U.S. battery producer to close facility for environmental protection

U.S. Battery producer and recycler Exide Technologies has agreed to immediately and permanently close its lead-acid battery recycling plant in Vernon, a small city neighboring Los Angeles, for environmental protection.

According to the agreement reached on late Wednesday, Exide Technologies will pay 50 million U.S. dollars to clean up the site of the facility and the surrounding area, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Thursday.

The Exide facility in Vernon produced a host of hazardous wastes, including lead, cadmium, arsenic and volatile organic compounds.

"After more than nine decades of ongoing lead contamination, neighborhoods can now start to breathe easier," Acting U.S Attorney Stephanie Yonekura said.

The company is also required to expedite the funding of a 9-million-dollar trust fund that will be used to clean up 216 nearby residences in Boyle Heights and Maywood.

Robert M. Caruso, Exide's president and chief executive officer, said he recognizes "the impacts that closing the Vernon facility will have on our approximately 130 employees and their families", local media reports.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles estimated that Exide's direct costs of the compliance are well in excess of 100 million dollars, including the company's walking away from recent improvements to the facility and incurring new costs for lead and plastic that must be purchased to manufacture new batteries.

Prosecutors said it entered into a non-prosecution agreement because negotiations with the bankrupt company revealed that just the threat of criminal charges would almost certainly force its liquidation, leaving government agencies responsible for cleaning up the Vernon plant.

The non-prosecution agreement (NPA) also opens the door to new funding for the company, which employs thousands of workers in the United States and around the world, prosecutors said.

In addition to the commitments to close the Vernon facility and pay for associated clean-up costs, Exide has acknowledged criminal conduct, including illegal storage, disposal, shipment and transportation of hazardous waste.

In the NPA, Exide admits that it "knowingly and willfully caused the shipment of hazardous waste contaminated with lead and corrosive acid" in leaking van trailers from Vernon to Bakersfield and did so "a significant number of times over the past two decades, in violation of federal law."

Each incident could be charged as a felony violation of the federal Hazardous Materials Transportation Act, according to the document.

Prosecutors said the admissions of criminal violations were important because Exide agreed that it could be prosecuted at any time over the next 10 years if it fails to abide by the terms of the NPA.

A violation would include failing to adequately finance clean-up efforts at the recycling facility, a program that will be overseen by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control. Endi