A toxic plume, collateral damage, and a lack of scrutiny.
MOSS LANDING, Calif.—Around dusk on Jan. 16, Brad Beach was checking on his small herd of Texas Longhorn cattle—a majestic bull named Tex, two cows and three calves, grazing about two miles inland from California’s central coastline.
Beach saw smoke blowing from the coast, where two towers mark the distinctive silhouette of an energy plant. Shortly after leaving the herd, he noticed a massive fire had broken out at the plant and came back to get his cattle, only to be turned away by the California Highway Patrol, which had the area on lockdown as residents were evacuated.
“I showed up the following day,” Beach told The Epoch Times. “There was nothing that was going to stop me.”
By then, he recalled, the cattle were heavily distressed. “They’re saying, ‘Dad, save us.’”
The animals continued to exhibit distressed behavior. Three weeks later, one gave birth to a stillborn calf.
“She was actually very strong, the strongest of the herd—genetic-wise and all around. This would have been her third [calf],” Beach told The Epoch Times at his ranch in Chular, California, on Feb. 17.
Four stillborn goats followed.
“Every season differs,” Beach said. “But when there are major changes in reproduction all at the same time, the question is, what can do this? There are multiple herds and different species having the same issues. I’ve never seen so many stillborns ever in a season.”
As yet, Beach can’t prove pollutants emitted during one of the biggest battery storage fires in history impacted his animals. But like other residents in the region who continue to experience symptoms, even as authorities assure them there is no threat, he has questions.
The fire that exploded Jan. 16 at Vistra Energy’s Moss Landing facility, which houses 110,000 lithium ion batteries used to store solar energy for the electric grid, resulted in a 1,000-foot plume of smoke that carried a cocktail of airborne toxins as it rose and fell, zigzagging across the windy agricultural basin.
Without a protocol in place for fighting a lithium battery fire of this magnitude, firefighters said they were forced to let it burn until it ran out of fuel. Lithium batteries are pyrophoric, meaning they can ignite spontaneously with exposure to air or water, making their fires tricky to extinguish.
The smoke eventually cleared, February brought rains, and authorities continued to assure residents there was no health threat, based on data from air, soil, and water monitoring.
Unlike the fires that ravaged Los Angeles County at the same time, no homes were destroyed, there were no fatalities, and around 1,200 people were briefly evacuated.
But Moss Landing caught authorities on the back foot.
