In January, a lithium-ion battery-storage plant in Monterey County, Calif., caught fire and burned for days, prompting evacuations and school shut downs. Residents are concerned about their health.
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Last month, one of the world’s largest lithium battery storage facilities near Monterey, California, erupted in flames. People fled the area, and schools closed as the fire smoldered for days. It briefly reignited last week, and residents are worried about their health. From member station KAZU in Monterey, Elena Neale-Sacks reports.
ELENA NEALE-SACKS, BYLINE: Small clouds dot the blue sky outside Sherry Okamoto’s house in Royal Oaks. That’s a rural community about six miles from the Moss Landing battery plant. It’s starkly different from the afternoon of January 16, when a plume of stinky, black smoke moved in.
SHERRY OKAMOTO: As soon as I opened the door, I got hit with burnt plastic.
NEALE-SACKS: Okamoto says she didn’t know what was going on. She and her husband were scared and started wrangling their animals – chickens, ducks, cats, dogs – to get them inside.
OKAMOTO: My eyes were burning. My nose was burning. We were already coughing. And we weren’t out long.
NEALE-SACKS: That smoke was from a building that housed nearly a hundred-thousand lithium-ion battery modules that store renewable energy but had caught on fire. Monterey County quickly issued an evacuation order for people nearby.
Lithium battery fires are notoriously hard to fight, and firefighters said they had to let it burn out because water would have been ineffective. The evacuation order was lifted the following evening. No homes were destroyed, but there was evidence of the fire even miles outside the evacuation zone. Okamoto still has a bucket filled with thick, black water that she hauled out of her duck pool.
OKAMOTO: There’s oil and soot and powder. And that’s what I stuck my hands into ’cause I didn’t want my ducks to get sick.
NEALE-SACKS: She says the water burned her hands and gave her a rash. The Monterey County Health Department says 49 people have reported symptoms. County officials say preliminary tests of soil, water and air around the plant do not pose an immediate public health hazard, but two tests did show elevated contaminant levels that require follow-up. If people are worried, county officials say they should see their doctor. Meanwhile, thousands have joined Facebook groups where people are discussing the symptoms they think may be due to the fire.
JEN WRENNE: I’ve had a lot of difficulty breathing. My heart rate will jump up like crazy.
NEALE-SACKS: Jen Wrenne lives about 12 miles from the battery plant. She’s gone to the doctor’s office four times in the last month.
WRENNE: The very first doctor told me, you have allergies.
NEALE-SACKS: She asked for blood tests to check for the metals found in lithium batteries and then had to go back for a redraw because of a lab mix-up. When she still wasn’t feeling well five days after that, a physician’s assistant told her to see her primary care doctor.
WRENNE: Which I can’t get in to see for three months.
NEALE-SACKS: She thought maybe she had a sinus infection and got antibiotics from a fourth doctor, but she still didn’t feel better. Meanwhile, the heavy metal test didn’t show anything concerning. Except, she says…
WRENNE: They ended up testing magnesium instead of manganese.
NEALE-SACKS: So she’s getting yet another test.
WRENNE: It’s been really hard to get any kind of medical support or any medical help.
NEALE-SACKS: In contrast to county and state tests, San Jose State University researchers took a number of soil samples close to the plant and found a spike in three toxic heavy metals. They were hundreds to a thousand times higher than before the fire.
Don Smith is a professor of environmental toxicology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He says the state and San Jose test results look contradictory for a couple reasons. They sampled different locations, and San Jose state researchers only analyzed the topmost layer of soil. Some of the state tests included deeper samples, which, Smith says, could result in diluted levels of metals. He says people are right to want more clarity.
DON SMITH: Collectively, the data that we’ve seen indicates that not enough has been done to determine what the risk to me may be if I was a resident in that area.
NEALE-SACKS: Smith says heavy metals in lithium batteries are toxic at elevated exposures. They can cause respiratory issues and increase the risk of neurological disorders and developmental delays in children. Vistra, the company that owns the plant, did not respond to questions about its safety but has said it’s investigating the cause of the fire. People who live near the plant have sued. They say Vistra failed to take proper safety measures. For NPR News, I’m Elena Neale-Sacks in Monterey.
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