MOSS LANDING — The Monterey County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to enact a proclamation of local emergency related to the Vistra Energy fire at the Moss Landing Power Plant that started Jan. 16, causing a large fire that burned lithium batteries, sent smoke and potentially fumes into the air and resulted in in an evacuation and road closures for the Moss Landing area.
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The board hosted a special meeting Tuesday, to get an update on the fire and to hear from the public, many with concerns and questions about the future of the plant and environmental health.
Kelsey Scanlon, director of the Monterey County Department of Emergency Management, gave a presentation, detailing the steps county officials took to mitigate the fire. There was a total of four road closures, 1,200 people were evacuated and 37 were sheltered. The evacuation lasted about 24 hours.
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“It is extremely important to highlight how efficient and effective the response was from start to finish, this timeline demonstrates a very aggressive and conservative approach to protecting health and safety,” Scanlon said.
Several departments and districts in Monterey County got hundreds of calls in the past few days from the public asking about air quality and if there was any potential for hazardous material in the air. The Environmental Protection Agency reported that a majority of the fumes burned during the fire and the remaining smoke was not hazardous to the public. County officials reiterated that message Tuesday, attributing the recent “moderate” air quality to numerous wood fires during the winter season.
“We remain fairly confident that there was no adverse impact associated with emissions from the plant fire, we did not do speciation of chemicals found because that would be a pretty exhaustive and expensive process to do.” said Richard Stedman, air pollution control officer from the Monterey Bay Air Resources District. “The air quality while it did go into moderate, was not associated with the fire, it was more associated with wood fires.”
First responders and personnel have begun to leave the incident site after mitigating the fire this week. All four buildings at the Moss Landing Plant remain offline until further notice.
Supervisor Glenn Church recently called for all of the Moss Landing buildings in the plant to remain offline until there is a full investigation done on the cause of the fire.
During the meeting, Church made a motion for the Board of Supervisors to write a letter to Vistra and PG&E, requesting both plants will stay offline until the investigation is complete.
“I know we can’t control it, but it’s a request,” Church said. “Neither plant be turned back to the power grid until the incident cause is known and they are in compliance with SB 38.”
The board unanimously approved Church’s motion.
