High levels of toxic heavy metals found in soil at Elkhorn Slough Reserve following Moss Landing fire

Researchers say they have detected high concentrations of heavy metal nanoparticles — chemicals highly toxic to humans, animals and aquatic life — in the soil at the Elkhorn Slough Reserve following a Jan. 16 fire at a 300-megawatt battery storage facility in Moss Landing.

The team of researchers from San Jose State University’s Moss Landing Marine Laboratories found high levels of nickel, manganese and cobalt in soil at the Elkhorn Slough Reserve, according to a news release published on Monterey County’s Instagram page Monday afternoon.

These nanoparticles are typically found in lithium-ion batteries, like the one at the Moss Landing facility, located in northern Monterey County, just south of the Santa Cruz County line. The chemicals can potentially affect local aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems as they move through the environment, the release said. 

Ivano Aiello, professor and chair of SJSU’s Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, said he surveyed the soil at the Elkhorn Slough Reserve, adjacent to the battery storage facility, for four days following the fire. 

The big question, said Aiello, is how these metals will affect the ecosystem. Nickel, manganese and cobalt are very toxic to aquatic and land animals, including humans. “​​This is unprecedented because a fire of this size on a facility of this size never happened, to my knowledge,” he said. 

“What we need to understand is how these metals will interact with the ecosystem and the environment,” Aiello said. “The metals are going to start combining with other chemicals and eventually become part of the food web. Those are the things that we need to monitor very accurately in the next days, weeks, months and years.” 

Assemblymember Dawn Addis, whose 30th District spans parts of Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties, told Lookout it’s scary to know that these heavy metals have been put into the environment. She said she’s heard from some constituents complaining of rashes and headaches following the fire. 

“We shouldn’t have lithium that can catch on fire next to an estuary and next to prime agricultural lands and near homes and schools,” she said. 

Community input needs to be a part of the permitting process for future battery facilities in the state, Addis said, and the information shared by the SJSU scientists is important for the community to have. 

Addis introduced Assembly Bill 303 earlier this month that would improve safety standards and restore local oversight for battery storage facilities in the state. The California Public Utilities Commission announced Monday that it would implement Senate Bill 1383, which would establish new standards for maintenance and operation of battery storage facilities and increase oversight for emergency response action plans. The state agency has also initiated an investigation on Texas-based Vistra Corp., owner of the Moss Landing facility. 

Last week, Monterey County officials said the fire did not affect air quality in the area and posed no health risks, amid concerns from residents. David Sanford, agricultural commissioner for Santa Cruz County, told Lookout that growers in South County have not experienced any impacts following the fire.

“We haven’t heard from any growers or agricultural property operators about [the fire],” Sanford said. He added that he sent department staff to talk to growers and see if there were any visible impacts to agriculture fields and workers. 

The fire, which burned for several days at the world’s largest battery storage facility, has raised safety concerns among local officials in Santa Cruz County as a similar project is being proposed outside of Watsonville. 

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors will receive an update on the fire by Monterey County officials and Vistra, the company overseeing the battery facility, at Tuesday’s board meeting, according to County Supervisor Manu Koenig’s newsletter Monday afternoon. 

The board of supervisors will not be taking a vote on the proposed battery storage facility in Watsonville, Koenig clarified in his newsletter. The project will not go up for a vote until later this year. The board asked county planning staff to determine whether the county would have to rezone agricultural land in the area and about potential changes to the county’s general plan to include projects like the one proposed in South County. 

“Clearly there are many questions that still need to be answered about the Moss Landing fire – primarily how we are testing for heavy metals and other contaminants that may have settled from the smoke into the surrounding area,” Koenig wrote in his newsletter. 

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