City of Industry battery recycler gets operating permit from state

A lead-acid battery recycling plant in City of Industry — the site of numerous air toxics emissions and possible soil contamination in nearby residential neighborhoods — received a permit to operate last week for the first time in 19 years.

Ecobat Resources California, Inc., formerly Quemetco, Inc., has been operating on an August 2005 permit that technically expired in 2015. The new draft Hazardous Waste Facility Operation Permit, issued on July 16, 2024, was a victory for the embattled hazardous waste facility, which has survived calls from the communities of Hacienda Heights, Avocado Heights, La Puente, Bassett and North Whittier to shut down.

The permit was issued by the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, which said the new permit “would impose stricter standards and increase financial insurance funding to protect public health and the environment in Los Angeles County.”

Although the company asked for 10 years, the permit is only good for five years. The company also asked to increase the number of car batteries they can crush and melt down, and for an increase in its hours of operation. They were denied by DTSC.

The 13-acre facility, at 720 South 7th Avenue in City of Industry, roughly 15 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, demolishes 600 tons of lead-acid automotive batteries per day, according to a 2019 report from Los Angeles County.

The DTSC sued the company, operating as Quemetco, for 29 violations of state hazardous waste laws and other violations in October 2018. In December 2022, the company agreed to a $2.3 million settlement in Los Angeles Superior Court. The settlement included many required fixes at the plant and led to issuing the new permit.

“Ecobat has a history of repeatedly violating state laws in handling toxic substances such as lead, which has endangered the health and safety of workers and residents in San Gabriel Valley communities for decades,” according to a statement from First District Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis released on July 16.

In 2016, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) found that air emissions created an unacceptably high risk of cancer. Between 2017 and 2019, the plant was issued two notices of violations for going above permitted levels of arsenic emissions. Arsenic is a known human carcinogen.

The company told this newspaper in February 2023 that it agreed to resolve past violations though disputed many raised by DTSC. It has invested $50 million in new pollution control equipment since 2008. “The company is proud to be the cleanest lead recycling facility in the world, and it continually meets or exceeds all applicable environmental standards and requirements,” according to a statement.

The permit conditions applied by DTSC add numerous operating restrictions. The state agency says the restrictions will prevent further releases of cancer-causing chemicals.

The permit, not yet a done deal, requires Ecobat to do the following:

• Come up with a plan to further investigate “historical lead emissions that may have impacted residents’ yards nearby.”

• Conduct soil samples around the facility’s perimeter and also within 0.7 miles surrounding the plant.

• Stop using a building that contained hazardous waste — namely stored old car batteries, some of which have been crushed — until it can build and install leak detection systems.

• Install a new air pollutant monitoring station within the community. And then make its data on air toxic components and levels available to the public.

The DTSC also requires that the company sets aside $25.3 million, up from $8.5 million, to pay for cleanup relating to closure.

“We have a permit, finally. And that is a good thing,” said Rebecca Overmyer, co-founder of the Clean Air Coalition of North Whittier and Avocado Heights on Monday, July 22. “It does appear to put in more stringent regulations and requirements.”

But Overmyer said the group had many questions. For instance, the storage of the vehicle batteries in what is called a batch house, remains an issue. “They didn’t end up actually fixing that when they settled,” she said, saying it should have been ordered fixed years ago by DTSC instead of being part of the new operating permit.

She said one of the best parts of the permit is the addition of more air pollution and air toxics monitoring in the community.

She said the group commissioned its own air monitoring and results showed detectable levels of lead, copper and chromium but at levels within acceptable standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

A public hearing hosted by DTSC will be held on Saturday, Sept. 14, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., at the Hacienda Heights Community and Rec Center,1234 Valencia Ave., Hacienda Heights. A second hearing will be held in October. No date has been announced.

Send written comments to: Sam Coe, DTSC project manager, 8800 Cal Center Drive, Sacramento, CA, 95826. Comments can be sent to the DTSC website: www.dtsc.ca.gov/ecobat-public-comment/. All comments must be received by 11:59 p.m. Nov. 18.

DTSC will review comments and then make a final decision.