City Council Agenda Report
Meeting Date: November 5, 2024
From: Daniel Calleros, Interim City Administrator
Department: City Administration
Submitted by: Karla Washington, Management Analyst
Subject
Letter of Support Urging the United States Environmental Protection Agency to Accept Exide Technologies, Inc. into the National Priority List and Identify the Site and Surrounding Impacted Communities as a Superfund Site
Recommendation
Authorize the Mayor to submit a letter to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to support the designation of the former Exide Technologies, Inc. site and impacted neighborhoods as a Superfund Site.
Background
Exide Technologies, Inc. (Exide) was shut down in 2015 and the company declared bankruptcy in 2020 without investigating the full extent of the damage caused by their business practices and without cleaning up the known contamination that the State of California identified as coming from Exide’s operations. The EPA is overseeing partial demolition and clean-up of the facility; however, bankruptcy funds have failed to provide sufficient resources to complete the monumental task. Vernon is requesting designation from the EPA to the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) to ensure that the former Exide site and neighboring impacted communities are fully remediated.
In July 2022, the State of California requested that the EPA include Exide in the NPL of its Superfund program. Shortly thereafter, the City also issued a letter advocating for NPL listing of the site and neighboring communities. Superfund designation is reserved for contaminated sites where there is no associated viable financially responsible party. Due to the approved bankruptcy that led to the abandonment of Exide’s responsibilities, the contaminated site and the surrounding impacted communities qualified to enter the Superfund vetting process. Approximately two years later, Exide is now on the verge of being designated a Superfund site.
In its June 2024 Site Inspection report (the Report), EPA Region 9 highlighted that trichloroethylene (TCE) levels of 47 parts per billion were found in water extracted from a monitoring well at the facility. This reading is almost 10 times higher than the maximum TCE level allowed by the federal government in drinking water, which is five parts per billion. The Exide monitoring well is interconnected with four aquifers within two miles of the facility, from which 17 known active drinking water wells serve an estimated population of over 133,000 people. Based on the findings in the Report, EPA Region 9 has recommended that the Exide facility and surrounding communities be added to the NPL. In addition to the recommendation from the EPA, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, in a letter dated September 10, 2024, expressed its support for the inclusion of Exide and surrounding communities into the NPL (Attachment 2).
In concurrence with the collective recommendation of the EPA Region 9 and Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Council authorization is being requested to submit a second letter of support urging that the Exide facility and surrounding impacted communities be added to the official Superfund NPL listing in Spring 2025 (Attachment 1). Additional funding and agency collaboration and coordination are necessary to ensure that the clean-up of soil and groundwater, which started in 2018, continues without interruption and is completed as expeditiously as possible.
The City will continue to advocate for environmental mitigation, engaging its partnerships with the EPA, and State and local officials, to support the full and appropriate remediation of Exide contamination to ensure levels of lead and other harmful contaminants are absolved, and quality of life for impacted communities is aligned with California public health standards.
Fiscal Impact
There is no fiscal impact associated with this report.
Attachments
1. Letter of Support Urging the US EPA to Accept Exide into the National Priority List
2. Letter of Support from Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Advocating for Exide Site Superfund Designation