EPA facing monumental battery cleanup after LA wildfires

(NewsNation) —The Environmental Protection Agency is facing a monumental challenge clearing up batteries after the California wildfires, a task they’re calling the biggest lithium-ion battery cleanup in the history of the agency.

Southern California is the nation's biggest market for electric vehicles EV and hybrid cars. Each EV contains about 7 to 10,000 small batteries.

Cleanup consists of crushing and then taking the remnants to a proper site for toxic waste disposal.

While there still aren’t concrete numbers as to how many electric vehicles will need to be cleared, officials are estimating that the number is well into the thousands.

“EPA is undertaking the largest wildfire cleanup in the history of the agency. We’re not going to wait days or weeks or months to ramp up," EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who was confirmed by the Senate for the role late last month, said in a statement. "We have over a thousand personnel on the ground to aid Californians, and our local, state, and federal partners, in Los Angeles’s recovery."

"The Trump administration is tackling this head-on in a way that EPA couldn’t possibly be prouder to be a part of,” he added.

According to the EPA, it has completed reconnaissance at 6,022 properties affected by the Eaton and Palisades Fires. The agency has also removed 80 electric vehicles and bulk energy storage systems, which pose risks to both public safety and the environment.

Cleanup operations are expanding, with 1,050 response personnel now in the field, up from 478 last week, and an additional 280 personnel being mobilized.

The Trump administration ordered the cleanup to be completed in 30 days, which leaves EPA officials little time to undertake the massive responsibility.

The deadly wildfire that ravaged Lahaina, Hawaii, in 2023, destroyed more than 2,000 buildings, which took the agency more than four months to clear hazardous materials. In Southern California, the EPA now faces going through nearly 15,000 structures in one month. They must also face where the toxic waste is being processed and packaged.

Residents in areas near the Eaton fire have spoken out against a waste removal site in the area near the San Gabriel foothills saying there was no consultation or warning that the area would become an EPA processing site.

The densely populated Los Angeles area only has a few sites concave for disposal. The EPA recently added a parking lot at Will Rogers State Beach for the processing.

As their deadline looms closer, agency workers will continue around the clock to clear out the toxic debris.

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