State Regulators Release Maps Showing Extent Of Exide Battery Plant Cleanup, Over 2,000 Properties Identified
VERNON (CBSLA) — The State of California's toxic substances regulator on Friday released maps showing thousands of homes that will require cleaning from the effects of the long-shuttered Exide battery plant in Vernon.
More than 2,000 properties within 1.7-miles from the former Exide site were identified by the Dept. of Toxic Substances Control as having elevated concentrations of lead in the soil, City News Service reported.
"We will now use this data to address and clean those parcels with the highest levels of contamination," said DTSC Director Barbara A. Lee.
The $176.6 million cleanup effort in Vernon and the nearby areas of Huntington Park, Maywood and the L.A. neighborhood of Boyle Heights is the largest undertaken in California history.
DTSC previously faced criticism after announcing that parkways — the patches of grass between a street and the sidewalk — would not be included as part of the cleanup.
CBS2 News conducted its own tests in 2015 and found hazardous waste-levels of lead in at least one parkway in Boyle Heights — more than 1,000 parts per million. The acceptable level is 80 ppm.
The map data is based on testing of 8,500 properties, 1,930 of which had lead concentrations of 400 ppm. Contamination "hot spots" containing 1,000 ppm totaled another 175 properties, according to CNS.
DTSC will be holding five community meetings during the next few weeks to discuss the cleanup.
- March 5: 4:30 p.m.
El Camino Real Library
4264 Whittier Blvd.
Los Angeles - March 6: 4:30 p.m.
Maywood Cesar Chavez Library
4323 Slauson Ave.
Maywood - March 17: 12 p.m.
El Camino Real Library - March 19: 5:30 p.m.
Huntington Park Library
6518 Miles Ave.
Huntington Park - March 21: 3 p.m.
Robert L. Stevenson Library
803 Spence St.
Los Angeles
The Exide plant was founded in 1922 and was permanently closed down in 2015.
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