Lawsuit Over Toxic Battery Fire in California

When is Green Technology not so green? Residents sue energy firms after toxic battery fire at Moss Landing - Los Angeles Times

After a massive lithium-ion battery storage site exploded into flames in Monterey County — spewing toxic gases into the air and scattering heavy metals over the ground — residents have filed a lawsuit accusing multiple energy companies of failing to maintain adequate fire safety at the facility.

Monterey County, which includes Monterey Bay, is about an hour drive south of San Jose.

Lithium Ion batteries make sense for our phones. They are relatively lightweight in comparison to the energy density. Battery installations that do no move, like power stations, or your home solar installation, do not need lightweight batteries since they never move. There are better choices.

Also lithium ion battery fires are a major problem, for several reasons. First there are the fires themselves.

Lithium-ion battery fires are notoriously hard to extinguish because the use of water can trigger a chemical reaction that causes more batteries to ignite. As these batteries burn, they release a toxic cocktail of gases, including hydrogen fluoride, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds.

Hydrogen fluoride is a corrosive gas that can kill, after it burns you.

And aside from the fires, there are other problems.

In the fire’s aftermath, heavy metals have been measured at levels 100 to 1,000 times higher than normal in soil within a mile of the facility, and residents have reported experiencing skin, eye and respiratory irritation.

But don't worry, the people pushing this Green Technology insist that there is nothing to worry about.