Cinema News

The toxic legacy of a metal scrapyard in Watts

March 5, 2026 | View in browser

By Tony Briscoe

Staff Writer

Welcome to Boiling Point! My name is Tony Briscoe. I'm the Los Angeles Times' air quality and environmental health reporter. In Southern California, the fight to breathe clean air can be a long and grueling road.

S&W Atlas Iron & Metal, a scrap metal recycling facility with a checkered history, in Watts.

When a Los Angeles County judge ordered a notorious Watts scrap metal yard to permanently halt its operations last year, many residents and environmental advocates thought it might finally bring an end to the facility's dangerous pollution. Instead, the shutdown may have only marked the beginning of what could be a lengthy process to erase decades of environmental degradation.

For nearly 75 years, S&W Atlas Iron & Metal had crushed car parts, shredded aluminum cans and processed an assortment of recyclable metals. Over that time, the facility and its owners racked up dozens of environmental violations and were eventually criminally convicted of crimes that endangered students next door at Jordan High School and residents of Watts.

Since Atlas' court-ordered closure, the towering piles of scrap metal have largely disappeared from the 3-acre recycling facility. Jordan High's campus hasn't been rocked by explosions, pelted with shrapnel or blanketed in layers of toxic, metallic dust.

But one of the most serious, and remaining, threats has gone unnoticed until recently.

A contractor hired by Atlas recently measured a witch's brew of toxic chemicals percolating in the soil and groundwater beneath the site at orders of magnitude above California's standards, according to court documents. Around five feet underground, a soil probe detected the highest reading of vinyl chloride — just one of the several carcinogens at the site — more than 1.3 million times higher than the state benchmark.

"What they found were astronomical levels of these contaminants," said Danielle Hoague, director of research for the Better Watts Initiative.

"I think it's definitely a hidden danger. I don't think that the community has been informed of what underlies Atlas. But I would assume that people are experiencing the health effects of this."

State regulators are still hashing out the scope of the cleanup at the shuttered industrial site. But, more concerning, Watts residents and school district officials fear these contaminants may be migrating with groundwater, posing a risk to neighboring Jordan High School and Jordan Downs housing complex. If that is the case, the question is who will foot the bill to clean up this pollution?

"The cleanup of the Atlas site has been slow, and Atlas is proceeding with a lack of executed urgency," an L.A. Unified School District spokesperson said in a statement.

Atlas "has failed to advise Los Angeles Unified promptly of contamination found just feet away from the school campus and the adjacent Jordan Downs Housing Development," the spokesperson added.

Shutting down a source of pollution is only the first step in campaigns for cleaner air. It's often equally burdensome, time-consuming and expensive to hold polluters accountable for cleaning up the legacy contamination at their own property. And it's even more difficult to compel companies to decontaminate nearby properties that may have been affected by their operations.

In Lincoln Heights, decades passed after the closure of a massive dry-cleaning operation before residents learned of underground contamination spreading off-site, potentially threatening nearby homes and an elementary school. In Newport Beach, a sprawling aerospace and defense hub was converted into luxury homes three decades ago, and homeowners were only recently informed about residual toxic pollution. In Jurupa Valley, residents were alarmed to learn about toxic vapors seeping into their homes after contaminated groundwater migrated several miles from a former hazardous waste dump uphill.

In Watts, many residents were already aware of the danger posed by toxic metals produced by Atlas' operations. At times, metallic dust left parts of Jordan High's campus covered in an iridescent sheen, and the school district has in the past removed contaminated soil from the campus.

But it was far more difficult to predict that pollution could be spreading underground. Many of the chemicals found beneath Atlas evaporate at room temperature and sneak into buildings through cracks in foundations, floor drains or other gaps — a process known as vapor intrusion.

Over the past year, an LAUSD consultant conducted two rounds of air sampling at Jordan High. The levels of airborne chemicals the detected in gym's basement suggest toxic vapors are infiltrating the building. However, the consultant has said more air sampling is necessary to determine whether it constitutes an unacceptable health risk.

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So far, the district says the concentrations have not warranted closing school buildings yet.

In the meantime, the school district is pleading with the state regulators to get Atlas to commit to cleaning up the toxic fallout.

A Los Angeles County judge recently ordered an audit of Atlas' finances, raising doubts about the company's ability to pay potential damages.

But community leaders, like Timothy Watkins, president of the Watts Labor Community Action Committee, won't be satisfied until the case moves from courtroom to cleanup.

"There's no champion for us. So we have to find a way — with very, very limited resources — to get our story out in a way that begins to raise some kind of alarm and awareness of the danger here."

More recent air news

New research suggests some air pollutants can significantly alter insect behavior, science journalist Gennaro Tomma writes in National Geographic. Smog-forming emissions can interfere with insect communication by breaking down pheromones, causing ant colonies to exhibit aggression toward their own members and neglect their larvae.

The Trump administration reversed a Biden-era rule limiting brain-damaging mercury emissions from coal plants, arguing compliance costs threatened energy reliability, Guardian environmental reporter Oliver Milman writes. The rollback allows some of the coal plants to avoid expensive upgrades, sparking debate over the trade-off between economic concerns and public health risks.

The California Air Resources Board set an Aug. 10 deadline for some of the nation's largest companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Sacramento Bee's climate reporter Chaewon Chung. A pair of state laws enacted in 2023 required companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenue to adhere to the reporting requirements.

In other climate news

As Western states brace for deep cuts to their allotments of Colorado River water, one California water agency may be in a position to help. San Diego County Water Authority's board recently voted to consider selling a portion of its water to Arizona and Nevada, reports Ian James for the LA. Times. The San Diego area is home to the nation's largest desalination plant, allowing the agency to rely less on unpredictable reservoirs.

The escalating war in the Middle East has triggered the biggest oil and gas market disruption since 2022, driving a surge in energy prices and forcing a re-evaluation of energy security, Bloomberg reports. While high prices could bolster the case for deploying renewable energy, experts warn that worsening inflation — from higher energy costs — could ironically hamper the shift to clean energy.

A Southern California architect is challenging the notion that wildfire-resistant designs can't also be visually stunning. L.A. Times wildfire reporter Noah Haggerty interviewed a Palisades fire survivor who is so confident about the design of his newly constructed Spanish-revival home, he asked the fire department if he could spark a controlled fire on his property.

This is the latest edition of Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment in the American West. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. And listen to our Boiling Point podcast here.

For more air quality news, follow Tony Briscoe on X and LinkedIn.

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Texas, 2028 and Newsom

March 5, 2026 | View in browser

By Anita Chabria

Columnist

Hello and happy Thursday. I'm Times columnist Anita Chabria coming to you from the safety of Sacramento, where the current election cycle remains boring. But the Lone Star State, that's a different story.

Texas has voted in its primary, one of the earliest glimpses into the 2028 presidential election, and be certain that Gov. Gavin Newsom and every presidential contender were watching closely.

What did our Oval Office hopefuls learn?

Democrats want a hug. Republicans want a fight. Billionaires don't care about anything but themselves.

Let's break that down.

Dems love the soft sell

One of the great debates within the Democratic Party right now is whether the average voter wants a middle ground, or a bold progressive agenda.

Healthcare for all or just keep Republicans from killing off Obamacare? Forgive student loans or just prevent universities from caving to censorship and maybe bring down tuition costs while you're at it?

While some, like our own Newsom, are framing this divide as a need to step away from so-called culture war issues (I hate that term because we're really talking about civil rights), it's more about voter anxiety and exhaustion than actually wanting regressive policy.

The Texas win by can't-we-all-just-get-along state Rep. James Talarico over burn-it-down U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) seems on the surface to provide a clue that voters want moderation in 2028. Crockett lost, pretty resoundingly, especially with white and Latino voters.

But the truth here is that that divide was really more about style than substance. Scratch the surface, and both Crockett and Talarico hold some pretty lefty positions, including healthcare for all, albeit in slightly different forms.

Leaving aside the obvious (and important) race lines that defined this battle (Crockett won among Black voters), the lesson might be that Democrats are scared and tired and want comfort — a big rhetorical embrace of unity.

They haven't lost their desire for things like universal healthcare, but also just want more talk about a future of America that isn't apocalyptic.

Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian with a class-based message meant to appeal to moderates, was full of soothing optimism. His positions are left, but his speeches are like butter melting on warm bread.

"Loving your enemy is not just morally good, it is not just idealistic. It is good strategic advice," he said.

It was a winning taste of that sweet, lost America — the land of hope and dreams — that existed before President Trump made hate the norm.

MAGA goes more MAGA

In Republican news, the big primary of the night was the race between the four-term incumbent, Sen. John Cornyn, and his mega-MAGA challenger, Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton (with Rep. Wesley Hunt a distant third).

Cornyn squeaked out a win but since neither of them scored more than 50% of the vote, they go to a May runoff to determine who will face Talarico in the general election.

This was a race about how far Republican voters were willing to go to the right. While Cornyn is hardly a moderate by most standards, he is considered an establishment Republican.

Paxton, on the other hand, can't get enough of Trump. After the 2020 election, which Trump lost, Paxton went hard on the false voter fraud conspiracy. He brought a case to the Supreme Court attempting to have Pennsylvania's vote thrown out so Trump could claim victory. When that didn't work, he ended up speaking at the Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington.

His politics come out of the tea party movement, and are ultra-conservative. When Roe vs. Wade was overturned, he gave his staff a paid day off. He's sued to stop women from having lifesaving abortions since then, and continues to pound the voter fraud drum, especially when it comes to voters of color.

And, in typical MAGA fashion, he comes with a multitude of scandals that none of his supporters seem to care about. He's been accused of bribery and securities fraud, among other allegations, and not long ago his wife filed for divorce on "biblical grounds."

I tell you all this because he almost won. And still might.

The only reason Cornyn avoided being trounced was money, money and more money. Establishment Republicans poured cash into this campaign like firefighters dousing a blaze. It should give folks pause that even with outspending Cornyn by vast sums (more than 70 million), Paxton came close with Republican voters.

Still, establishment Republicans, and those who care about winning over loyalty, are standing behind Cornyn because in the general election, he has a better chance of attracting moderate voters (though a Democratic win here is still a long shot).

But like all things in the Republican Party these days, this decision will come down to what Trump wants. Wednesday, Trump posted on social media that he will make an endorsement in this race soon, something he avoided doing in the primary.

"My Endorsements within the Republican Party have been virtually insurmountable!" he wrote, and for once he's not lying. "I will be making my Endorsement soon, and will be asking the candidate that I don't Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE!"

So, when Trump decides who Republicans can vote for, I'll let you know.

What about that AI money?

Lucky for Trump, most AI billionaires (Anthropic's Dario Amodei perhaps excluded) now love him for his pay-as-you-go approach to federal policies on the industry.

But that doesn't mean that these titans of our tomorrow are leaving their futures in the Orange Man's hands. Crazy sums of AI money were dumped into Texas and other states for these primaries, and it was just the beginning.

Super PAC Leading the Future, funded by OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, his wife, venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Benjamin Horowitz and others, backed state candidates who don't back state AI regulation.

Public First, a super PAC funded in part by Amodei, backed candidates who want more regulation at both the state and federal levels.

And not to be outdone, California-based tech giant Meta, has at least four super PACs funded with about $65 million, fighting against candidates of either party who back state regulations on artificial intelligence.

But please don't expect a single ad on the issue of artificial intelligence now or, well, ever, coming from these guys. Oh no, the masters of the algorithm know us too well. Instead, all that money will be used to talk about the economy, the price of butter, literally anything other than AI.

So voters, it's on you to pay attention to the only thing that really ever matters in politics — where the money is coming from, and where it's pushing you to go.

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