"At a press briefing two days into the fire, Olivia Trombadore of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said air quality monitoring did not show dangerous levels of particulate matter or hydrogen fluoride. "We have not seen any levels of these two contaminants that would pose a risk to the public," she said. The EPA's air monitoring, as well as the air sampling performed by Vistra's consultant CTEH, which tested for specific metals, only occurred in the immediate vicinity of the battery plant."
"In a Monterey County health survey that was open from Feb. 19 to Mar. 16, 1,275 responders reported experiencing at least one symptom after the fire. The reported symptoms include headaches, itchy eyes, shortness of breath, and even the lingering taste of metal. Most of the respondents lived well beyond the soot plume modeling area. "We abandoned our house 12 days after the fire," said local resident Brian Roeder, who spoke to KAZU in December."
A battery plant fire in Moss Landing prompted evacuation orders for about 1,200 residents on Jan. 16, later lifted after the fire subsided. EPA air-quality monitoring and Vistra contractor CTEH sampling did not detect dangerous particulate matter, hydrogen fluoride, or concerning metal levels in the immediate vicinity of the plant. Monitoring locations were chosen based on a soot-plume model that extended only a few thousand feet from the facility. A county health survey found 1,275 respondents reported symptoms such as headaches, itchy eyes, shortness of breath, and metallic taste, with many respondents residing well beyond the plume-model area. Some residents, including families in Prunedale, reported ongoing illness and relocated.
Read at Kqed
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]