Watts community leaders outline longstanding environmental health concerns during ‘toxic tour’

WATTS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Aboard a tour bus, Tim Watkins, president and CEO of Watts Labor Community Action Committee showed the mayor of Los Angeles, the LAUSD superintendent and other city leaders around Watts. Watkins called it a “toxic tour.”

“Since Watts is in the 99th percentile of toxicity in Southern California communities,” said Watkins. “It just sort of amplifies the fact that the whole community has been poisoned.”

At more than a dozen locations, Watkins pointed out the blight, illegal dumping, pollution and contamination.

“I’ve found that Watts has historically been an area where a lot of wartime industries were,” said Megan Wong, researcher with the Better Watts Initiative. “That means that there has been bomb manufacturing facilities, transportation, manufacturing facilities, lead smelters. All of these different industries have been found to be in Watts, and it has produced a lot of lead that has been polluted into the soil,” Wong said.

In 2023, the Better Watts Initiative collected water samples and found much higher levels of lead than what the EPA deems as normal. City leaders have since taken action toward for further investigation and remediation.

“What’s at stake is people’s health,” said Dani Hoague, PhD candidate and researcher at BWI.

This was the second iteration of the tour. The first was nearly three years ago. “Not much has changed,” said Watkins while explaining the importance of hosting the tour again.

One notable change is at Atlas Iron and Metal. The recycling plant neighboring Jordan High School was prosecuted over unlawful disposal of hazardous waste. It has now been forced to permanently close.

“What I saw through Atlas, and now what I’ve seen once again, through today’s toxic tour of Watts, reinforces my fundamental belief that government needs to do better in collaboration, in a strategic way, with community advocates, to bring a balanced, systemic change in the Watts community,” said Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Watkins is not short of ideas. He would like to see Atlas let go of the property. LAUSD would have right of first refusal. “Put the land in a land trust for the people of Watts,” said Watkins.

He envisions a brighter future for the community. Which is why the next WLCAC initiative is called 2000 Watts. The organization proposes the development of 2000 units of new and affordable housing on 10 acres of vacant land known as the Lanzit site.

“What I’m hoping to do is to create a walk-to-work light industrial-green space for the community that you not only work there but you seek respite, you seek solace in that space,” said Watkins.