Westminster officials are still grappling for reimbursement after responding to the chemical tank emergency officials say could’ve exploded in Garden Grove roughly a few months ago, when about 50,000 people were evacuated in North Orange County.
[Read: Thousands in North OC Remain Evacuated as Firefighters Find Potential Crack in Chemical Tank]
City Manager Christine Cordon said the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services – more commonly known as CalOES – denied the city’s reimbursement claim over the weekend.
“We are disappointed to see our request for CDAA [California Disaster Assistance Act] funding was denied,” Cordon said in a Tuesday text message to Voice of OC.
Cordon added that a significant number of Westminster residents were impacted by the evacuations.
“As the city with the third highest number of evacuees, our community was undoubtedly affected by the incident,” she said.
Officials at the Office of Emergency Services said Westminster wasn’t impacted enough to receive emergency funds, according to a letter provided by city officials.
“However, as a result of assessments conducted following the event, the determination was made the impacts from the Orange County Chemical Incident were not of such severity and magnitude to be beyond the capabilities of local government to respond to and recover from,” reads the letter signed by Robyn Fennig, a deputy director at CalOES.
“Therefore, the City of Westminster’s request for CDAA [California Disaster Assistance Act] funds to address the 2026 Orange County Chemical Incident is denied,” the letter continues.
Cordon questioned how state officials came to their conclusion.
“The reason for which we were denied raises a question as to how magnitude and severity are measured when considering impacts to life, safety, and peace of mind in local disaster situations.
State officials didn’t respond to questions about the decision before publication.
At Monday’s city council meeting, Cordon said Garden Grove is the only city to get state emergency funding for the chemical tank.
“At this time we hear that Garden Grove is the only city receiving funds for that,” she said during the Aug. 17 meeting.
Garden Grove city spokesman Johnathan Garcia said state officials approved the city’s reimbursement request, but a final amount hasn’t been decided yet.
“The final reimbursement amount has not been determined and will depend on eligible local government costs submitted by the City and approved through the CDAA [California Disaster Assistance Act] process,” Garcia said in an email Tuesday, after publication of this article.
Garcia added that the money can only be used to backfill municipal spending.
“CDAA assistance is intended to reimburse eligible costs incurred by local governments as a result of a disaster event, including certain emergency response costs; it is not an assistance program for individuals, households or businesses,” he said.
Westminster, along with Garden Grove, Stanton, Buena Park, Cypress and Anaheim were impacted by the chemical tank emergency at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove.
Stanton was severely impacted as the evacuation zone covered nearly the whole city at one point, while parts of all the other cities were under evacuation orders.
Officials in all six cities wrestled with getting residents to evacuation centers, coordinating transportation, closing streets and a host of other critical responses.
Scores of local businesses were also forced to close their doors during the emergency.
Like Westminster, officials in Stanton and Garden Grove have been grappling to get reimbursement for the cost of evacuations, staff overtime and a host of other spending stemming from the chemical tank emergency.
[Read: Garden Grove and Stanton Demand Accountability for Chemical Tank Emergency]
Last week, GKN Aerospace officials said they’re working to create a claim program for residents impacted by the chemical tank evacuations that could see some reimbursement for costs on things like hotel stays.
[Read: Residents Might Get Compensation for Garden Grove Chemical Tank Emergency]
“Providing compensation to people impacted by this incident is the right thing to do, but any claims program does not represent the full measure of accountability we expect from GKN,” Garden Grove Mayor Stephanie Klopfenstein said in a news release last week.
In the Tuesday text message, Cordon said local cities can’t bear the cost of such emergency responses.
“Cities are not generally equipped to respond to and recover from atypical situations such as the GKN incident, especially cities experiencing financial hardships or, in Westminster’s case, involuntarily affected.”
Spencer Custodio is the civic editor. You can reach him at scustodio@voiceofoc.org. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerCustodio.
