Quick Take
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is gearing up to begin the next phase of its Moss Landing cleanup efforts, following a massive January 2025 fire that damaged a large portion of a battery storage facility.
Cleanup efforts at the Moss Landing battery storage plant following last year’s massive fire that burned a portion of the facility are expected to move into the next phase by summer’s end, according to officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
In this next phase, crews will be focused on removing the remaining subset of batteries, battery ash and debris for proper disposal and, ultimately, the complete demolition of the building damaged by the blaze.
An EPA spokesperson told Lookout via email that Phase 2 will also include a “more targeted effort” to address the remaining asbestos in the building’s materials. Both the EPA and Vistra Energy, which owns the Moss Landing facility, anticipate that there are 5,000 additional intact batteries that need to be removed.
This part of the cleanup will be “more complex,” as crews are dealing with the structurally unsound portion of the building and damaged batteries affected by fire and water.
Nearby residents will most likely see a “limited amount of smoke” when the most damaged and inaccessible batteries are removed from the site, according to the EPA website. There will be water tanks and sprayers, and additional equipment to control the smoke from damaged batteries on site.
The federal agency will also continue to oversee air monitoring and sampling operations, and will continuously provide updates to Monterey County officials, according to the EPA spokesperson.
This phase of the cleanup is expected to last through early 2027.
The 300-megawatt facility — the world’s second-largest battery storage site — caught fire on Jan. 16, 2025. The facility contained 100,000 lithium-ion batteries, and nearly 55% of the batteries were damaged after the incident.
An investigation into the root cause of the Moss Landing fire is currently ongoing and being conducted by an independent consultant, according to the California Public Utilities Commission. There is no timeline of when that investigation will be complete.
So far, there have been 34,316 intact batteries removed from the site, and of that number, there are roughly 145 batteries currently being de-energized and prepped for recycling. Batteries have been taken to a recycling facility in Ohio.
The EPA continues to oversee cleanup efforts at the facility, which is owned by Texas-based Vistra Energy. The federal agency and the company reached an agreement in 2025 to begin the battery removal process, with Vistra footing the bill for removing and disposing of lithium-ion batteries damaged in last year’s blaze.
During Phase 1 of the cleanup, crews have been safely removing intact batteries to reduce the risk of another fire and sending them to get recycled. Fire debris containing asbestos was also removed and disposed of from the facility.
Firefighting and storm water stored in tanks on the property, which were sampled by the federal agency, were sent off-site for proper disposal after it was determined to be “non-hazardous.”
Concerns surrounding battery storage systems grew in Santa Cruz County soon after the fire — especially as residents learned about a proposal for a facility in Watsonville.
New Leaf Energy, a Massachusetts-based developer behind the $200 million project, submitted an application to Santa Cruz County just weeks before the Moss Landing fire. The company recently withdrew its application with the county, opting to seek project approval through the California Energy Commission.
That project aims to reduce the number of power outages in the area and support the local power grid, according to Max Christian, a senior developer for New Leaf. The company has maintained that batteries used for its project will be safer than the ones used at the Moss Landing site.
However, many residents remain skeptical of those claims and continue to organize against the project, citing safety concerns and the proximity of the proposed facility to homes.
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