Spread heavy metals everywhere............

Calif.'s enormous battery plant ignited. Now scientists say it spread heavy metals everywhere.

The new study uses soil samples from three days after the Moss Landing blaze

By Anna FitzGerald Guth

After a massive blaze at one of the world’s largest battery storage facilities in Monterey County this past January, thick smoke spread over the area, and residents reported ailments such as bloody noses, skin rashes and lung problems.

Now, scientists are revealing what they found in the soil three days after firefighters contained the flames at the Moss Landing Power Plant. 

Researchers from San José State University’s Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and their colleagues discovered elevated levels of nickel, manganese and cobalt — the primary components of the plant’s lithium-ion batteries that can be toxic for people and wildlife — in soil samples from the nearby estuary, Elkhorn Slough.

They recently published their findings in the journal Scientific Reports.

“This study is a solid set of evidence showing that indeed the fire spilled these metals,” Ivano Aiello, a marine geologist and the chair of Moss Landing Marine Laboratories who authored the study with his colleagues, told SFGATE. “We were lucky, in a sense, because we had baseline data for the area from a major marsh restoration project, so we could create a before and after. A few days after the fire, we found a multifold increase in the particular three elements used in lithium-ion batteries.” 

The researchers determined that the ratio of nickel to cobalt in the soil mimicked the discharge from the plant’s batteries, confirming the source. The study area alone — an almost 300-acre marsh within the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve — had a some 55,000 pounds of heavy metals, the researchers estimated. Still, their soil samples likely only account for around 2% of the total heavy metals the blaze burned, Aiello said, suggesting the vast majority spread elsewhere in the region.

“The Moss Landing battery facility is located within a complex and vulnerable landscape,” the researchers wrote in their study. “It sits adjacent to Elkhorn Slough, one of California’s largest estuaries, near the town of Moss Landing, and is surrounded by intensively farmed agricultural land. The fallout from the fire’s smoke plume raises serious concerns about contamination of soils, water, and vegetation in this region.”

Nearby residents filed a lawsuit against Vistra Corp., which owns the battery facility, and other defendants soon after the fire. They allege the company did not establish adequate fire safety measures. Vistra did not respond to SFGATE’s request for comment before the time of publication.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency authorized the removal of the damaged batteries, with Vistra picking up the tab. The EPA and California Public Utilities Commission are investigating the cause of the fire. 

Meanwhile, Aiello reports that his team will continue tracking how the metals move through the area and interact with the estuary’s flora and fauna.