Moss Landing battery fire: Officials give update on preliminary findings of heavy metals near site

February 6, 2025

The Monterey County Department of Health continues testing near the site of the Moss Landing Battery Plant Fire. The county released preliminary findings Jan. 31, reporting that eight sites were tested near the battery plant searching for cobalt, manganese, copper and nickel.

“The preliminary results suggest that emissions from the lithium battery fire impacted surface soil in and around Site 8, where all four heavy metals exceeded screening levels in XRF Scan 4,” the county’s report read. “Preliminary results for metals at Sites 1 through 7 are below screening levels, except for cobalt.”

Officials with the Monterey County Department of Environmental Health could not give a timeline on how long testing would take.

“These are screening results, they’re not to be taken as final results or a final conclusion,” said Ric Encarnacion, the director of the county Department of Environmental Health, during a county briefing on Wednesday. “We’re also looking in the surrounding communities to make a full assessment.”

A fire rages out of control at the Vistra battery storage plant, one of the world’s largest, in Moss Landing, Calif., on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

Smoke drifts across railroad tracks along Dolan Road in Moss Landing on Jan. 16 as fire rages at Vistra Energy power plant’s battery storage facility. (Shmuel Thaler – Santa Cruz Sentinel)

Smoke and flames are seen from Castroville as a fire at the Vistra battery storage plant burns in Moss Landing, Calif., on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. Less than two weeks after the fire, scientists affiliated with San Jose State University discovered levels of toxic metals at more than 100 times the normal background levels in soils at Elkhorn Slough, roughly two miles away. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

A haze wafts across Dolan Road in Moss Landing Thursday night as fire blazes at the Vistra power plant’s battery storage. (Shmuel Thaler – Santa Cruz Sentinel)

The moon rises over Elkhorn Slough as fire blazes Thursday night at the Vistra power plant’s battery storage facility in Moss Landing in northern Monterey County. (Shmuel Thaler – Santa Cruz Sentinel)

Fire blazes Thursday night at the Vistra power plant’s battery storage facility in Moss Landing in northern Monterey County. (Shmuel Thaler – Santa Cruz Sentinel)

Smoke and flames are seen from Castroville as a fire at the Vistra battery storage plant burns in Moss Landing, Calif., on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

A fire rages out of control at the Vistra battery storage plant, one of the world’s largest, in Moss Landing, Calif., on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

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A fire rages out of control at the Vistra battery storage plant, one of the world’s largest, in Moss Landing, Calif., on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

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The county was made aware of the recent study done by research scientists at San Jose State University and officials said they would use that data to coordinate with their own.

“There’s much more that need to be done and coordinated,” Encarnacion said. “We’re working with our partners at the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment so that they can interpret the findings and evaluate.”

Brad Watson, the senior director of community affairs at Vistra, said the team onsite to mitigate the incident was still there, but there have been no flare ups recently. The recent rainfall slowed some of the planning process to move the remaining batteries out of the building.

“There was concern about what to do with the existing batteries that are still there at the site,” Watson said. “We took drones up earlier today and we didn’t see any problems developing.”

Watson said the building is still considered unstable, and no crews have gone inside to remove the batteries yet.