SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — State lawmakers have agreed to a $177 million plan to clean up lead pollution left by a former battery recycling plant in Southern California.
Members of the Assembly on Thursday approved Gov. Jerry Brown's funding proposal to test and decontaminate thousands of homes surrounding the now-closed Exide Technologies facility in Vernon.
State analyses indicate the plant deposited lead dust across as many as 10,000 homes in southeast Los Angeles County. Arsenic emissions from the facility pose a cancer risk to as many as 11,000 people.
The state has already spent about $7 million to remove some 10,000 tons of lead-contaminated soil from the area.
The governor is expected to sign the cleanup plan as soon as a funding mechanism gets final approval in the Senate.