Ivano Aeillo is a faculty member of Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, attached to San Jose State University in California. He has spent a decade monitoring the Elkhorn Slough Estuary not far from the site of the recent Vistra battery fire. His background provides a solid basis for assessing environmental pollution from big battery fires, including Vistra.
Heavy Metal Pollution From Moss Landing Big Battery Fire
Investigation is ongoing into the causes of the Vistra battery fire, not far from Moss Landing. However, what we do know is that the conflagration was so immense, that it may have damaged the concrete structure of the old turbine hall. But that damage is not the pollution from big battery fires concerning scientists now.
Aeillo and his team have detected unusually high concentrations of heavy-metal nanoparticles in marsh soils, at Elkhorn Slough Reserve. We understand these appeared after the nearby Vistra fire, according to the press release we link to below.
Understanding Heavy Metal Pollution 101
We are not scientists, and so we can only provide a very broad overview. From what we understand, heavy metal pollution is the contamination of soil, water, and air by nanoparticles of toxic metals. These metals include nickel, manganese and cobalt present in lithium-ion storage batteries.
The unusually high concentrations that Aeillo and his colleagues found, are hundreds to thousands of times greater than what the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories team noted in previous studies.
The research report in National Library of Medicine that we also link to below, confirms how heavy metal nanoparticles enter our environment. Some of these “affect biological functions and growth. While other metals accumulate in one or more different organs, causing many serious diseases such as cancer.”
New Measures to Address Pollution From Big Battery Fires
“These findings and the research that follows are crucial not only to the impacted community,” Aiello explains. “But also to the national and international community too, because of the need to store more power, and thus build more and larger storage battery facilities.
“This is a new and fast-growing technology, and we must understand the ecological impacts, in the event that accidents like this happen again.” Aiello and his team will continue monitoring the affected soils and waterways, on a short-and long-term basis.
More Information
Lithium-Ion Battery Fires More Frequent
Battery Storage and Green Energy Intertwined
Preview Image: Vistra Moss Landing Fire
