The residents of Irwindale, CA have apparently just joined me as apparently the only people in America who think Sriracha is overrated crapsauce.
Apparently, Irwindale residents have been complaining for months that pollution from the factory has been producing unpleasant odors and burning eyes among anyone living even remotely near it. Yesterday, however, the City Council voted unanimously to declare the Huy Fong Foods Sriracha factory a “public nuisance.” I mean, personally I consider it a national public nuisance that everything apparently now has to be flavored with what tastes like fermented paprika and rooster semen, but that’s another matter entirely.
The move gives Huy Fong Foods 90 days to sort out its odor issues before city officials will be allowed to go into the factory and just start sorting shit out themselves. In the interest of fairness, it’s worth noting that the South Coast Air Quality Management District doesn’t think there’s enough of a public nuisance to warrant direction action, and a judge in the case declared last fall that there was a “lack of credible evidence” that the factory was linked to resident-reported ailments like burning eyes and headaches. Still, environmental protections have eroded in recent years to allow things like this and also this to happen, so you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t trust the American legal apparatus to protect US citizens from pollutants.
No word yet on whether the City Council’s resolution that Sriracha is “icky yucky boo-boo” will have any long-term legal ramifications.
Image via AP.