Escondido Bakery Files Complaint About SDG&E, Mold

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10 News, San Diego

" He said the bakery fixed the problem at its own expense by adding mold

retardant chemicals to the bread, and filtering the air intakes at the bakery. "

ESCONDIDO, Calif. -- The baker of several brands of widely-available bread

has filed a formal complaint charging the San Diego Gas and Electric Company

with operating an electric-generating station that showers an industrial park

with excess humidity and airborne mold that ruined its product, it was

reported Saturday.

Bimbo Bakeries USA filed a complaint with the California Energy Commission,

saying it had to install expensive air filters and throw out thousands of

loaves of bread in order to control the problem, a local newspaper said.

The commercial bakery bakes 4.2 million rolls and loaves every month for

distribution across California, Arizona and Nevada from its bakery on Aldergrove

Avenue in Escondido.

Bimbo's brands include Orowheat, ' and Entenmann's, as well as its

namesake Bimbo, a popular white sandwich-style bread brand from Mexico.

Bimbo's complaint said the mold problems began when San Diego Gas and

Electric opened a new natural gas-fired power plant next to its bakery last

year.

The plant has a cooling tower that discharges 2 million gallons of water as

steam into the atmosphere every day next door to the bakery.

Bimbo said that grocers began returning moldy bread in increased numbers

shortly after the power plant started up a year ago.

" We think there's a link,'' company spokesman Marguiles told the

newspaper.

He said the bakery fixed the problem at its own expense by adding mold

retardant chemicals to the bread, and filtering the air intakes at the bakery.

The complaint also said the hot, moist air from the power plant caused a

large patch of mold to sprout on the bakery's roof, the newspaper reported.

A bakery manager said he took pictures of the cooling towers coated with

mold, which was pressure-washed off by utility employees.

A SDG & E spokesman told the newspaper that Bimbo had never contacted the

utility about the issue.

The hot, humid air that is released into the atmosphere is a byproduct of

the use of natural gas boilers to generate electricity.

The complaint, a state official said, caused regulators to delay approval

for SDG & E to install a new $10 million air intake chiller that the utility

wanted to install this summer, to improve efficiency.

The Energy Commission said it plans to send investigators to Escondido next

month.

Bimbo's complaint stressed that the moldy bread issue was solved last

summer.

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