Portions of the closed Exide Technologies lead-acid battery recycling plant in Vernon are wrapped in white plastic. A federal bankruptcy judge’s decision to let Exide Technologies abandon its shuttered battery recycling plant in Vernon only compounds the injuries the plant inflicted on the surrounding community. Residents, state regulators and environmental experts had pleaded with Judge Christopher Sontchi in Delaware to block the consent decree Exide negotiated with the U.S. Department of Justice, to no avail.
The deal approved Friday provides just a few million dollars to clean up what Exide left behind — a tiny amount considering that the plant’s toxic contamination stretches into the surrounding neighborhoods, exposing residents to brain-damaging lead, cancer-causing arsenic and other pollutants. It’s an outrage that a company can rake in profits for decades while polluting the community and then be allowed to walk away from its responsibility to clean up the mess, leaving state taxpayers to pick up the tab.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state will appeal the decision, but it’s unclear how much money the state can realistically recoup from the company. Too bad California’s leaders didn’t fight this hard before Exide’s bankruptcy settlement. The fact is, the state’s environmental agencies […]
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