When disaster strikes, who should we believe?

Sara Rubin here, thinking about what has changed for an industry and for local communities since a fire began six days ago at Vistra Corp.’s Moss Landing battery storage plant. 

As many people have said, this disaster represents something of a turning point. While utility-scale lithium ion battery plants like the two in Moss Landing (next-door to Vistra, PG&E operates a plant) are not brand new, awareness of the potential worst-case scenarios is just emerging. There are lots of unanswered questions from the public and from elected leaders about what went wrong and why, and the potential risks. 

The fire began at 3pm on Thursday, Jan. 16, then started spreading throughout the warehouse-type facility that housed some 100,000 battery modules. One thing that is clear is that something went terribly wrong. 

Also clear is that despite assurances from officials in various agencies that there was no immediate risk to human health, many people doubt those assurances. Members of the public report headaches, a toxic smell, or a metallic taste in their mouths. 

County Supervisor Glenn Church, whose North County District 2 includes Moss Landing, said one constituent reported an oily film in the horse trough; another found a strange odor on sweaters that had been hanging out to dry. People want to know the nuts and bolts details of what this means: Is the water in the trough safe for the animals, are the sweaters safe to wear? What’s with the metallic taste? 

The official response has been that monitoring data—gathered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a non-biased third party, in addition to CTEH, a contractor employed by Vistra—is that the most dangerous byproducts of a chemical fire like this one did not exceed the threshold for human safety anywhere outside the facility. 

In remarks to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors yesterday, Jan. 21, Monterey Bay Air Resources District Air Pollution Control Officer Richard Stedman said air quality was mostly impacted by wood smoke: “We feel fairly confident that there was no adverse impact associated with emissions from the plant fire.” 

Fairly confident might be true, but not necessarily the reassuring language of certainty that people want.

Stedman also blamed media outlets for fanning the flames, so to speak. “We did have some setbacks, particularly with the newsmedia improperly and erroneously reporting that air quality throughout the Monterey Bay region was hazardous or unhealthful,” he said. 

The EPA’s raw data has been posted to the County of Monterey’s website. I think this kind of transparency is the best possible thing our government can do in a crisis like this—share the data. Of course, no amount of transparency will necessarily assuage a general distrust that is in the air. 

“When you tell us it’s wood smoke, we are not confident,” said North County resident Ed Mitchell. “We’re skeptical of that. We need more information.”

Information, in theory, should be the antidote to distrust. There are lots of questions that need to be answered, including Church’s examples and beyond. But will the public believe those answers? 

The Board voted 5-0 yesterday to create an ad hoc committee to advance the information-gathering process. But whether people accept whatever information they bring forward remains to be seen. 

“What we come out with has to be something the community can trust,” said Supervisor Chris Lopez. “The challenge I see, possibly the biggest, is rebuilding that trust.”