Less than two weeks after a huge fire in Moss Landing at one of the world’s largest battery storage plants, scientists affiliated with San Jose State University have discovered unusually high levels of toxic metals in soils at Elkhorn Slough, roughly a mile away.
Researchers at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories have detected microscopic particles of nickel, cobalt and manganese — which are found in the thousands of lithium-ion batteries that burned at the Vistra Energy battery storage plant — in the mudflats and tidal marshes at Elkhorn Slough at levels roughly 100 to 1,000 times higher than normal.
“Those three metals are toxic,” said Ivano Aiello, a marine geology professor at Moss Landing Marine Labs, who led the soils testing. “They are hazardous to aquatic life. We want to understand how they will move and interact with the environment, whether they will make it through the food web and at what level — from microbes to sea otters.”
The dramatic fire at the 750-megawatt battery plant began on Jan. 16 and burned for two days. It caused the evacuation of 1,200 local residents and the closure of Highway 1 for three days. The flames quickly overwhelmed the fire sprinkler system at the plant, which is run by Vistra Energy, a Dallas-based company, and located on the former site of a PG&E power plant that was built in the 1950s.
Lithium battery fires burn at high temperatures and are difficult to put out. As a result, firefighters did not battle the blaze and allowed it to burn out. The fire spread a large cloud of toxic smoke across the area near the border of Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, and has raised questions about safety in other communities where battery storage plants are planned. The plants are key to storing electricity from solar and wind power to use at night, allowing California to continue to move from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
The discovery of battery toxins in the soils at Elkhorn Slough, a protected network of wetlands, creeks, and wildlife habitat popular with birders and kayakers, turned up attention on the impact on humans who live in communities near the plant.
Monterey County officials said Monday that the Monterey County Environmental Health Department is continuing to work with officials from the California EPA to test soils in properties along the path of the smoke plume. They expect to release the first results by the end of this week, said Nick Pasculli, a Monterey County spokesman.
“We are totally dedicated to people’s safety and their health,” Pasculli said. “That’s our number one priority, and protecting our environment. We are very interested in getting the data from the Elkhorn Slough samples so we can analyze the findings and consult with state and federal agencies that have oversight to determine the best path forward.”
Aiello said he took samples from roughly 100 sites. He has studied the area for more than 10 years. Analyzing the soils with an electron microscope at Moss Landing labs, he said the spiked levels of battery metals were found in the top few millimeters of soil, not lower levels. He said he took measurements on Jan. 21, 23 and 24 and compared them to soil samples taken at the same locations before the battery plant fire.
“The concentrations went from tens of parts per million to thousands of parts per million — 2 to 3 orders of magnitude,” he said. “It’s a lot.”
Aiello said it is important that testing continue for weeks, months and years on the site to track how the metals change and move. It rained this past weekend, he noted, and he planned additional testing to see the impacts.
Aiello is not a medical doctor, but said it is important that state and local officials test soils in communities around the plant to see how they have changed, and how they compare to Elkhorn Slough.
High levels of heavy metals such as nickel, cobalt, and manganese “bioaccumulate,” or move up the food chain from plants and microbes into fish, and larger animals that eat the fish. At high levels they can cause neurological harm, reproductive damage and other problems. It isn’t clear yet, Aiello said, whether the levels have impacted the health of any fish or wildlife.
“We know these particles are toxic,” he said. “They are heavy metals. Whether they are posing a hazard right now, we don’t know. But we need to know. I live here. I work here. Let’s figure it out.”
“The future is going to be more battery storage facilities all over the world,” Aiello added. “We are moving away from fossil fuels. Is this the solution? Is this the right technology?”
Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency set up air monitors on the night of the fire. They and officials from the Monterey Bay Air Resources District said in the days after the fire that their monitors did not detect levels of soot or hydrogen fluoride, a toxic gas from burning batteries, in unhealthy levels.
But at several public meetings dozens of local residents raised concerns about the impact of the smoke plume not only on air, but water and soils in the surrounding communities. Some people complained of a metallic taste, impacts to their asthma and other health changes.
Pasculli said Vistra officials placed straw rolls around the plant for erosion control. Vistra has been meeting with state, local and federal officials to plan the cleanup of the plant, which remains offline, he added. Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom called for an independent investigation by the California Public Utilities Commission.
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