Air and Water Quality Data from Escondido Fire Show Minimal Contamination

Energy storage is essential to decarbonize electricity supplies, but some communities have expressed concern about the safety implications of proposed energy storage facilities. While the energy storage industry strives to minimize the likelihood of BESS incidents, the findings of two recent reports add further evidence demonstrating that fires at energy storage facilities produce emissions that are comparable to other structure fires and pose minimal risk for public health and the environment.

On September 19, two weeks after the September 5 fire that occurred at an energy storage facility in Escondido, the City of Escondido released two reports on the findings of the air and water quality monitoring that took place during the incident. The air quality data came from 11 different locations monitored by San Diego County HAZMAT and 17 locations monitored by Haley & Aldrich, Inc., an engineering and environmental compliance firm under contract with SDG&E, the operator of the facility. The stations were located approximately 100 feet to as far as 4,000 feet from the affected container and monitored six toxic gases. The equipment only detected the presence of two of the monitored gases, carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide, but readings for both gases were well below acceptable limits. The report concludes that “… only normal products combustion [sic] of a structure fire were detected and at levels considered by NIOSH and OSHA to be well below exposure thresholds.” 
 
Samples of runoff water were assessed for the presence of 17 toxic metals. The analysis detected some level of six of the 17 metals, but the report notes that the concentrations were well below EPA drinking water standards and the runoff “poses minimal risk to both human health and the environment." 

Both reports are available here.