EXIDE VERNON BREAKING NEWS: Air management district sues Exide for exposing tens of thousands of people to cancer-causing chemicals and failing to take timely action to address problems with pollution control systems

The South Coast Air Quality Management District sued Exide Technologies in Los Angeles County Superior Court, accusing the company — one of the world’s largest manufacturers and recyclers of lead-acid batteries — of exposing tens of thousands of people to cancer-causing chemicals and failing to take timely action to address problems with pollution control systems.

“Exide has had a steady stream of operational problems that have resulted in excess toxic emissions,” said air district executive officer Barry Wallerstein.

“These toxic emissions have exposed more than 100,000 residents to an unacceptable cancer risk and for that reason we are seeking to recover a significant penalty from them.”

Exide officials could not be reached for comment.

State Sen. Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles), who represents many residents in the area affected by the emissions, praised the move.

“Human beings are being exposed to appalling levels of cancer-causing poisons caused by Exide,” he said in a statement. “Cleaning up the company is long overdue.”

The suit opens yet another front in the air district’s push to control emissions from Exide, which has become a focus of community rage since a health risk assessment in March revealed that the plant was posing an elevated cancer risk to 110,000 people living from Boyle Heights to Huntington Park.

The air district has also petitioned its hearing board to temporarily suspend operations at the plant until Exide can improve its air pollution control systems. That petition is under review.

And last week, the air district’s governing board adopted the nation’s toughest regulation limiting arsenic emissions from lead-acid battery plants.

Exide operates one of two lead-acid battery plants west of the Rockies. The plant, opened in the 1920s, smelts about 25,000 batteries a day.

CBS LOS ANGELES

Air Quality Officials Sue Vernon Battery Recycling Plant Over ‘Toxic Emissions’

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Air quality officials are seeking up to $40 million in penalties from a Vernon company for numerous alleged air quality violations due primarily to illegal emissions of lead and arsenic.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court Thursday against Exide Technologies, a lead-acid battery recycling plant in operation since 1922.

SCAQMD executive officer Barry Wallerstein said in a statement the firm has had a “steady stream of operational problems” resulting in toxic emissions that he says have exposed more than 100,000 residents to cancer risk.

“For that reason we are seeking to recover a significant penalty from them,” he stated in part.

The plant currently recycles 23,000 to 41,000 batteries daily.

However, SCAQMD is seeking an order from the independent SCAQMD Hearing Board that would require Exide to stop its smelting operations until it can improve its air pollution control systems to reduce arsenic emissions.

SCAQMD required Exide to strengthen and resubmit a risk reduction plan to reduce its arsenic emissions.

In early 2013, SCAQMD approved a Health Risk Assessment from Exide showing that the facility was causing an unacceptably high cancer risk for 110,000 residents in southeast Los Angeles County primarily due to its arsenic emissions.

SCAQMD then required the facility to develop a risk reduction plan under the agency’s Rule 1402 and the state’s Toxic Hot Spots law.

The agency rejected Exide’s first plan as inadequate and is now evaluating the company’s resubmitted plan.

A spokesperson for Exide was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CBSLA.

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