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[Brian Johnson, DTSC] Last spring we issued Exide a temporary order
to suspend their operation. We received two pieces of information that gave us pause and
great concern. Those two pieces of information were that they had leaky pipes. We were concerned
they were releasing hazardous waste subsurface on a continual basis. As well as a risk assessment
that was done by the South Coast Air Quality Management District that indicated that there
were elevated levels of risk from their arsenic emissions. So at that point when we received
those we shut that facility down. Through a number of court proceedings we ended up
ordering Exide to resolve that suspension. We gave them what's call a "Stipulation and
Order" it's an enforcement order that lays out the specific conditions that they have
to meet if they chose to reopen. Our Job is to protect the public health of
communities across the state and we have a particular commitment protecting those community
members that who are most vulnerable. This most recent order is another in a series of
orders that we have given to Exide to conduct work that makes sure that they are not posing
a risk to community around them. There are two things that are very important in this
order. The first is that they are going to go out and do additional sampling. More focused
concentrated detailed sampling in these two neighborhoods that they have sampled already
and on top of that they are going to be moving out...stepping away from these neighborhoods
to see how far out this lead contamination actually is in the community. The second most
important step in this order is the requirement that they propose to us and they actually
conduct some initial steps that minimize the exposure for pregnant women and children.
We want them out there within the next three or four weeks making sure that they take whatever
steps are necessary at those homes where there are pregnant woman and children.
They have been operating at that facility since the 1920s and our lines of evidence
have allowed us to conclude that they are a contributor to the lead that we're finding.
Lead is a potent neurotoxin, we've known about this for decades if not centuries, it is particularly
potent for young children under five or six years old because their developmental systems
are in process and lead has a tremendous impact on that system. For pregnant women it is problematic...it
can be problematic for the fetus as well. So we picked two areas that were identified
as the most likely effected from emissions from the Exide plant and one of these neighborhoods
is north and one of these neighborhoods is south. In addition, there are two schools
that were a little bit further away that were some of the nearest schools that we wanted
to have sampled as well. We asked them to go out and sample in these areas and they
were looking for arsenic lead and a number of other contaminants that could be associated
with the operation of that facility. I'm very pleased to say that we do not find elevated
levels of arsenic nor of any of the other chemicals. That was the good news. The difficult
news is what we had was these higher concentrations just above and in some case well above that
health protective screening level. While it's not an emergency situation, we responded immediately
to have Exide...and having Exide go out and take the next steps to evaluate and to make
sure that where we find these concentrations...that it's not posing a risk to any of our most
vulnerable community members. This work with the soil and dust sampling if they do not
comply there are stipulated automatic penalties in our order...up to ten thousand dollars
per day if they don't comply. In addition, we have all of the statues and authorities
that DTSC has been granted to chase polluters and make sure that they take responsibilities
accountable. We are in this permit evaluation process all of these elements go into our
consideration of whether this facility is willing and capable of operating a safe facility
and we are in that determination period right now and the jury is still out.
We have worked very closely with the Los Angeles County Health Department...their childhood
lead prevention program as well as our state partners at the Department of Health and provided
a number of recommendations for residents to take some precautions to protect their
own health in this short interim period. And those are as simple as washing their hands
and their children's hands when they come in from playing outside, keeping their kids
away from playing in bare soil, washing fruits and veggies that you might grow in your own
garden outside in the yard, putting perhaps a floor mat in front of your door so that
you're not tracking soil and dust from the yard into the home. We're encouraging residents
to participate in the blood sampling program that the Los Angeles County Health Department
is offering in April. It is a voluntary program that's offered to residents all around Exide.
I think it's a very important step beginning to understand whether or not there are health
impacts in the community. Keeping this community informed of paramount importance to us because
we know that this is an energized and aware community and they are very focused on this
Exide Facility. Once we had the findings from this report of the soil contamination we reviewed
it and immediately reached out to the residents whose homes...there was thirty nine homes
that were sampled in these two neighborhoods. We have been on the phone with them. We have
sent them mailings. We've offered individual meetings so that we can talk with them and
help them understand what we've found. We've also reached out to the neighborhoods in which
these homes exist so that that neighborhood has an understanding of what's going on with
their neighbors. On top of that we've reached out to the whole broader Maywood, Boyle heights,
Vernon area with notifications that the soil sampling has been complete, this is what we've
found and we're holding two meetings...public workshops on March 18th and 19th at the Los
Angeles Resurrection Church with Father John Morretta as our host and we will have county
health there. We will have our own staff there. We will have hopefully the Air Quality Management
District to answer questions and concerns for the community so that we can listen...we
can understand what folks are worried about and what they feel confident about...what
kind of questions they have so that as we craft this path forward that we have a clear
understanding of what this community wants and needs.