Is Irvine Trading One Neighborhood Next to a Polluter for Another?

Irvine city leaders watched footage of a city demolition team knocking down the final remnants of the All American Asphalt plant at their meeting earlier this month, celebrating the end of a longtime thorn in the city’s side after residents faced air pollution from the plant. 

[Read: Irvine Asphalt Factory Closes Today After Years of Complaints] 

That night, they signed off on a deal with developer Brookfield Residential to build a new neighborhood next door to the Bowerman Landfill – the same land sale that gave them the money to buy out the asphalt plant and close it down. 

But odor complaints against the landfill are on the rise as county trash managers look to potentially ramp up the amount of garbage headed to Bowerman, opening questions on if the city is trading one neighborhood air pollution problem for another. 

Irvine leaders greenlit the demolition of the asphalt plant in April 2023, buying the site for over $285 million while the Irvine Company works to convert over 700 acres surrounding the former factory into a nature preserve. 

To offset those costs, the city negotiated for years with Brookfield Residential to build a new neighborhood at the intersection of Jeffrey and Portola, with plans for the land and property sales to cover the costs of shutting down the asphalt plant. 

But that site is just a couple miles away from the Bowerman Landfill, which has already received three notices of violations this year for releasing odors into the surrounding neighborhood, according to a news release from the South Coast Air Quality Management District.  

“Since January 1, 2026, South Coast AQMD has received over 130 public complaints reporting rotten, sour, garbage-type odors in the area,” district staff wrote, noting that the landfill was prohibited from releasing “emissions that cause injury, nuisance or annoyance to a significant number of people.”

The landfill has also received five notices of violation since 2020 for releasing too much nitrous oxide into the air, according to the district’s public disclosures. 

Irvine leaders already decided in 2024 they’ll ask residents of the Gateway Village to sign away their right to sue the landfill when they move in, unless the landfill is found to violate the law. 

[Read: Irvine Asks Future Homeowners to Sign Away Right to Sue Nearby Landfill]

Tom Koutroulis, director of Orange County Waste and Recycling, noted the dump was originally not surrounded by homes when it opened in 1990, but that they are working to manage the issue in a Tuesday statement. 

“As communities continue to develop around Orange County’s landfills, OC Waste & Recycling remains focused on essential operations and long-term planning to manage waste entering our landfill system and to be a good neighbor,” Koutroulis wrote.

The complaints also come as the county looks to wind down operations at their Brea Olinda Landfill, meaning more trash trucks could come to both the Bowerman Landfill and the Prima Deshecha Landfill in San Juan Capistrano. 

Prima Desecha Landfill’s ramped up operations have been drawing mounting resident opposition, with county leaders recently canceling a public meeting about plans to double the landfill’s intake after residents sent in over a hundred complaints. 

[Read: South OC Residents Protest Plans To Double Trash Capacity At Local Landfill]

In a Tuesday interview, Irvine Mayor Larry Agran said the Bowerman Landfill isn’t going anywhere, but noted the city was working with the county to help find ways to lower impacts for residents like building a new freeway off ramp straight into the dump for trash trucks. 

“The odor problem, which is an intermittent occasional problem, has to be managed and dealt with and it will be,” Agran said. “We’re dealing with it all the time, working with the county on this and working on longer range landfill plans and so forth.” 

He also said he wants the county to explore long term alternatives to the Bowerman Landfill, including a trash train throughout Southern California to move waste to a larger, new landfill further away from populated areas. 

“In the immediate future, we want to be making sure that landfill practices are absolutely the best, the most protective of residents and others,” Agran said. 

Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.