Ever since a large hearth tore by means of one of many world’s largest battery storage services in January, cleanup crews have been unable to soundly entry parts of the constructing that burned in rural Monterey County.
The chance of reigniting a fireplace has been too excessive, stopping crews from beginning the prolonged, harmful elimination of tens of 1000’s of lithium-ion batteries.
Now, that course of may quickly start.
The U.S. Environmental Safety Company introduced this week that it had reached an settlement relating to the battery elimination with Texas-based Vistra Corp., which owns the battery power storage system in Moss Touchdown that caught hearth.
The 75-page settlement, signed July 17, requires Vistra to submit detailed work plans to the EPA on all elements of battery elimination and to get the federal government’s approval earlier than it proceeds.
Brockman added, “We anticipate that this work will continue for over a year due to the technical complexity as well as the safety measures being put in place to protect the workers and the community.”
The Moss Touchdown hearth started Jan. 16. It smoldered for a number of days, spewing poisonous gasoline into the air and prompting the evacuation of about 1,500 individuals. Firefighters let it burn, citing the risks of dousing lithium-ion battery fires with water, which might trigger harmful chemical reactions.
The hearth ignited inside a former turbine constructing that contained a 300-megawatt system made up of about 4,500 cupboards, with every containing 22 particular person battery modules, in accordance with Vistra.
Such battery techniques retailer extra power generated in the course of the day and launch it into the facility grid throughout occasions of excessive demand, together with night hours. These services are seen as important for stabilizing the state’s electrical grid and advancing the transition to cleaner power as a result of they’ll retailer photo voltaic and wind energy to make use of when the solar isn’t shining and generators usually are not turning.
However the Vistra hearth additionally has uncovered the risks inherent with large-scale battery storage, prompting state and federal regulators to hunt stronger security protocols.
Of the 99,000 particular person LG battery modules within the constructing, about 54,450 burned, in accordance with Vistra.
On Feb. 18, the hearth reignited and burned for a number of hours. Vistra wrote on its web site that “additional instances of smoke and flare-ups are a possibility given the nature of this situation and the damage to the batteries.”
The broken constructing — full of burned and unaffected lithium-ion batteries — stays unstable, which has each slowed and sophisticated the cleanup.
“The challenge here is there are batteries in various states of charge, still being able to hold charge, all the way to completely consumed,” Brockman mentioned.
Over the past six months, crews have eliminated hearth particles containing asbestos and disconnected safely accessible batteries to cut back the danger of reignition, in accordance with the EPA.
A significant hearth erupted on the Moss Touchdown energy plant on Jan.16, 2025.
(KSBW through Related Press)
Some parts of the constructing have been “completely inaccessible,” Ramon Albizu, the EPA’s lead on-scene coordinator, mentioned in an interview Thursday. He added that the 99,000 modules within the constructing suffered various levels of injury.
“We need to carefully, surgically demolish the building to be able to get to all the modules,” Albizu mentioned. “That requires a lot of planning.”
Because the hearth, the EPA, Vistra and different regulatory companies have created greater than 30 work plans associated to the demolition and battery elimination, he mentioned. Work to stabilize the constructing ought to start by the tip of the month, he added.
The Moss Touchdown hearth ignited 9 days after the beginning of the lethal Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles County. The EPA, below strain from the Trump administration to work shortly in Southern California, eliminated about 300 tons of hazardous family particles — together with greater than 1,000 lithium-ion batteries — from the huge burn zones in Altadena and Pacific Palisades inside 28 days.
Albizu mentioned the battery elimination in Moss Touchdown differs tremendously from the elimination of smaller batteries in Southern California, lots of which got here from electrical automobiles. Within the Vistra constructing, every of the 99,000 batteries, he mentioned, is about 4 ft lengthy and weighs greater than 200 kilos.
“It’s something that is unprecedented,” Albizu mentioned of the battery plant hearth.
As soon as every battery is eliminated, its remaining power might be transferred to a different supply, in accordance with the EPA. If the batteries are too broken for that to be completed, crews will discharge them by means of brining, throughout which they’re submerged in a water-and-salt resolution.
In an announcement to The Occasions on Thursday, Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church, whose district contains Moss Touchdown, mentioned he was “disappointed it has taken this long to come to a point where cleanup can begin, but safety must be a priority.”
In keeping with Vistra, the reason for the blaze “remains unknown” and continues to be below investigation by the corporate. The California Public Utilities Fee additionally has an ongoing investigation.
The Vistra hearth rocked California’s clear power trade and its plans for extra battery crops, which state leaders are aggressively pursuing.
He wrote that the flexibility to retailer clear electrical energy was “a key factor” in hitting clear power targets and that, over the past six years, the state has added 15,000 megawatts of battery storage capability, sufficient to fulfill 1 / 4 of peak electrical energy demand.
Together with further security laws for battery storage, the blaze has prompted requires extra native management over the place storage websites are positioned.
In a survey of close by residents performed by the Monterey and Santa Cruz counties’ well being departments, 83% of respondents mentioned they skilled at the least one symptom — mostly complications, sore throats and coughing — shortly after the hearth. Practically 1 / 4 of respondents mentioned they’d bother respiratory, and 39% reported having a metallic style of their mouth.
The survey, performed in February and March, polled 1,539 individuals who lived or labored within the area on the time of the hearth.
Knut Johnson, an legal professional with the regulation agency Singleton Schreiber, mentioned lots of of close by residents have joined a lawsuit in opposition to Vistra, LG Power Answer and Pacific Gasoline & Electrical, accusing the businesses of failing to keep up enough hearth security techniques.
Johnson mentioned plaintiffs are “very worried” concerning the batteries that stay on web site.
“Those burned-up batteries still contain a lot of toxins,” Johnson mentioned. “The wind blows, the evening fog rolls in, suspending particles in the moisture — there’s lots of ways for any remaining toxins to get around the community.”
The hearth ought to “serve as a wake-up call,” Johnson mentioned, for anybody wanting to construct battery storage services close to residential areas and delicate ecosystems.
