70% of 'remediated' LA yards still exceed lead limit
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- UC Irvine researchers analyzed 1,128 soil samples from 373 properties near the former Exide Technologies smelter and found 70% of remediated homes exceeded California's 80 ppm lead safety threshold, with an average contamination level of 215 ppm.
- The Exide Technologies facility in Vernon, California operated from 1922 to 2015, processing up to 40,000 lead-acid batteries per day and releasing an estimated 3,500 tons of lead over its final three decades before a 2015 U.S. Department of Justice action forced its closure.
- California's $176.6 million cleanup removed soil exceeding 80 ppm within a 1.7-mile radius of the site but required no post-cleanup verification testing — and 89% of samples from homes outside that boundary also exceeded safe levels.
- The affected neighborhoods are more than 90% Hispanic, predominantly low-income, and home to more young children than the LA County average, with lead exposure linked to irreversible developmental damage in kids and cardiovascular disease in adults.
- Community-driven advocacy from East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice translated the preliminary findings into concrete policy changes, including mandatory post-cleanup verification testing, a state-funded third-party monitor, a biweekly Exide working group, and expanded free blood lead testing through LA County.
- Lead investigator Jill Johnston called the result 'a systemic failure in how this cleanup was designed and verified,' noting researchers also found evidence of recontamination as toxic dust continues to migrate through the environment.
Why it matters: California spent $176.6 million on a flagship environmental cleanup that left 70% of treated yards still hazardous to children, and the failure was concentrated in low-income, majority-Hispanic neighborhoods already bearing disproportionate pollution burdens — making this both a public health crisis and a test of whether post-cleanup verification will become standard practice for the state's other contaminated sites.
