Exide lead contamination

Pallet of scrap lead-acid automotive batteries ready to be recycled

The Exide lead contamination, in southeast Los Angeles County, California, United States, came from a battery recycling plant that emitted lead, arsenic and other dangerous pollutants over decades that contaminated as many as 10,000 homes in half a dozen working-class, Latino communities near the plant. The residents have expressed outrage over the failure of state regulators to act as the plant was allowed to operate without a full permit while documented violations were occurring. Exide Technologies, owner of the lead-acid battery smelter located in Vernon, agreed in 2015 to close the facility while the massive cleanup of the contaminated soil will take years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars.[1]

Background

Recycling lead in a lead-acid battery recovery facility

Lead-acid batteries are used in automobiles, golf carts, fork-lifts, and motorcycles. They are recycled by grinding them open, neutralizing the acid, and separating the polymers from the lead. In the US, 97 percent of the lead from car batteries is recycled which is the highest recycling rate for any commodity. Most states require stores to take back old batteries.[2]

The 15-acre battery recycling plant (6.1 ha) was issued an “interim status document” by the California Department of Health Services in 1981. Exide took ownership of the plant when they purchased the Gould-National Battery and its assets in 2000.[3] [4]

Reverb Furnace Feedstock Room of the Exide Technologies' Vernon, Calif. facility

Environmental impact

The soil beneath the facility has been polluted with high levels of lead, arsenic, cadmium and other toxic metals. The groundwater was also polluted from the operation of the plant and battery acid drained onto public streets. Lead emissions contaminated homes and yards in surrounding communities.[4] Residents had long been concerned about the air pollution from the plant and now were finding out that their children may have acquired lead poisoning from playing outdoors. Lead is a potent neurotoxin that puts children at-risk for learning disabilities, lower IQs and other developmental problems.[1]

Clean-up

DTSC Preliminary Area of Investigation map

The residents of two neighborhoods in Boyle Heights and Maywood were notified that they could have their soil tested for lead after being identified by the South Coast Air Quality Management District as the communities most likely to have been contaminated by the lead emissions. Nineteen homes received first priority for cleanup starting in December 2014 based on the test results.[5]

The cleanup of the soil contaminated with lead is being overseen by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.[6] In August 2015 after contaminated soil removed and replaced at 146 of the homes closest to the facility in Maywood and Boyle Heights, the department announced that soil testing had shown that the toxic dust had deposited lead in as many as 10,000 homes. The decades of air pollution from the Exide Technologies facility had potentially also contaminated the nearby communities of East Los Angeles, Commerce, Bell, and Huntington Park. They said that the department had not previously been involved in a lead cleanup case in which the number of properties was this high.[7]

In October 2015 the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, frustrated with the slow pace by state, designated $2 million to “facilitate" the cleanup effort by hiring contractors and consultants, performing soil testing at 1,000 homes during the following two months, and sending community outreach workers to neighborhoods around the plant. A timeline and stategy was also included in the resolution to force state regulators, Exide "and other responsible parties to fully fund and undertake this cleanup.” The state had used all but $1 million of $9 million Exide placed in a trust fund for residential cleanup.[8] The state had also dedicated about $7 million to test and clean up homes in 2015.[6]

State legislators held an informational hearing at the Capitol on January 26, 2016. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) said the Department of Toxic Substances Control "has not done a good job" and also that he would urge officials to act more urgently on the clean-up. Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez (D-Echo Park) commented on the rapid mobilization for the Porter Ranch gas leak near a wealthier community while the slow progress in these neighborhoods where most residents are Latino and low-income should be disheartening to all legislators. Gomez said "We don't want to send the wrong message. That if you live ... in Porter Ranch that you're more important than the folks that live in East ... or Southeast Los Angeles."[6]

References

  1. 1 2 Barboza, Tony (December 21, 2015). "How a battery recycler contaminated L.A.-area homes for decades". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  2. ↑ Rosenthal, Elisabeth; Lehren, Andrew W.; Zabludovsky, Karla & Agren, David (8 Dec 2011), "Lead From Old U.S. Batteries Sent to Mexico Raises Risks", The New York Times, retrieved 5 February 2016
  3. ↑ "Timeline: Exide's run-ins with regulators". Southern California Public Radio. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
  4. 1 2 Vives, Ruben & Grad, Shelby (March 12, 2015). "Q&A: Exide closure a long-sought win for working-class neighborhood". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  5. ↑ Larkin, Michael & Guinyard, Toni (December 5, 2014). "Second Phase of Exide Recycling Plant Cleanup Begins". NBC Southern California. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 Mason, Melanie (January 26, 2016). "L.A.-area and state officials call for quicker cleanup of Exide plant contamination". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  7. ↑ Barboza, Tony (August 18, 2015). "Exide cleanup: Toxic lead removal could be California's biggest yet". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  8. ↑ Barboza, Tony (October 27, 2015). "Exide cleanup: L.A. County approves $2 million to speed lead removal at homes". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 7 February 2016.

External links

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Coordinates: 34°0′19″N 118°11′36″W / 34.00528°N 118.19333°W / 34.00528; -118.19333

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