Exide lead contamination
[2] Exide has been found to be a significant source of lead emissions and/or contamination in Crescentville, Philadelphia (1920 - 1978); Los Angeles County; Frisco, Texas; Muncie, Indiana; Salina, Kansas; Bristol, Tennessee; Reading, Pennsylvania; and Forest City, Missouri.
[4] Exide Technologies, owner of the lead-acid battery smelter located in Vernon, agreed in 2015 to close the facility during the massive cleanup of the contaminated soil, which will take years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
[8][9] In 2013, Exide was under federal criminal investigation for emitting high levels of harmful pollutants from its battery recycling plant in Vernon, CA.
The decades of air pollution from the Exide Technologies facility has potentially contaminated the nearby communities of Boyle Heights, Maywood, East Los Angeles, Commerce, Bell, and Huntington Park.
In 2013, AQMD explained that upwards of 250,000 residents in East Los Angeles face a chronic health hazard from lead and arsenic exposure from Exide.
[4] In 2019, a study conducted by the University of Southern California found a high amount of lead in baby teeth of children in Boyle Heights, Maywood, East Los Angeles, Commerce, and Huntington Park.
[18] The Truth Fairy study revealed that children in Boyle Heights and East L.A. have the highest exposure to lead, which most likely came through winds carrying soil in utero from their mother or post birth.
"[18][19] The facility closure is overseen by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) and the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD).
The closure includes dismantling the former recycling facility under a full enclosure tent, under negative pressure, preventing emissions from leaving the premises.
[26][27] In October 2015 the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, frustrated with the slow pace by the state, designated $2 million to "facilitate" the cleanup effort by hiring contractors and consultants, performing soil testing at 1,000 homes during the following two months, and sending community outreach workers to neighborhoods around the plant.
A timeline and strategy was also included in the resolution to force state regulators, Exide "and other responsible parties to fully fund and undertake this cleanup."
[30] In fall 2017, the Department of Toxic Substances Control began to implement their plans to remove lead-contaminated soil from 2,500 residential properties near the closed Exide Technologies lead acid battery plant in Vernon.
The state is fighting the lawsuit in court, calling it an attempt by Exide to dodge financial responsibility and blame the contamination on lead paint and gasoline.
"[21] At the January 26, 2016 hearing, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) said the Department of Toxic Substances Control "has not done a good job" and that he would urge officials to act more urgently on the clean-up.
[44] In May 2018, the CA state Assembly approved a budget action[45] and legislation, AB 2189, to commit $16 million in funds for cleaning public parkways.
[50] The Exide plants in violation of EPA lead emission standards are in Frisco, Texas, Vernon, California, Muncie, Indiana, Salina, Kansas, Reading, Pennsylvania, and Bristol, Tennessee.
[61] In 1968, Robert A. Kehoe wrote to William Pallies of ESB, Inc. to discuss how to defeat in court Reuben D. Shoemaker, who had 100 micrograms per deciliter of lead in his blood on record.
[66] In March 2015, Exide Technologies agreed to pay an $820,000 civil penalty to settle a lawsuit for violating the Clean Air Act at its Muncie lead smelter plant.
[69] Local residents were not made aware of these explosions until nearly a year later, January 2018, raising concerns about any risks to the environment and to the health and safety of hundreds of families that live near the Exide facility.
A year later, in February 2018, it was reported that a local pediatrician and the Delaware County Health Department had informed Indiana state officials in 2017 of cases of Exide Technologies' workers tracking lead home on their clothing and exposing their children to the toxic metal[70][71][72] It was also reported that the local health department made a complaint on June 20 to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management about "a recent increase in the amount of elevated blood lead level cases" reported to local health officials in the community, and that "several of these cases have revealed connections to the Exide plant" with the "business's activities" being a "likely source of this lead exposure.
The contamination source(s) for the disproportionate number of children with elevated blood lead levels in Salina, KS and Saline County, remains an apparent mystery.
County Commissioner Mark C. Scott noted that the appeal was filed as a preemptive measure to protect the community from air pollution if the Exide plant decides to reopen.
[94] In 2017, the Reading Eagle newspaper published a series of stories that focused on a study that found lead levels remain high in the borough despite remediation efforts ordered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency about two decades ago at hundreds of properties near the Exide plant.
[95] A team of reporters worked in collaboration with a chemistry professor at Metropolitan State University in Denver to conduct soil studies in Laureldale and found strong signs that decades of toxic emissions from the Exide Technologies' battery factory in Reading are taking their toll on neighboring properties.
[99] In response to the study and findings of elevated levels of lead near the idled Exide plant, State Sen. Judy Schwank called for review of the original Reading/Laureldale cleanup.
In 2008, it was reported that Exide was emitting two times the amount of pollutants allowed into the environment at their secondary lead acid battery smelter plant in Bristol, TN.
Instead of investing that taxpayer money, as promised, in Bristol, and creating new jobs, Exide closed the plant "as part of a strategic initiative to have other manufacturing locations running near capacity.
[110] From 2001 to 2012, Exide Technologies received 50 written notices of violation for unsafe working conditions at their Frisco lead-acid battery recycling plant.
[118] In March 2001, Exide pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and agreed to pay a fine of $27.5 million to end a federal criminal investigation into auto battery sales to customers of Sears, Roebuck & Company.
Pearson's accomplice, former Exide chief executive Arthur M. Hawkins, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay a $1 million fine.
