Padilla Welcomes EPA Proposal to Add Exide Technologies – Vernon Site to Superfund National Priorities List
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) welcomed the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) announcement of the proposed addition of the Exide Technologies – Vernon site, located in Vernon, California, to the Superfund National Priorities List.
“For far too long, Southeast Los Angeles residents have suffered because of the dangerous contaminants that Exide dumped into their neighborhoods for decades. Today’s EPA announcement puts the Exide Vernon site on the pathway toward Superfund designation and justice for the many residents who have been impacted,” said Senator Padilla. “Southeast Los Angeles deserves an exhaustive clean-up that puts the health and safety of families first and foremost, and it will take a unified partnership between federal, state, and local leaders to finally get it done. I will keep working alongside my colleagues to ensure that our federal and state agencies complete a thorough clean-up of lead and other contaminants and keep our communities informed. And I’ll continue fighting to secure federal funding to support the EPA’s role in the clean-up.”
“The EPA’s announcement is a critical step forward to a full Superfund Designation and a full federal cleanup of the Exide site. I will be working tirelessly to make sure the EPA pursues the strongest possible lead cleanup and remediation effort, to the highest possible standard. The federal government must bring justice to a community which has been overlooked time after time,” said Representative Robert Garcia (D-Calif.-42).
Since July 2022, EPA has assessed the Exide Technologies plant, a former battery recycling plant located in southeast Los Angeles County, to determine if it qualified to be included on the National Priorities List of Superfund sites. The groundwater beneath the site is contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE). Three wells considered downgradient from the site have exhibited historical maximum TCE concentrations above the EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Act Maximum Contaminant Level. In addition, lead contamination in soils has been found in the on-site acid pits as well as in the residential neighborhoods around the site.
The National Priorities List is a list of known sites throughout the United States and its territories where historic releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants pose significant threats to human health and the environment.
Last year, Senator Padilla traveled to Southeast Los Angeles County to meet with community leaders and families impacted by pollution caused by the nearby former Exide Technologies Inc. facility and to call on EPA to designate the impacted neighborhoods as a Superfund site. Padilla and Representative Robert Garcia also urged EPA Administrator Michael Regan to designate neighborhoods in Southeast Los Angeles County as a Superfund site in February 2023. Padilla has called on the Department of Justice to improve enforcement of environmental laws in the Central District of California and explain their policy regarding the use of non-prosecution agreements that spare corporate polluters of criminal liability, specifically in communities in the Los Angeles area, which are severely impacted by multiple sources of pollution. Padilla also previously introduced legislation to establish an Office of Environmental Justice and an Environmental Justice Section at the Department of Justice to strengthen efforts at the Department to hold polluters in environmental justice communities accountable and support state and local environmental enforcement capacity.
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