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 Lawmakers in the Los Angeles suburb of Irwindale had considered
declaring Huy Fong Foods, maker of the fiery Sriracha sauce, a
nuisance after residents near the factory complained that peppery
fumes were giving them headaches and irritating their eyes and
throats.
But at a city council hearing on Wednesday, three council members
and Mayor Mark Breceda voted unanimously to dismiss the resolution.
"We have to keep employment in Irwindale. We have to expand. It's
good for Irwindale. It's good for California," Breceda said.
Huy Fong Foods, in a statement that was read out at the meeting,
said it had already upgraded the air filtration system ahead of this
year's chili harvest. Declaring the factory a nuisance would have
allowed Irwindale, 20 miles (32 km) east of Los Angeles, to act on
its own to remedy the fumes, with the company assuming any abatement
costs.
Irwindale officials sued Huy Fong Foods last October due to the
residents' complaints. The following month, a Los Angeles Superior
Court judge ordered the hot sauce maker to curb any noxious
emissions, although he stopped short of requiring a shutdown of the
plant.
Huy Fong Foods has 70 full-time employees and 200 seasonal workers
and produces over 20 million bottles of hot sauce yearly, packaged
in distinctive squeeze bottles with a green cap and trademark
rooster logo.
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Huy Fong Foods has said it has received offers from some two dozen
other towns and communities, including several in Texas, to move the
factory there. U.S. Representative Tony Cardenas has sought to woo
the company to his Los Angeles-area jurisdiction.
The $50 million factory opened in Irwindale in 2010, according to a
Republican congressional candidate in the district that includes
Irwindale.
(Writing by Curtis Skinner; Editing by Miral Fahmy)
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