The shuttered Exide Technologies in Vernon, responsible for a swath of lead and arsenic contamination stretching 1.7 miles in southeast Los Angeles County communities, is scheduled to be a Superfund site, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on Wednesday, Sept. 4.
Placing the heavily-polluted, former lead-acid battery recycling plant on the National Priorities List of Superfund sites would prioritize federal funds for permanent cleanup of the abandoned facility, as well as continued removal of toxic chemicals from thousands of nearby properties, authorities said.
The California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) estimates lead, arsenic and cadmium released by Exide during its decades of operation contaminated parks, schools and nearly 10,000 homes in the largely working-class Latino neighborhoods of Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles, Maywood, Huntington Park and Commerce. So far, the state has committed $700 million and cleaned up nearly half the affected homes.
“When finalized, the listing will provide access to federal funding and resources that EPA will utilize to take a more comprehensive approach to the contamination in the community,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman in a prepared statement.
The proposal will be brought before the public for comments from Sept. 5 until Nov. 4. Comments can be submitted online at www.regulations.gov and search docket number EPA-HQ-OLEM-2024-0376. Written comments can be mailed to: U.S. EPA, EPA Docket Center Superfund (EPA-HQ-OLEM-2024-0376), Mail Code 28221T, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC, 20460.
After the comments are reviewed, the EPA is expected to add Exide to the list of the most heavily polluted sites in America in the spring, said Michael Brogan, EPA spokesperson on Wednesday.
“We are almost there with this one. It is trending in the right direction,” said Brogan.
He said the relentless political pressure from the California Congressional delegation, Gov. Gavin Newsom and California EPA has moved this proposal forward, ever since the state kickstarted the process in July 2022 and EPA responded by pursuing rulemaking.
“There has been a lot of collaboration with the feds and with the state on this,” Brogan added.
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla visits an Exide cleanup where lead contaminated soil is being removed from a home on Esperanza Street in Los Angeles on Friday, June 9, 2023. Padilla is calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to designate the impacted neighborhoods a Superfund site. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis has represented the entire area for years and more recently East LA after redistricting. Solis, of the First District, who has fought for decades to expedite cleanup to make the area safer for residents, called it “a sore spot in the community” and a matter of upholding environmental justice.
She believes the designation will be finalized and new federal dollars could be used to finish the work started by the state and LA County.
“We still have another 5,000 homes to be cleaned up,” she said on Wednesday in an interview. “And the obligation to clean up the site — that hasn’t been touched.”
Exide closed its doors in 2015 as part of a nonprosecution agreement that allowed the company to avoid criminal charges. The lead battery recycling facility had operated for about 90 years at 2700 South Indiana Street.
In 2020, Exide filed for bankruptcy and a federal court and the Department of Justice allowed Exide to abandon the property without fulfilling the terms of the agreement, which required the company to demolish and clean up the shuttered facility.
Solis, who worked as President Barack Obama’s Secretary of Labor, blamed President Donald Trump for the DOJ agreement that left much cleanup work undone since 2020. The pending listing as a Superfund site will re-start remediation, she said.
“It is a big victory for the Biden-Harris administration,” she added.
Solis led people who lost loved ones to cancer, and those whose children tested positive for lead in their bodies to testify before committees on pollution and environmental justice in Sacramento, she said. “These toxins do grave damage to one’s system,” she added.
A study by USC in May 2019 found twice as much lead in the baby teeth of children near the facility as those in a similar study in Boston.
Soil samples from 8,000 properties collected by DTSC found the median concentration of lead in soil was 190 parts per million, well above the state threshold of 80 parts per million. Lead exposure can lead to developmental disabilities, cancer and other long-term health effects.
“We are really being harmed by the lack of cleanup,” Solis said.
The Superfund has 1,339 sites, where historic releases of hazardous pollutants or contaminants pose health threats to people and the environment, according to the EPA statement and its website.
In California, there are 96 sites on the list, according to the EPA Superfund website. These include: Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, San Diego County; Del Amo, Southern L.A. County; George Air Force Base, Victorville; Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA), Pasadena; Montrose Chemical Corp., Torrance; Norton Air Force Base, San Bernardino; Omega Chemical Corp, Whittier; Operating Industries, Inc. Landfill, Monterey Park; Pemaco, Maywood; ground water basins in the San Fernando Valley and San Gabriel Valley; Waste Disposal, Inc. Santa Fe Springs.
Staff Writer Jason Henry contributed to this report.
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Related links
Unable to fund Exide cleanup, state wants contaminated Vernon site added to federal Superfund list
Governor proposes $454 million to clean up Exide battery recycling plant
Exide Technologies to close Vernon battery recycling plant, pay $50 million for cleanup
California’s last-ditch effort to stop abandonment of toxic LA County plant fails
Exide could abandon contaminated Vernon site under proposed DOJ settlement