Coinciding with Ladauto Si Week, the CCC is pleased to report that Governor Newsom’s May budget revision allocates $454 million to clean up lead and arsenic that has polluted homes and neighborhoods near the toxic Exide battery recycling facility in Southeast Los Angeles.
Coinciding with Ladauto Si Week, the CCC is pleased to report that Governor Newsom’s May budget revision allocates $454 million to clean up lead and arsenic that has polluted homes and neighborhoods near the toxic Exide battery recycling facility in Southeast Los Angeles.
The announcement of the clean-up was made by local elected officials, including Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Los Angeles), Assemblyman Miguel Santiago, Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles), and Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia.
The California Department of Toxic Substances Control estimates the toxic chemicals produced during Exide’s non-permitted three decades of operation spread up to 1.7 miles away, contaminating schools, parks, and more than 10,000 homes in the largely working-class, Latino neighborhoods of Bell, Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles, Maywood, Huntington Park, and Commerce.
The budget also includes additional funding if the initial allocation does not complete the abatement of the site.
The Exide battery recycling plant, which produced a host of hazardous wastes as part of the process, operated for 33 years in Vernon without a permanent permit. It closed in 2015 as part of a nonprosecution agreement that allowed the company to avoid criminal charges.