MOSS LANDING — A brand new knowledge dashboard is now on-line and out there to the general public to trace the place environmental testing and monitoring have taken place throughout Monterey County and neighboring counties in response to the hearth at Vistra’s Moss Touchdown battery plant again in January.
A Geographic Data System, or GIS, is a pc system that analyzes and shows knowledge linked to particular geographic places. The brand new interactive dashboard permits customers to search out outcomes of water and soil testing, along with screening outcomes collected all through the Moss Touchdown space courting again to Jan. 17.
The location will proceed to be up to date as extra testing outcomes are analyzed, together with the latest samples collected as a part of the Neighborhood Sampling Plan.
Because of the giant quantity of air monitoring knowledge, the dashboard is being up to date in phases. A few of this knowledge has already been included, and the remaining data can be added over time to make sure accuracy and completeness, in keeping with county officers Tuesday.
The GIS dashboard brings collectively knowledge from a spread of dependable sources to supply a complete view of environmental circumstances. Contributors embody the Environmental Safety Company, Vistra’s environmental advisor, the California Division of Poisonous Substances Management and the Monterey County Environmental Well being Bureau, to call a number of.
Departments and organizations from Santa Cruz County may even contribute, along with native grassroots neighborhood teams like By no means Once more Moss Touchdown, who contributed screening knowledge.
Monterey County employees labored with well being consultants to search out knowledge to assist verify for doable well being dangers. The dashboard can present take a look at outcomes that meet or go above sure well being ranges in addition to notify customers when new data is discovered.
Monitoring will proceed throughout particles removing and website cleanup. Due to this, new knowledge won’t all the time be added immediately or on a daily schedule, in keeping with officers.
The hearth on the Vistra battery plant began Jan. 16, triggered the evacuation of 1,200 folks within the Moss Touchdown space, launched smoke and poisonous heavy metals and saved Freeway 1 closed for 3 days. One of many largest electrical energy suppliers in the US, Vistra stacked 100,000 batteries in an ageing concrete constructing at a former Nineteen Fifties-era PG&E pure fuel plant when it constructed the ability 5 years in the past.
Earlier this month, PG&E knowledgeable Monterey County it plans on reactivating its Elkhorn Battery Storage Facility in Moss Touchdown by June 1 after turning it off in January in response to the Vistra battery hearth. On Sept. 20, 2022, a single Tesla Megapack battery caught hearth at PG&E’s battery facility inflicting officers to shut Freeway 1 within the space as a precaution. The hearth was extinguished and didn’t unfold into adjoining megapacks or gear.
The complete website and extra data could be discovered at www.mtyhd.org/MossLandingBatteryFireDashboard.
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