Vernon, CA shares a dubious association with Frisco, TX; Baton Rouge, LA; Atlanta, GA; and other cities: their soil, air, and water have been contaminated by the battery recycler, Exide Technologies. Vernon, CA is one of many toxic hot spots, in California and across the nation, where homes and schools are one door away from polluting industries.
Exide has operated their battery recycling facility on South Indiana Street since 2000. Since then, the company has built an impressive pollution rap-sheet. Air quality regulators (South Coast Air Quality Management District) deplored the serial violator as a “higher cancer risk to more people than any of more than 450 facilities the agency has regulated… in the last 25 years.” The consequences of Exide’s pollution are recorded in people’s bodies: residents witness their family members and neighbors develop major illnesses and children’s development become stunted.
On April 2013, officials warned that over 110,000 residents were at a heightened cancer risk from arsenic emanating from the Vernon plant. In March 2014, soil testing by state officials revealed lead contamination at 80–1000 ppm in the areas surrounding the Exide facility.
In response to these health threats, regulators suggested that residents wash their hands.
CBE will be doing more than washing our hands. In conjunction with the Vernon community and allies, CBE is stepping in to end Exide’s lead and arsenic contamination of our communities. Stay tuned as this campaign develops.