixed with other chemicals to create acrylic plastics. For 80% of methyl methacrylate monomers produced worldwide go to the production of acrylic plastics.

It is alarming that the tank’s cooling system failed and how unprepared supervisors were to respond.

Rather than being resolved through safety protocols or effective regulatory oversight, the Garden Grove crisis ended only when the tank burst on its ownreleasing the accumulated pressure and avoiding a violent explosion or leakage. Had this not happened, it is likely that responders would not have been able to safely contain the spill.

The Garden Grove emergency will have far-reaching implications for society. It is a warning about the public health risks associated with plastics and chemical manufacturing.

Many chemicals used in the production of plastics are highly flammable and carcinogenic toxins. They can contaminate air and water through factory leaks or volatile explosions, and can have long-term effects on internal health and irritate the skin and eyes. Chemical pollution can spread through soil and water systems, affecting ecosystems and food supplies.

The Garden Grove crisis was not an isolated incident. In the United States, chemical facilities involved in the production of plastics have experienced fires, leaks, and explosions with devastating consequences.

Chemical releases in factories in Monaca, Pennsylvania, Houston and Nitro, West Virginia — where two workers died and five were injured — illustrate the dangers posed by the volatile compounds used to make plastics. In 2023, a chemical plant in Bristol, Pennsylvania, leaked to 12,000 gallons of chemicals to make plastics into the Delaware River, where millions of people get their drinking water.

These incidents are part of the average footprint of the plastics supply chain, creating community-level chemical exposure risks that must be recognized as part of the full impact of plastics, alongside the more commonly cited issues of microplastics and plastic waste.

UCLA’s Luskin Center for Innovation studies the plastics supply chain and its impact on the public health of California communities. We have identified more than 800 plastic manufacturing facilities that use or release hazardous and toxic chemicals in the state.

The largest concentration of plastics and plastics and chemicals manufacturing is in the Los Angeles area, with notable hotspots around Carson, East Los Angeles, and Ontario. Smaller but significant centers are in the San Francisco Bay Area and near San Diego and Oceanside.

The proximity of these plastic chemical plants to densely populated areas shows the significant health risks of our reliance on plastics. It puts us all at risk.

In a report published in 2025, Luskin Center researchers showed how the oil and gas industry increasing its investment in chemicals for plastics production, which will increase the likelihood of environmental emergencies like the one in Garden Grove.

California cannot continue to expand its plastic and petrochemical infrastructure until communities bear the risks. Policymakers should strengthen oversight of hazardous plastics-related facilities and accelerate efforts to reduce reliance on plastics production.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.