[5] The stream begins just south of 116th Street in Hawthorne and flows through El Camino Village, Gardena, Alondra Park, Torrance, Harbor Gateway, Carson,[6] and Wilmington, and empties into the East Basin of the Port of Los Angeles, in San Pedro Bay on the Pacific Ocean.

Lower Dominguez Channel, for the last few miles before reaching the ocean harbor, becomes an estuary mixing freshwater and ocean water together, overlying a wetland soil between uncemented boulder levees that serves as wildlife habitat and wildflower habitat for migratory native birds and native wetland vegetation.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District issued notices of violation to four companies connected to the warehouse in question.

[9] The warehouse was owned by Artnaturals, a cosmetics company that had not made hand sanitizer before the COVID-19 pandemic, but began making it due to the surge in demand for the product.

[6] During the initial two months, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works paid for more than 3,000 people to move into hotels who were experiencing symptoms and also provided 27,000 air purifiers to homes to mitigate the powerful odor.