Figure 1
DTSC Has Divided the Cleanup Site Into Seven Zones
Figure 1 is titled, “DTSC Has Divided the Cleanup Site Into Seven Zones.” Figure 1 is a map that shows the percentage of properties cleaned within each of the seven zones of the Exide cleanup site boundary. Although the former Exide facility is located in the City of Vernon, the cleanup site extends into portions of the cities of Los Angeles, Huntington Park, Commerce, Bell, Maywood, and unincorporated Los Angeles County.
Zone A—indicates 29 percent of properties are clean.
Zone B—indicates 31 percent of properties are clean.
Zone C—indicates 35 percent of properties are clean.
Zone D—indicates 24 percent of properties are clean.
Zone E—indicates 23 percent of properties are clean.
Zone F—indicates 19 percent of properties are clean.
Zone G—indicates 17 percent of properties are clean.
The area within the cleanup site not identified in the labeled zones contains the former Exide facility, industrial, and/or commercial properties. These properties are not part of the DTSC’s off-site residential cleanup plan because Exide has acknowledged that the operation of it facility negatively impacted these areas and planned to clean them under separate efforts. The source for this graphic is DTSC’s property cleanup records.
Figure 2
Key Events in the Exide Cleanup Timeline
Figure 2 is titled “Key Events in the Exide Cleanup Timeline.” Figure 2 is a timeline graphic describing key events in the Exide Cleanup between March 2014 and April 2020. Some of the key events shown in the figure include the following:
March 2014—Exide ceases operations at its Vernon, California facility to address emission concerns raised by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
March 2015—The United States Department of Justice and Exide reach an agreement requiring Exide to permanently cease operations and close the facility.
August 2015—The State provides $7 million in emergency funding to allow DTSC to perform emergency cleanup activities and analyze soil samples.
April 2016—The State lends DTSC $176.6 million for activities related to the investigation and cleanup of properties contaminated with lead in the communities surrounding the cleanup site.
July 2017—DTSC finalizes its environmental impact report and its cleanup plan. The plan indicates that DTSC will clean 2,500 of the most contaminated properties with its available funding. However, the plan also indicates a broader goal to clean additional lead-contaminated properties.
June 2019—State lends DTSC $24.5 million to complete the cleanup of the most contaminated properties. The State also lends it an additional $50 million to clean another 700 properties.
April 2020—DTSC instructs one of its cleanup contractors to stop work on cleaning any further properties because of the contractor's greater-than-expected costs.
The source for this graphic is DTSC’s cleanup plan, environmental impact report, contracts, and state appropriations.
Figure 3
Certain Sensitive-Use Properties Remain Contaminated Years After DTSC Learned About Dangerous Levels of Lead
Figure 3 is titled “Certain Sensitive-Use Properties Remain Contaminated Years After DTSC Learned About Dangerous Levels of Lead.” Figure 3 is a graphic that describes 31 contaminated properties that DTSC has not cleaned as of June 2020.
The graphic shows four images. The left image represents a battery recycling facility. The remaining three images represent childcare centers, parks, and schools. The graphic explains that 26 childcare centers, three parks, and two schools remain to be cleaned by DTSC. The source for this graphic is the analysis of DTSC’s July 2017 cleanup plan and property cleanup data as of June 30, 2020.
Figure 4
DTSC Will Likely Miss Its Targeted Completion Date for Cleaning 3,200 Highly Contaminated Properties
Figure 4 is titled, “DTSC Will Likely Miss Its Targeted Completion Date for Cleaning 3,200 Highly Contaminated Properties.” Figure 4 is a line chart graphic describing DTSC’s average pace of properties cleaned per week during June 2018 through December 2022.
DTSC’s established a target of June 30, 2021, to clean the 3,200 most contaminated properties identified by soil sampling at the cleanup site. However, DTSC’s average pace of cleanup from March 2019 through February 2020 was only 20 properties per week. At this pace, the figure shows DTSC will not clean all 3,200 of these properties until December 2021, causing it to miss its target date by months.
However, as of August 2020, DTSC’s current pace with only one contractor working has been an average of only 16 properties per week. The figure shows that if DTSC maintains its current pace of 16 properties per week, it will not complete its cleanup of the 3,200 properties in its initial cleanup efforts until August 2022. The source for this graphic is DTSC’s cleanup plan and actual cleanup pace.
Figure 5
DTSC Will Not Have Enough Funding to Clean 269 Properties It Planned to Clean
Figure 5 is titled “DTSC Will Not Have Enough Funding to Clean 269 Properties It Planned to Clean.” Figure 5 is a graphic that describes how DTSC does not have enough funding to clean all 3,200 properties it estimated it could clean.
The graphic background is a neighborhood with buildings representing 3,200 properties within the Exide cleanup site. A small portion of the buildings represents properties DTSC will not have enough funding to clean. A large portion of the buildings represent properties DTSC does have enough funding to clean. Text at the top of the graphic indicates DTSC estimated it could clean 3,200 of the most contaminated properties using $251 million in funding. Text at the bottom of the graphic indicates 269 of these properties will remain contaminated when DTSC exhausts this funding. The source for this graphic is the analysis of DTSC’s cleanup plan, budget change proposals, and property cleanup data.
Figure 6
DTSC Cleaning the Entire Cleanup Site Will Cost About $630 Million
Figure 6 is titled “Cleaning the Entire Cleanup Site Will Cost About $631 Million.” Figure 6 is a graphic that describes the estimated cost to clean all contaminated properties in the cleanup site.
The graphic is an image of a stack of papers, the paper at the top of the stack is titled, COST ESTIMATE. The first line states, to date, the cost to clean 1,529 properties is $122 million. The second line states, the cost to clean the remaining 6,375 properties is $509 million. A footnote for the remaining 6,375 properties indicates the cost figures include DTSC’s cost to clean properties along with its administrative costs, operating legislatively mandated jobs program, and cost recovery efforts. However, it does not include soil sampling costs which will total $18 million. Lastly, the total estimated cost to clean all contaminated properties is $631 million. The source for this graphic is the analysis of DTSC’s financial reports and property cleanup data.