"On the worst days, Tamara Kcehowski said, she has thrown up when the stench from Los Angeles’ nearby sewage plant overwhelms her El Segundo apartment. She said her dog, Maggie, has even retched alongside her.
On the not-so-bad days, she says she often deals with a dull headache or burning eyes. Some mornings, she wakes up gagging or coughing.
None of this was part of Kcehowski’s life before July 2021, when major failures at the nearby Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant dumped millions of gallons of untreated sewage into Santa Monica Bay and released high levels of hydrogen sulfide, a gas that smells like rotten eggs and can cause health issues.
At the time, Kcehowski was hopeful the facility’s response would be swift and that her community would suffer the stinky mess for only a few days — or at worst a few weeks."
Grace Toohey reports for the Los Angeles Times December 16, 2024.
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