Moss Landing battery fire: Officials give update on preliminary findings of heavy metals near site

The Monterey County Department of Health continues testing near the site of the Moss Landing Battery Plant Fire. The county released preliminary findings Jan. 31, reporting that eight sites were tested near the battery plant searching 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 read. “Preliminary results for metals at Sites 1 through 7 are below screening levels, except for cobalt.”

RELATED: New bill would allow California communities to decide where battery plants are located

Officials with the Monterey County Department of Environmental Health could not give a timeline on how long testing would take.

“These are screening results, they’re not to be taken as final results or a final conclusion,” said Ric Encarnacion, the director of the county Department of Environmental Health, during a county briefing on Wednesday. “We’re also looking in the surrounding communities to make a full assessment.”

The county was made aware of the recent study done by research scientists at San Jose State University and officials said they would use that data to coordinate with their own.

“There’s much more that need to be done and coordinated,” Encarnacion said. “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 community affairs at Vistra, said the team onsite to mitigate the incident was still there, but there have been no flare ups recently. The recent rainfall slowed some of the planning process to move the remaining batteries out of the building.

RELATED: Burning Teslas, fried battery storage systems in Los Angeles add to toxic mix hindering wildfire cleanup

“There was concern about what to do with the existing batteries that are still there at the site,” Watson said. “We took drones up earlier today and we didn’t see any problems developing.”

Watson said the building is still considered unstable, and no crews have gone inside to remove the batteries yet.