Surely they've had to get new permits over time as their operations changed? And why didn't the presence of the plant prevent the town from growing around it?

There's a home 430 feet away from it. At that point you didn't even try to create a buffer zone.

Their operations have not changed very much. They have always made acrylic windshields for airplanes.

This area is zoned as an industrial park, which doesn't require buffer zones. Probably city planners at the time just thought of them as a windshield manufacturer and didn't realize the potential risks.

I can't link to it directly because Historic Aerials[1] hates direct links, but for those following along at home: The address of the leak seems to be 12122 Western Ave, Garden Grove, CA.

The leak itself seems to be centered around a round tank near a curve on a railroad, betwixt Lampson and Chapman avenues[2].

That plant and its tank, or a tank very similar similar to it, seems to have been built between between 1963 and 1972.

The houses near the tank were built prior to 1963. At that time when the houses were built nearby, the area where the plant is now located was undeveloped agricultural land.

Therefore, in this particular instance: It sure seems like they built the plant next to the neighborhood, instead of the people building houses next to the plant.

I'm reluctant to blame the homeowners, here -- at all. They were here first.

[1]: https://www.historicaerials.com/ -- awesome site, just not very compatible with WWW norms and never really has been

[2]: Google Maps direct link with current-ish aerials -- useful, at least, for orientation on Historic Aerials: https://www.google.com/maps/place/12122+Western+Ave,+Garden+...

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BIG FAT EDIT: I figured out how to get something close to useful, direct links to Historic Aerials.

Here's 1963. Note the presence of houses, and the absence of a manufacturing plant: https://www.historicaerials.com/location/33.7836372593042/-1...

Here's the same spot in 1972. Note that the houses are still there, and a manufacturing plant (with a tank!) has popped up to the West: https://www.historicaerials.com/location/33.7836372593042/-1...

This attitude is why all our manufacturing moved to China.

Why is the factory's fault that people built houses right up to the edge of of the industrial site? Are you seriously suggesting they should have been shut down because people decided to build houses near an established industrial plant?