L.A. County battery recycler on the verge of becoming California’s next Superfund site
By Tony Briscoe
Los Angeles Times (CA)
July 11, 2024 3 AM PT
A battery recycling plant in southeast Los Angeles County is one step closer to becoming a Superfund site after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined it contains enough hazardous waste to qualify and California officials welcomed federal assistance.
For nearly a century, the former Exide Technologies plant in Vernon melted down lead-acid car batteries, leaving as many as 10,000 properties coated in brain-damaging lead dust, according to state environmental regulators.
Since the facility declared bankruptcy, California has dedicated $750 million and overseen the cleanup of more than 5,000 lead-contaminated properties surrounding the Exide site. But, over the last two years, a coalition of federal and state lawmakers, including U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and the late Dianne Feinstein, have called for a Superfund designation in hopes that it might bring in federal funding that could help expedite the cleanup or potentially expand its scope.
An EPA report published last week concluded that the Exide site and surrounding communities meet the criteria to be a Superfund site — not for lead, but due to the presence of another toxic chemical.
The Exide facility also released trichloroethylene (TCE) — a known human carcinogen — into the soil, according to the EPA report. For decades, the highly mobile chemical has migrated deeper into the groundwater table and into local aquifers tapped for drinking water.
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For the entire article, see
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-07-11/la-county-battery-recycler-on-the-verge-of-becoming-california-next-superfund-site
—
Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)
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