The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday, Sept. 10 to send a message to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to officially list the shuttered Exide lead-acid battery plant in Vernon as a Superfund site.
The EPA’s pending listing proposed earlier this month requires the agency to collect comments and determine whether or not the site should be officially listed.
The supervisors hope their letter will convince the national environmental agency to mark the heavily-polluted plant with the dubious distinction. It is located near the working-class Latino neighborhoods of Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles, Maywood, Huntington Park and Commerce.
Joining 1,339 of the most hazardous pollution sites in the nation may mean federal dollars could flow and be used to tear down the Exide buildings and strip the lead from soil near homes as far as 1.7 miles away, while removing cancer-causing toxins from the groundwater.
“The families impacted by the Exide disaster have faced one indignity after another.” said Fourth District Supervisor Janice Hahn, who co-authored a motion with First District Supervisor Hilda Solis to send a letter to the EPA. It passed unanimously. “Home should be our safest place, but instead their homes were marred by toxic contamination,” Hahn said. “And to add insult to injury, there are serious concerns about the pace, efficacy and scale of the state’s cleanup efforts.”
Supervisor Janice Hahn and Supervisor Hilda Solis (wearing pink), visit a home near the Exide plant in Vernon that was undergoing cleanup last year. (courtesy photo)
After the county and state requested the listing in 2022, the EPA did more study to see if the site met two essential criteria: pollution that harms people and the environment, and a site that has been abandoned with no resources to pay for cleanup.
A June 2024 study by EPA found toxins had seeped into a nearby groundwater monitoring well, which is connected with four underground water aquifers within two miles of the plant. These water sources feed into 17 active drinking water wells and serve about 133,000 people.
The EPA found levels of a degreasing agent, trichloroethylene (TCE), at 47 parts per billion in the monitoring well at the facility. This is almost 10 times higher than the maximum TCE level allowed by the federal government in drinking water, which is 5 parts per billion.
TCE is carcinogenic to humans and can cause kidney cancer, liver cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. It may affect the central nervous system, immune system and reproductive system, according to the National Institutes of Health in a 20-year summary of studies on TCE exposures.
In addition, the Exide plant committed more than 80 violations for contaminating the air and soil of nearby neighborhoods before the plant closed in 2015.
Soil samples from 8,000 properties collected by the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (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 — a byproduct of breaking down lead-acid car batteries — can cause developmental disabilities, cancer and other long-term health effects.
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.
Exide closed as part of a non-prosecution 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 and “contaminated the groundwater, soil and air with a flagrant disregard for environmental laws,” read the motion.
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 the shuttered facility and clean the surroundings.
Putting Exide on the Superfund list could fill the void left by the settlement that failed to provide enough money to clean up the plant and address soil and groundwater contamination, the motion stated.
“Securing the Superfund designation will mean that the federal government grasps what we’ve already known: that this problem is urgent and that these communities deserve better. It is not just about cleaning up contamination; it’s about restoring dignity for these communities,” Hahn said.
With funds from the plant gone, the supervisors are looking for federal dollars, as often is the case with Superfund sites. So far the state has spent $772.8 million on cleanup but that was not enough to finish the job, Solis said.
It was estimated by the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) that during its decades of operation Exide contaminated parks, schools and nearly 10,000 homes in southeast L.A. County communities with lead, arsenic, cadmium and other toxic pollutants.
“We still have another 5,000 homes to be cleaned up,” Solis said last week in an interview. “And the obligation to clean up the site — that hasn’t been touched.”
The proposed listing is currently in the standard 60-day public comment period required of all proposed additions to the National Priorities List (NPL). EPA must read all comments before making a final decision.
Comments can be submitted until Nov. 4 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.
SCNG Staff Writer Jason Henry contributed to this article.
Related links
9 years after closure, Exide plant in Vernon proposed as Superfund site by EPA
California’s last-ditch effort to stop abandonment of toxic LA County plant fails
Unable to fund Exide cleanup, state wants contaminated Vernon site added to federal Superfund list
Exide could abandon contaminated Vernon site under proposed DOJ settlement
Lead found in baby teeth of children who lived near Exide battery plant in Vernon