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Members of Congress asked the federal government to help clean up toxic lead contamination from the former Exide Technologies plant site. The plant in Vernon, California, is the source of the largest and most costly cleanup in California history. It plant operated near the Los Angeles River for nearly a century and was cited by local, state and federal officials for violating hazardous waste laws by emitting too much lead and arsenic around the plant and on state highways.
More than 10,000 properties are in need of lead contamination clean up and removal. 73 of 93 remediated homes had lead concentrations over the state health limit in their soil. In 22 of those homes, at least one sample exceeded the California state health limit threshold fivefold.
The state is currently overseeing the $750-million remediation effort and has, so far, spent more than $336 million to remediate nearly 4,400 properties.