On Jan. 16, a large smoke plume rose above Moss Landing power plant and Elkhorn Slough. The lithium-ion battery array at Vistra’s Moss Landing energy storage facility is one of the largest in the world and burned for nearly three days. Flames and smoke were visible across Monterey Bay as the fire grew. People living and working around Moss Landing evacuated for 24 hours, unsure how exposure to the potentially toxic smoke and rapidly growing fire might impact them. Because the fire could not be extinguished using conventional methods due to the type of materials burning, there was great concern over how long (and how much) it would burn.
This most recent fire at the Texas-based Vistra Energy plant is the third event in recent years. Vistra sits adjacent to another battery storage facility on the same property operated by PG&E. Testing results from this recent fire have made many people concerned for the web of life, the Elkhorn Slough Reserve, the vitally important Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and beyond. Researchers from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories have detected microscopic particles of nickel, cobalt and manganese (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 usual. “Those three metals are toxic,” said Ivano Aiello, a marine geology professor at Moss Landing Marine Labs, who led the soil 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,” she told the Mercury News.
As we try to manage the impacts of climate change and the need to develop alternative energy sources, one option for reducing carbon production has been the development of battery systems for storing solar and wind-produced “clean” energy. Battery storage plants offer a relatively new opportunity to store the clean energy produced to help reduce fossil fuel dependency and pollution from burning coal and oil.
Because lithium-ion batteries and their storage are newer technologies, the permitting requirements and long-term effects of this fire on people and the environment may not be fully understood for years or even decades. For those of us living in the communities surrounding Moss Landing, we can only hope that the impacts on our families, food crops, water supply and the Monterey Bay Sanctuary will prove to be minimal.
California Assemblymember Dawn Addis, representing Moss Landing, issued a statement: “I am alarmed and deeply concerned to hear the high concentrations of heavy metals have been identified within one of our most cherished and fragile ecosystems, Elkhorn Slough and its surrounding areas.” She and other local leaders are calling for an independent investigation by the California Public Utilities Commission and legislation. Addis added, “True climate solutions must benefit – not harm – our communities and natural environment.”
At Tuesday’s Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors meeting, the fire at the battery plant location and disaster response were at the center of conversation. Strategies for remediation and clean-up are still being developed for this new type of emergency. While it is important to note that we are far from understanding this fire’s outcomes, we know that residents are concerned. Lisa Caterall, a scientist and former full-time researcher, lives with her family in Watsonville near the estuary. As a STEAM, math, science and art teacher at Mount Madonna School, she engages her students in hands-on water sampling, soil sampling, marine research trips to Catalina Island and other scientific intensives as part of her curriculum. After meeting with other concerned community members, Caterall determined she could help by collecting soil samples for community-led research.
While Monterey County is also committed to testing, some residents were concerned about incoming rain and specimens degrading over time, so a team of area residents gathered to discuss concerns and decided to pay independently for the kits (provided at a discount). BioMax Environmental Inc. provided kits and a certified industrial hygienist to perform an ecological assessment of the Vistra battery storage fire fallout. On Jan. 25 and 26, community volunteers collected approximately 150 specimens from Gonzales, Scotts Valley and from Gilroy to Carmel, hoping the information would help determine the fire’s possible impacts on public health and regional food and water supplies.
Caterall stated a few of her concerns: “Why were locals not informed when this plant was going in? Was properly updated infrastructure added to the existing buildings?” She emphasized potentially broad-reaching environmental issues, such as “the long-term effects of this fire will be cumulative” and, “because of current politically-related agency funding issues, there are concerns that time-sensitive data may not be collected to facilitate ongoing studies that truly reflect environmental and public health impacts.”
As we move into an era of cleaner renewable energy, we will face questions about how we oversee and where we locate these facilities. We must also consider the environmental impacts of producing new technologies. A few issues are clear: updating regional emergency response systems with protocol changes for handling these new technologies and how these disasters affect our environment is essential. With new technology, we face new challenges. The economic and ecological importance of building proper infrastructure to protect our air, food, water and wildlife must be a priority because what happens in these battery plants, as with other industrial projects and manufacturing, impacts the entire biome, including our ocean backyard.
Tracey Weiss is the executive director of the O’Neill Sea Odyssey. She is working to support the residents of Santa Cruz County with the information that allows them to connect, impact and understand the ocean ecosystem and the regional environment we call home. She can be reached at osoexecdirector@oneillseaodyssey.org.