Batteries from thousands of electric vehicles may require toxic waste disposal.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is addressing the safe disposal of burned and damaged electric vehicle batteries as part of the cleanup of the California wildfires. Southern California is the largest market for electric vehicles in the country.
Lithium-ion battery specialist with the EPA, Chris Myers, said, “There’s a lot of energy in there. A thermal runaway event is an unintended chemical reaction within the battery itself. So, they do create a toxic and harmful and potentially flammable and explosive atmosphere when they fail.“
“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 stated. “We have over a thousand personnel on the ground to aid Californians, and our local, state, and federal partners, in Los Angeles’s recovery.”
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For wisdom for Administrator Zeldin and EPA personnel as they oversee the remediation and disposal of the EV batteries.
- For federal, state, and local officials as they continue to work on recovery from the devastating wildfires.
Sources: The Hill, NewsNation, ABC7
