At some point over the past several years you’ve probably heard something about the Exide battery plant pollution in Los Angles California. The plant and its operations have been a source of controversy in L.A. for years. As you can see by clicking this link, which will take you to a compilation of news stories about the plant from the past 4 years, there is no shortage of coverage on this issue.
To the relief of many, the plant was shut down in 2015, but the surrounding area was left heavily contaminated with lead (http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-exide-plant-closure-20150312-story.html). The contaminated area spans nearly 2 miles around the plant, according to the state (https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/07/10/after-decades-of-pollution-state-details-cleanup-from-l-a-s-exide-battery-plant/). If you click on this link you can look at a map of area surrounding that plant and see the corresponding lead concentration amounts. Much of the area has lead concentration levels of over 1,000ppm!
Earlier this month the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) in California released a plan for a massive cleanup effort that will begin with the most heavily contaminated areas (https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/07/10/after-decades-of-pollution-state-details-cleanup-from-l-a-s-exide-battery-plant/). This cleanup will be one of the biggest industrial waste cleanup projects in the country, but as of right now the budget of just over $176 million is only enough to actually complete one quarter of the cleanup needed. The estimated cost of cleanup is around $500 million, of which Exide is only required to pay $26million (https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/07/10/after-decades-of-pollution-state-details-cleanup-from-l-a-s-exide-battery-plant/).
It appears that this issue will continue to be a point of contention in the L.A. area for some time to come. After years of lead exposure and sickness, the people who live in contaminated areas now have to wait for the cleanup to begin and hope that more funds are allocated to the effort so that they can begin to feel safe again.
Exide isn’t going to be winning any prizes for their commitment to the environment any time soon, and they are definitely not good neighbors. This year alone they have already been fined for pollution at their Columbus, GA plant (http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/local/article160505644.html) and battery chips were found improperly disposed of on the land where their, now closed, Frisco, TX plant was (https://www.dallasnews.com/news/frisco/2017/06/29/frisco-raises-concerns-lead-tainted-battery-chips-found-defunct-exide-plant). It seems that Exide needs to focus on cleaning up their act, in addition to cleaning up their messes.
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