The Monterey County Division of Well being continues testing close to the location of the Moss Touchdown Battery Plant Hearth. The county launched preliminary findings Jan. 31, reporting that eight websites had been examined close to the battery plant looking for cobalt, manganese, copper and nickel.
“The preliminary results suggest that emissions from the lithium battery fire impacted surface soil in and around Site 8, where all four heavy metals exceeded screening levels in XRF Scan 4,” the county’s report learn. “Preliminary results for metals at Sites 1 through 7 are below screening levels, except for cobalt.”
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Officers with the Monterey County Division of Environmental Well being couldn’t give a timeline on how lengthy testing would take.
“These are screening results, they’re not to be taken as final results or a final conclusion,” mentioned Ric Encarnacion, the director of the county Division of Environmental Well being, throughout a county briefing on Wednesday. “We’re also looking in the surrounding communities to make a full assessment.”
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The county was made conscious of the current research performed by analysis scientists at San Jose State College and officers mentioned they might use that information to coordinate with their very own.
“There’s much more that need to be done and coordinated,” Encarnacion mentioned. “We’re working with our partners at the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment so that they can interpret the findings and evaluate.”
Brad Watson, the senior director of group affairs at Vistra, mentioned the staff onsite to mitigate the incident was nonetheless there, however there have been no flare ups not too long ago. The current rainfall slowed among the planning course of to maneuver the remaining batteries out of the constructing.
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“There was concern about what to do with the existing batteries that are still there at the site,” Watson mentioned. “We took drones up earlier today and we didn’t see any problems developing.”
Watson mentioned the constructing remains to be thought of unstable, and no crews have gone inside to take away the batteries but.
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