Posts filed under Exide Vernon Plant

Exide faces a long, costly cleanup of closed Vernon plant - L.A. Times

Community members gather at an Eastside home to celebrate the Exide agreement. Residents want the company to follow through on the cleanup of lead in their neighborhoods and homes.

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

The deal federal prosecutors struck with Exide Technologies this month to permanently close its battery recycling plant in Vernon and avoid criminal charges marks the beginning of a long and costly cleanup. The plant leaves behind decades' worth of pollution and hazardous waste, along with many questions about how the mess will be taken care of.

Who will oversee the cleanup and how long will it take?

Soil and blood testing in Boyle Heights, Maywood

Exide's March 11 agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office requires it to spend at least $50 million to demolish and clean the 15-acre facility that had melted down lead from used car batteries and other sources since 1922, releasing dangerous pollutants into the air. The company must also remove lead contamination from hundreds of homes in southeast Los Angeles County.

The state Department of Toxic Substances Control will supervise the cleanup under a separate agreement with Exide. Once work begins, officials estimate it will take about two years for the company to remove buildings and other structures. It will take at least two more years to study the extent of contamination at the Vernon site and clean it.

State officials do not know how long it will take to remove lead-contaminated soil from homes near the plant. Since last August, crews have cleaned soil from about 40 of more than 150 properties where elevated lead levels have been found. Each yard takes about a week and costs about $45,000 to clean.

How much will it cost and who will pay?

Closing and cleaning the Exide plant site will cost at least $38.6 million, and probably more, state officials say. Cleaning nearby homes will cost at least $9 million. Both efforts will be paid for by Georgia-based Exide, which is expected to emerge from bankruptcy at the end of the month.

Exide is required to put most of the cleanup money into trust funds in a series of payments over the next five years. The company has paid about $16 million so far.

After an October 2013 inspection by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, regulators wrote that "Water which leaked from the 40-foot trailers appeared to puddle over a period of time." (California Department of Toxic Substances Control)


Exide's troubled history: years of pollution violations but few penalties

State and federal officials say their agreements with Exide, designed to prevent the company's liquidation, require it to pay for the full cleanup, no matter the cost.

Which homes will be cleaned?

The state toxics department is focusing on 217 properties in parts of Boyle Heights and Maywood that air modeling shows are most likely to be affected by Exide's emissions. Officials have promised to clean any home in those areas with lead levels above 80 parts per million, based on a composite from multiple soil samples at each property.

Crews have tested an additional 144 homes in an expanded, two-square-mile area of southeast L.A. County. But the department said it has not finished evaluating those results, and officials would not say whether homes in that larger area would be cleaned.

DTSC spokeswoman Tamma Adamek said the agency will "hold Exide responsible for paying to clean up all areas that contain Exide's contamination if additional information demonstrates the need."

What if Exide does not comply?

Exide could be prosecuted. Under the deal with the U.S. attorney's office, the company admitted to two decades of criminal conduct at the facility, including illegal storage, disposal and shipment of hazardous waste.

After an October 2013 inspection by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, regulators wrote that "Water which leaked from the 40-foot trailers appeared to puddle over a period of time." (California Department of Toxic Substances Control)

If the company does not fulfill its cleanup obligations, it could be charged with those felonies at any time in the next 10 years.

What is the status of tests for lead poisoning in nearby communities?

In April 2014 the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health began a screening program to test for lead in the blood of residents who live near the plant. The testing, funded by Exide, is available to more than 100,000 people who live and work within about a two-mile radius of Exide, including parts of Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles, Commerce, Bell, Maywood and Huntington Park.

Exide's deal with federal prosecutors extends free blood lead testing for another five years.

What have the blood tests shown?

Of about 600 people tested so far, none had lead levels high enough to require medical intervention, Dr. Cyrus Rangan, director of the county health department's Bureau of Toxicology and Environmental Assessment, said last month. "It's all within the ballpark of expectations for the rest of the county," he said.

Only five adults tested above 5 micrograms per deciliter, the level that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers elevated in children. No child had levels higher than 3 micrograms per deciliter, the health department said. But the program has drawn few young children, who are most at risk for lead poisoning.


tony.barboza@latimes.com
Twitter: @tonybarboza

Posted on March 21, 2015 and filed under Exide Vernon Plant.

East L.A. Party with Monsignor John

At the great party thrown for the Federal Investigation Team that shut down the Exide Technologies Battery recycling plant in Vernon.  I attended with my wife, Annette, who's tireless and tenacious investigation of Exide's 30+ years of criminal activity brought down the battery giant's Vernon plant.

 

Scientist/Investigators Rick Jones and Paul Baranich of DTSC also attended as well as Joe Johns of the U.S. Attorney's office who negotiated the closure with Exide.  The party featured a great Mariachi Band, abundant deserts (the "Just Deserts" as I call them), a good Italian (Italian!?) dinner, and wonderful people to celebrate the victory with.

 

Thanks to Monsignor John who threw the party for Annette and the church community who worked for years to bring the communities' plight to the attention of the press and public!

 

- Craig O'Donnelly

The Exide Vernon Plant Closure Team at the East L.A. Party.

(left to right) Joe Johns - Asst. U.S. Atty., Unnamed Church Activist, William Carter, Unnamed Church Activist, Rick Jones - DTSC Scientist/Investigator, Annette O'Donnelly - Lead Investigator EPA CID, Paul Baranich - DTSC Scientist/Investigator, Monsignor John - Church Activist, Unnamed Church Activist.

The Just Deserts... and Jesus.

Olivia & Annette being weird.

Church Activist Protest Poster

Church Activist Protest Poster

Posted on March 15, 2015 and filed under Exide Vernon Plant.

Have I Told You That I Love My Wife...?

From my Facebook page:

Annette O'Donnelly

Exide Technologies Case Lead Criminal Investigator, EPA CID

Annette being all cool in Hawaii

Annette being all cool in Hawaii

I would like to tell you about the amazing thing that my wife, Annette O'Donnelly accomplished. Yesterday, the Exide Battery recycling plant closure settlement was announced. Exide agreed to shut down their Vernon plant that had been polluting the neighborhoods around it with lead and arsenic for over 30 years. Vernon's residents, including thousands of children most vulnerable to these toxic substances, have been forced to tolerate this situation as California's Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) was unwilling or unable to do anything about it for decades.

I am so proud of my wife, Annette O'Donnelly, who was the sole investigator on this case for U.S. EPA CID, and fought ceaselessly for this settlement that not only stopped the poisoning of Vernon, but saved at least 10,000 jobs worldwide. No other investigator had the sense of duty, the courage, the passion or the determination to do the right thing as Annette did during this investigation. She also singlehandedly reviewed hundreds of thousands of documents during the course of her investigation. Annette even had to fight against her own agency, EPA CID, which did not support this settlement and has disavowed all involvement in it, going so far as to forbid her from attending the press conference yesterday.

My thanks also go out to scientists Paul Baranich and Rick Jones at DTSC who conducted interviews, interpreted and provided scientific direction and who supported Annette in her investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Johns, who pushed the prosecution forward in a tenacious and timely manner.

Posted on March 13, 2015 and filed under Exide Vernon Plant.

Exide Non-Prosecution Agreement

Ex­ide Tech­no­lo­gies will im­me­di­ately be­gin shut­ting down its em­battled bat­tery re­cyc­ling plant in Ver­non after reach­ing an agree­ment that al­lows the com­pany to avoid fa­cing crim­in­al pro­sec­u­tion for dec­ades of pol­lu­tion.

From the L.A. Times website:

Click here to read the actual Exide Non-Prosecution Agreement Document.

Click here to read Appendixes 1 - 2.

Click here to read Appendixes 3 - 6.

Posted on March 12, 2015 and filed under Exide Vernon Plant.

California car battery recycler to close in deal with Feds - Chicago Daily Herald

By BRIAN MELLEY

LOS ANGELES -- A battery recycling plant that violated hazardous waste laws and spewed toxic emissions for decades on the outskirts of Los Angeles will close and spend $50 million to clean the site and surrounding neighborhoods, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.

Exide Technologies admitted felony violations over 20 years but avoided criminal prosecution in the agreement that achieves what residents of surrounding poor communities couldn't get state regulators to do for years despite a long history of violation notices and fines.

"Our long nightmare is over," Monsignor John Moretta of Resurrection Church said on behalf of community groups. "We have attended dozens and dozens of meetings and hearings always fighting for what we saw as something obvious: Exide was poisoning our community and had to be closed."

The 15-acre Vernon plant, 5 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, had been idle for a year amid legal and environmental battles, but its owners hoped to reopen.

Local, state and federal officials have for years cited Exide for emitting excessive lead and arsenic and violating hazardous material laws.

The agreement allows the Milton, Georgia-based company to emerge from bankruptcy and afford the cleanup rather than being forced to liquidate assets and close operations in more than 80 countries, where it employs about 10,000 people.

"If the company was no longer viable, we would no longer be able to achieve the immediate result of the facility's closure, and the government would be left holding the bag for the cleanup," Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie Yonekura said. "This is the best solution for a very difficult environmental problem."

The cleanup will be overseen by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, which issued an order Thursday to close the facility after finding it cannot meet public health and environmental safeguards.

The department was harshly criticized for failing to protect the public as dangerously high lead levels were found in the lawns of people living in Maywood and the city's largely Latino neighborhood of Boyle Heights.

"The facility was allowed to operate without a permit for decades, leaking lead, arsenic and other hazardous waste materials into the streets where children play," state Senate leader Kevin De Leon said at a legislative hearing Thursday. "Those who let this happen must be held accountable."

DTSC Director Barbara Lee said later that given her agency's history she understands skepticism about it making sure Exide follows through with the cleanup. But she said the department had shown in the past two years it was serious about cracking down on the plant.

The company said it signed the agreement with prosecutors after being notified DTSC would reject its hazardous waste facility permit.

The agreement requires Exide to use $38.6 million it agreed to set aside last fall for closure and cleanup of its site and another $9 million for cleaning up soil around 216 surrounding homes. After those homes are cleaned up, the company must expand cleanup to other areas.

Cleanup is expected to take at least five years and is one of eight sites the company is responsible for cleaning up nationwide, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Johns.

If Exide doesn't complete the cleanup, it could be criminally prosecuted and face fines up to $500,000 a day for each felony violation of illegal disposal, storage and transportation of hazardous waste it admitted over two decades. The company acknowledged it hauled waste in leaking trucks more than 100 miles from Los Angeles to a Bakersfield facility not permitted to receive hazardous material, Johns said.

He said the decision was tough for prosecutors, but it made more sense for the community.

"The right thing to do was not worry about sending one or two people to jail for a year or two, but rather prevent another 50- to 100-year sentence for 110,000 people," Johns said.

The Vernon plant had been in operation since 1922 when Exide took over in 2000.

It employed 130 people in recycling operations that melted down the lead core in used car batteries and shipped the lead to Exide's battery manufacturing plants. Prosecutors estimated the plant recycled 30,000 to 40,000 batteries a day and grossed $15 million to $38 million a year.

Community and environmental groups planned a meeting Thursday night to celebrate the closure.

"We've been the dumping ground for Exide for so long," said Mark Lopez, who grew up in Boyle Heights and is the third-generation of his family to demonstrate against the plant. "For a long time Exide was told they didn't have to follow the rules."

The rules are now set down in a six-page agreement signed by the company's CEO.

___

Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/

 

 

 Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Johns, right, with Bill Swallow, left, special agent in charge of Dept. of Transportation Office of Inspector General talks during a news conference in Los Angeles, Thursday, March 12, 2015. A Los Angeles County batte…

 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Johns, right, with Bill Swallow, left, special agent in charge of Dept. of Transportation Office of Inspector General talks during a news conference in Los Angeles, Thursday, March 12, 2015. A Los Angeles County battery recycling plant with a long history of violations of air pollution and hazardous waste laws will close under the agreement with federal prosecutors that requires the company to spend $50 million to clean up the site and surrounding neighborhoods. The deal will result in the immediate and permanent shuttering of the Exide Technologies plant, in Vernon, Calif.

Associated Press

 Acting US Attorney Stephanie Yonekura announces a major environmental agreement at a news conference in Los Angeles, Thursday, March 12, 2015. A Los Angeles County battery recycling plant with a long history of violations of air pollution and hazar…

 

Acting US Attorney Stephanie Yonekura announces a major environmental agreement at a news conference in Los Angeles, Thursday, March 12, 2015. A Los Angeles County battery recycling plant with a long history of violations of air pollution and hazardous waste laws will close under the agreement with federal prosecutors that requires the company to spend $50 million to clean up the site and surrounding neighborhoods.The deal will result in the immediate and permanent shuttering of the Exide Technologies plant, in Vernon, Calif., Yonekura said Thursday.


Associated Press

Posted on March 12, 2015 and filed under Exide Vernon Plant.

Exide hazardous waste dripped onto roads from trucks, records show - L.A. Times

Personal Note: This issue was one of the mainstays of Annette O'Donnelly's investigation into Exide as well as other companies illegally transporting hazardous waste from battery recycling plants in the L.A. area.

By TONY BARBOZA

Hazardous waste from an embattled Vernon battery recycler dripped from tractor-trailers onto public roadways last year, according to recently released public documents in which a state environmental inspector called the leaks an "on-going problem" that "needs to be addressed immediately."

The leaks of acid- and lead-tainted liquid could be an important piece of a criminal investigation of Exide Technologies by a federal grand jury. In a financial disclosure in August, the Milton, Ga.-based company reported that it had received a subpoena requesting "documents relating to materials transportation and air emissions" from its Vernon plant.

Inspection report on Exide battery plant

Spills were observed by state inspectors at the Vernon facility and by the California Highway Patrol, which last summer stopped a dripping tractor-trailer transporting acid battery waste from the Exide plant at a weigh station off Interstate 5 in Castaic, government records show.

The newly revealed problems are detailed in a series of California Department of Toxic Substances Control inspection reports and other public documents that were first reported by KCBS-TV, Channel 2.

Exide declined to comment on the issues raised in the documents because they were related to the grand jury investigation, said spokeswoman Vanessa Rodriguez.

Few residents near Exide plant undergo testing for lead levels

The facility, which was idled in March and is about five miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, has been under fire from community groups in recent years. Air quality regulators have cited Exide for emitting too much lead and arsenic, saying last year that the plant posed a health risk to more than 100,000 residents. State toxic waste regulators blame the plant's emissions for elevated levels of lead in the soil of dozens of homes in nearby Boyle Heights and Maywood.

On Aug. 10, 2013, during a stop on northbound Interstate 5 in Castaic, officers discovered battery acid leaking from a tractor-trailer onto the asphalt, according to a CHP incident report. The vehicle, owned by Lutrel Trucking Inc., was transporting plastic chips from the casings of crushed auto batteries to KW Plastics, a recycling facility in Bakersfield. Officers called the Los Angeles County Fire Department's hazardous materials division to clean up the spill.

 

Related story: Brown sets deadline for Exide plant on hazardous waste

Three days later, on Aug. 13, 2013, Department of Toxic Substances Control staff inspected the Exide facility in Vernon and found trailers storing those chips were leaking liquid with hazardous levels of lead, the agency's records show.

After finding similar problems at several more on-site inspections, state regulators in October 2013 cited Exide for three hazardous waste violations, directed the facility to take corrective action and to "store hazardous waste plastic chips in containers that do not leak."

Though it is not clear when it was written, a handwritten note in the state's citation also mentioned the trailer that CHP stopped on the interstate.

"DTSC is concerned that leaking from the containers while on public roads is an on-going problem, and this issue needs to be addressed immediately," the note said. "Leaking of hazardous waste is considered illegal disposal."

In a written response to questions from The Times, the state Department of Toxic Substances Control said it discovered the leaking trailers at the Vernon facility in August 2013 and that the CHP report from Interstate 5 that same month was the only on-road incident the agency was aware of.

"Contamination levels of the release did not pose a public health risk," the agency's statement said. "There was no impact on the surrounding community or the environment."

The agency said the problem stemmed from a broken dryer the company had used to dry plastic chips from used battery casings, which are washed to remove lead and other hazardous waste.

 

Related story: California expands lead soil testing area near Exide plant in Vernon

"The Department will not allow Exide to transport chips in that type of trailer in the future," the agency's statement said, adding that it was reviewing a modification to its hazardous waste permit that would solve the problem by allowing the company to replace the broken dryer.

The department has for decades allowed the Exide facility in Vernon to operate with only a temporary permit, though a new state lawrequires the facility to obtain a full permit by the end of next year or be shut down.

The plant was idled because it could not meet strict new arsenic emissions rules adopted by local air quality officials in January. It has operated since 1922 and was taken over in 2000 by Exide, one of the world's largest producers of lead acid batteries. Exide filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last year.

Msgr. John Moretta of Resurrection Catholic Church in Boyle Heights, whose parishioners have demanded the plant's permanent closure, called the latest development "another sign of the disrespect that Exide has exercised over the years as a bad neighbor."

Leaking trailers are not a new problem at the facility, state records show.

A 1990 report that California regulators submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that samples collected from loads shipped from the Vernon facility, then operated by the firm GNB, "found hazardous levels of lead leaking onto Interstate 5."

tony.barboza@latimes.com

Twitter: @tonybarboza

Copyright © 2015, Los Angeles Times

Posted on October 15, 2014 and filed under Exide Vernon Plant.

KCRW "Which Way L.A.?" Exide Acid Battery Recycler and Public Health Concerns

One of just two plants west of the Rockies that recycle car batteries was saved by a judge from state efforts to shut it down. Now the Air Quality Management District is holding hearings with the same end in view. Exide, in Vernon, has people from Boyle Heights to Hancock Park in fear of cancer and other diseases after years of lead and arsenic emissions. Exide says it’s cleaned up its act at a cost of millions. If it shut down, where would 25,000 batteries every day go to die?  We get a progress report.

Posted on December 17, 2013 and filed under Exide Vernon Plant.