Quick Take
A study from researchers at San Jose State University’s Moss Landing Marine Laboratories estimates that nearly 55,000 pounds of heavy metals were dumped into soil near Elkhorn Slough following January’s Moss Landing battery fire. It's the first independent study of the fire’s impacts published in a scientific journal.
Researchers estimate nearly 55,000 pounds of heavy metals – chemicals highly toxic to animals, humans and aquatic life – have been dumped into the soil within a mile surrounding Elkhorn Slough following January’s massive blaze at a battery storage facility in Moss Landing.
The team of scientists from San Jose State University’s Moss Landing Marine Laboratories collected soil samples from more than 100 locations at Elkhorn Slough, an estuary just north of the Moss Landing battery facility. Researchers found high levels of nickel, manganese and cobalt – chemicals used in batteries stored in the plant – on the soil’s surface.
The recent study, led by Ivano Aiello, a marine biology professor at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, is the first independent study of the fire’s impact published in a scientific journal.
A 300-megawatt facility – the world’s largest battery facility – owned by Texas-based Vistra Corp. caught fire on Jan. 16. The dramatic blaze continued at the Monterey County plant, just a few miles south of the Santa Cruz County line, until Jan. 18. It flared up again a month later, on Feb. 18, and was finally extinguished a day later.
Health and safety concerns from residents near the plant and in Santa Cruz County, where a battery storage facility is being proposed outside Watsonville, have only continued to grow following the incident. Moss Landing residents filed a lawsuit against Vistra shortly after the blaze, alleging the company failed to implement adequate fire safety measures and reported having bloody noses, skin rashes and lung problems due to chemical exposure. The lawsuit has also gained support from environmental activist Erin Brockovich.
In July, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency authorized the removal and disposal of the lithium-ion batteries that were damaged in the January blaze, with Vistra responsible for paying. The battery-removal process is expected to take more than a year to complete. Damaged batteries are being taken to a recycling plant in Nevada.
Aiello estimates that roughly 2.2 million to 3 million pounds of burned battery materials could have been carried into the smoke plume caused by the fire. The soil samples from the marsh account for only about 2% of the chemicals released from the blaze, he told Lookout. The researchers were able to confirm that the samples were linked to the fire because the nickel-to-cobalt ratio matched the chemical discharge from batteries at the Moss Landing plant.
The team started to collect samples three days after fire crews were able to control the fire, Aiello said. He added that the debris from the burned batteries was visible on the ground, and the lab where he and his team work was covered in black soot. “There were burned things everywhere,” he said.
Researchers were able to detect and compare the high heavy metal concentrations in the soil because they already had baseline data – an initial set of measurements taken at the start of a study to establish a benchmark for comparison. Aiello said he had collected the data for a separate long-term project.
The study also found that the concentration of heavy metals on the surface of the soil dropped dramatically due to storms and tides. Aiello said it’s possible that the chemicals got picked up by runoff, ending up in waterways or in the ocean. His team has been measuring water quality for the past several months, but it’s not clear yet where the chemicals have been going.
Aiello said his colleagues are researching whether metals from the Moss Landing fire have affected the organisms living in Elkhorn Slough, by looking at the shellfish, crab and fish.
He added that the preliminary results show that heavy metals deposited from the batteries have moved into the food chain. But it’s still too early to see whether the levels pose any threats to the animals or people who might consume them, Aiello said.
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