Elevated levels of heavy metals found in Elkhorn Slough following Northern California lithium battery facility fire
The plant is one of the world's largest lithium-ion battery storage facilities.
The fire at the Moss Landing Vistra Power Plant, located about 90 miles south of San Francisco, broke out on January 16 in the afternoon, escalating in the early evening to the point where the incident triggered evacuations for about 1,200 Monterey County residents in the area and shut down a section of Highway 1 in both directions.
One supervisor described the fire as a "Three Mile Island" event for the emerging lithium-ion battery industry. Last Tuesday, Monterey County supervisors declared a state of emergency in response to the Moss Landing fire.
As part of long-term monitoring at the slough, the scientists analyzed soil samples shortly after the Jan. 16 fire. Environmental concerns had been raised about the fire and its proximity to the sensitive wetlands area.
The university said Monday that field surveys, conducted within a radius of approximately two miles from the power plant, measured a dramatic increase in marsh soil surface concentration of three heavy metals: nickel, manganese and cobalt. This dramatic increase relates to both the shallow subsurface and the baseline measurements conducted in the area before the fire, according to the university.
Analysis revealed that the metals, found as nanoparticles ranging from 1 to 20 microns in size, are components of cathode materials used in lithium-ion batteries, linking their presence to airborne emissions from the fire. According to a university press release, these metals may chemically transform as they spread, potentially impacting ecosystems and food webs.
"Elkhorn Slough hosts a tremendous diversity of plant and animal life and has been designated a Globally Important Bird Area by the National Audubon Society and the American Birding Conservancy," according to the Nature Conservancy.
The conservancy first purchased the wetlands for conservation in 1971, transferring 750 acres to the Elkhorn Slough Foundation in 2012 for continued management.
Dr. Ivano Aiello, marine geology professor and department chair at MLML's research team, said it was important to understand ecological risks associated with battery technology, given the growing need for large-scale energy storage. His team will continue monitoring affected soils and waterways.
"These findings and the research that follows are crucial not only to the impacted community but to the national and international community because of the need to store more power and thus build more and larger battery storage facilities," said Dr. Aiello, who is a marine geology professor and department chair at MLML. "This is a new and fast-growing technology, and we must understand the ecological impacts in the event that accidents like this happen again."
Assemblymember Dawn Addis D-Morro Bay, responded to the finding in a public statement Monday.
"I am alarmed and deeply concerned to hear the high concentrations of heavy metals have been identified within one of our most cherished and fragile ecosystems, Elkhorn Slough and its surrounding areas," said Addis. "These concentrations are directly linked to the battery energy storage fire. This is why I stand firm in my call for independent investigations by the CPUC and expect all environmental data to be taken into consideration."
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Miami Herald
07-07-2025
- Miami Herald
Smaller nuclear reactors spark renewed interest in a once-shunned energy source
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Robison's words are being echoed across the country with new state laws that aim to accelerate the spread of projects that embrace advanced nuclear technology - decades after the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl calamities soured many Americans on nuclear power. In the past two years, half the states have taken action to promote nuclear power, from creating nuclear task forces to integrating nuclear into long-term energy plans, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute, which advocates for the industry. "I've been tracking legislation for 18 years, and when I first started tracking, there were maybe five or 10 bills that said the word 'nuclear,'" said Christine Csizmadia, who directs state government affairs at the institute. "This legislative session, we're tracking over 300 bills all across the country." The push is bipartisan. In New York, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul recently directed the New York Power Authority to build a zero-emission advanced nuclear power plant somewhere upstate - her state's first new nuclear plant in a generation. In Colorado, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis in April signed legislation redefining nuclear energy, which doesn't emit a significant amount of planet-warming greenhouse gases, as a "clean energy resource." The law will allow future plants to receive state grants reserved for other carbon-free energy sources. But no state is more gung-ho than Texas, where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott recently signed legislation creating the Texas Advanced Nuclear Energy Office and investing $350 million in nuclear expansion. "Texas is the energy capital of the world, and this legislation will position Texas at the forefront of America's nuclear renaissance," Abbott wrote in a statement. In addition to legislative action, the Texas A&M University System has invited four nuclear manufacturers to build small modular reactors at the school's 2,400-acre RELLIS campus in the city of Bryan. In Texas and other fast-growing states, rising electricity demands are fueling the push. Tech companies such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon that require a tremendous amount of electricity to power vast data centers are teaming with nuclear developers to provide it. Last October, Google signed an agreement with nuclear energy producer Kairos Power to deploy multiple small modular reactors capable of generating a total of up to 500 megawatts by 2035. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced in December that it is also looking to reach a similar deal. Some of the largest data centers require more than 100 megawatts of power capacity, enough to power around 100,000 U.S. households. Constellation Energy announced last September that it would reopen Three Mile Island, shuttered since 2019, as part of a deal with Microsoft to power the tech giant's AI data centers. One of the two reactors at the plant, which is located south of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, partially melted down in 1979. But the remaining reactor reliably produced electricity for the next four decades. "Folks shouldn't sleep on nuclear," Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro said as he welcomed back workers to the plant recently. "They should be aware of the important clean role it plays in our energy portfolio." But opponents say the renewed interest in nuclear energy is misguided. In Colorado, a coalition of two dozen environmental groups, including the state chapter of the Sierra Club, urged Polis to veto the bill. "The idea that nuclear power is a clean energy source could not be further from the truth," the groups wrote in a letter to the governor. 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The oldest began operating at Nine Mile Point in New York in 1969; the newest reactors, Vogtle Units 3 and 4 in Burke County, Georgia, began operating in 2023 and 2024. Scott Burnell, a spokesperson for the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said that between the mid-1990s and 2005, there were "no applications at all" for new reactors. In 2007, there was a surge of a dozen applications when the federal government began offering tax incentives. But interest in new reactors plunged again when the fracking boom boosted fossil fuels as an economical power source. Over the past several years, activity has ramped up again. "There are a number of factors that we are seeing drive this increased interest," Burnell said. "Probably the biggest one is the growth in data centers." The commission has approved three new nuclear projects in the past three years, including the one at Abilene Christian University. It is reviewing three other applications and is discussing potential projects with a dozen other nuclear developers, Burnell said. Texas currently has two nuclear plants - Comanche Peak near Glen Rose in North Central Texas and the South Texas Project in Matagorda County on the Gulf Coast. The two plants, each of which has two reactors, provide about 10% of the state's electric power, according to the Texas comptroller. The new small modular reactors would face the same safety standards as these plants. The project at Abilene Christian began when Robison's Natura Resources established a research alliance with that school, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the project in 2024. 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Robison said he's been speaking at town halls in Abilene, a conservative community that is home to Dyess Air Force Base, for about five years. He claims the residents are "overwhelmingly excited" about having the small modular reactors at Abilene Christian, he said. "Texas is an energy state," he said. "We understand energy and what happens when you don't have it." Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
CBS News
13-06-2025
- CBS News
New report shows massive plunge in planet's emperor penguin population
Emperor penguins may live in some of the most remote and environmentally pristine regions in the world, but that doesn't mean they're safe from the impacts of a warming planet. Just ask Dr. Birgitte McDonald, a researcher at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. For 15 years, she's studied emperor penguins and how they dive, swim, and forage for food. A new report published in "Nature" has deepened her concern about the penguins' survival. "This report wasn't too surprising but a little depressing at how fast it seems to be happening in one region," remarked McDonald. The report involved scientists from the British Antarctic Survey. For 15 years, they've monitored 16 colonies of emperor penguins via satellite imagery. These colonies represent roughly a third of all the emperor penguins on earth. A new analysis of the satellite data has detected a higher and more dramatic decline in the birds' populations. Five years ago, the scientists found a 9.5% drop. The updated data shows a startling 22% drop. "Overall, the picture is quite poor, it's quite dire for the penguins," remarked Dr. Peter Fretwell. Fretwell is the lead author of the new analysis. The warming of the planet is thinning and destabilizing the sea ice that is critical for the breeding and molting of the penguins. There is more competition for available food amongst all the creatures in the area. In addition, scientists are detecting more extreme weather in the forms of more rainfall and storms. Increasing extreme weather is a hallmark of climate change. "The chicks are well insulated with their down but the down only really works if they stay dry. And so, if there is a lot more rain, the chicks will have to spend more energy trying to stay warm. So going out to sea for the first time at a lighter weight and that could decrease their chance of survival," explained McDonald. As to what we can do to slow the warming, McDonald offered some advice: fly less, try more carpooling and driving less, and eating less meat. These are all small steps but if large enough people practice them, McDonald noted, there could be a difference. Here are more ideas on how you can reduce your carbon footprint.
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Yahoo
Yosemite's ultra-deep canyon may have been carved in part by a ghost volcano and river, provocative research suggests
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A provocative new hypothesis suggests that Yosemite Valley was carved by an ancient volcano and a disappearing river, both of which have long since eroded away. Geologists have long debated why Yosemite Valley is so deep, with walls that tower up to 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) above the valley floor. The prevailing explanation is that in the last 10 million years, the Sierra Nevada mountains of California experienced a period of uplift, steepening their slope and causing the rivers to flow more quickly and erode more quickly into the granite around them. But a new study, published April 3 in the journal Geosphere, suggests uplift wasn't the real reason Yosemite exists. Instead, said study co-author Manny Gabet, a geomorphologist at San Jose State University, the landscape of Yosemite and the surrounding Sierras is better explained by a long-vanished river. Millions of years ago, this river would have increased the flow to the modern day Merced River and Tenaya Creek, which would have then had enough power to slice through the Sierras to create Yosemite Valley and nearby Tenaya Canyon. "At some point in time," Gabet told Live Science, "there was a big river here. And now that river is gone." Geologists agree that in the last 2 to 3 million years, Yosemite was under a glacier that helped deepen the valley. But they also believe that this glacier filled a pre-existing deep valley, said Kurt Cuffey, a geologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the new research. "So why did the canyon form in the first place?" Cuffey said. There are a lot of faults on the east side of the Sierra Nevada that likely would have caused the mountains to rise and get steeper, Cuffey told Live Science. But geologists can't say how much higher the mountain range got, or if it was high enough to substantially increase the erosive power of the rivers. It's a controversial topic, he said. Uplift also doesn't explain three odd observations, Cuffey said. The first is that Tenaya Canyon, a steep and treacherous canyon that runs from Tenaya Lake into Yosemite Valley, is way too deep to have been cut by the stream that runs through it today, Tenaya Creek. "It's just a really small river," Gabet said. "You can jump across it. The mystery is, how did this tiny creek cut through thousands of feet of very resistant, very massive granite?" The second mystery is that in California's Central Valley, where the Merced River spills out of Yosemite and creates a fan-shaped layer of sediment it has carried from the mountains, there are huge deposits of volcanic rock that shouldn't be there. "You've got 8 cubic miles [33.3 cubic kilometers] of volcanic sediment deposited in the Central Valley by the Merced River, but you can't find a scrap of these volcanic rocks," in the area around the river, Gabet said. The third mystery has to do with the uneven shape of the valley cut by the Tuolumne River just north of the Merced, Cuffey said. This valley is much larger on one side than the other. It's a relatively subtle point to a non-geologist, but "that needs an explanation," he said. Gabet's hypothesis harkens back to 5 to 10 million years ago, when a chain of volcanoes had buried the northern Sierra Nevada in huge mudflows, creating a gently sloping volcanic plain with only a few mountain peaks poking out of it. These deposits are still seen north of Yosemite, but not in the area around the Merced River. "I realized these volcanic rocks that had been transported by the Merced River must have come from this chain of volcanoes," Gabet said. The peaks of such a volcanic chain would have been drained by a large, now lost river, he said. This river would have flowed from now-vanished volcanic slopes north of where the National Park is today and then gushed into the ancient Merced and Tenaya Creek, enabling them to carve out Yosemite Valley and Tenaya Canyon. RELATED STORIES —Flowing fire? Yosemite's burning waterfall explained —Photos: Take a tour of spectacular Yosemite —Earth's crust is peeling away under California The influence of this river would have made both the Merced and Tenaya Creek much larger than today's relative trickle — so large that they could have cut down the canyons. The drainage patterns from this ghost river would also explain the lopsided topography around the Tuolumne River , Cuffey said. Finally, the river would have carried the volcanic rock now found in the Central Valley down from the northern Sierra Nevada, a journey that is hard to explain otherwise. The river and volcano would have themselves eventually eroded to nothing, so there is no way to check if they ever existed. One of Gabet's students is now working on a project to try to recreate the ancient topography of the Sierra Nevada to better understand how the geology of the mountains evolved and perhaps shed more light on the possibility. "He's got a really interesting thing going," Cuffey said of Gabet. "I really don't know if it's true or not at this point, but it's a great hypothesis that we should think about."
