What blows up in Nipomo doesn’t stay in Nipomo

February 3, 2025

OPINION by ANDY CALDWELL

There are many more facilities like the one that blew up at Moss Landing planned for the Central Coast! We need to act now to ensure public safety is tantamount, as it affects these sites which present the potential for toxic fires/explosions.

This project does not just affect Nipomo residents, most of whom knew nothing about this facility. In Monterey County the evacuation zone from the Moss Landing disaster was eight miles away and the shelter-in-place zone was up to 20 miles away, while schools were closed up to 70 miles away.

An incident at the Nipomo Facility has the potential to impact much of the Central Coast.

Please make every effort to attend the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 4, at 9 a.m. The meeting is on the first floor of the government building located at 1055 Monterey Street in San Luis Obispo.

During general public comment, we are asking the supervisors to declare an emergency pause to the startup of the Nipomo battery energy storage system until the community is ensured that any and all safety precautions are in place for the public and first responders.

For more details, please read and share the following:

The County of San Luis Obispo has completely failed the citizens living in the area between Orcutt and Five Cities, including Guadalupe. All these communities are well within what I am going to refer as the toxic-gas blast zone, depending on wind conditions and inversion layers, for a new battery energy storage facility located in Nipomo, a mere 1,000 feet from the 101 freeway.

Whereas the SLO County government only bothered to notify residents within a mere 300 feet of the new project before construction began, up in Monterey County, where a similar type of battery plant just blew sky high, residents within eight miles of the facility were forced to evacuate. And upwards of 100,000 residents throughout the region were advised to shelter in place. Moreover, schools were ordered to be closed 70 miles away.

When the SLO County did environmental review of the possible impacts of the project on the community, they had the gall and temerity to determine it was not likely that the facility could create a significant hazard to the public or the environment through reasonably foreseeable upset and accident conditions involving the release of hazardous materials into the environment.

Tell that to the folks in Monterey County who are now living amidst a toxic waste site because of the fire and explosion that happened at Moss Landing battery storage site. In San Diego, two of their three battery facilities had fires too, one lasting two weeks.

At a minimum, the entire region should have received the following warnings and instructions that were buried online as it pertains to a mandatory evacuation or sheltering in place.

Before a Battery Energy Storage System facility incident, you are to do the following if you live or work near a facility: Build an emergency supply kit with the addition of plastic sheeting, duct tape and scissors. Make a family emergency plan and remember to include emergency planning for your pets. Ensure that you have signed up for emergency alerts. Know how to operate your home’s ventilation system because you are going to have to shut it off and seal it! Identify an above-ground shelter room with as few openings as possible.

Further instructions for sheltering in place include: Bring pets inside. Close and lock all exterior doors and windows. Close vents and fireplace dampers. Turn off heaters and air conditioners. Seal gaps under and around the following areas with wet towels, plastic sheeting, duct tape, wax paper or aluminum foil: doorways and windows, air conditioning units, stove and dryer vents. Avoid eating or drinking any food or water that could be contaminated. Note: ten square feet of floor space per person will provide enough air for up to five hours.

Again, these protocols could easily apply to everyone living in the area from Orcutt to Five Cities in the event of an emergency.

Wow! And they call this green energy? How come every single household in the region has not received a set of these instructions?

Moreover, one additional instance of gross negligence on the part of SLO County which approved this facility has to do with the fact that there was no mention, no planning, and no evaluation or concern issued regarding the fact that dozens of farmworkers work the fields in the immediate vicinity of this facility.

Andy Caldwell is the executive director of COLAB and host of The Andy Caldwell Radio Show, weekdays from 3-5 p.m. on News-Press Radio AM 1290.

 


Loading...
12 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Apparently the people commenting here in favor of battery plants in our populated areas haven’t kept up. Heavy metals such as nickel, cobalt and manganese have been found within a two mile radius of the battery plant, polluting the estuary and the town. These heavy metals are not good for humans and other living creatures (duh).


One commenter opines that there have been no deaths from battery plants in the US. So we should wait until there are deaths before we ban them from populated or environmentally sensitive areas? How many animals are going to die from the Moss Landing catastrophe? Or does that not matter?


There are transmission lines criss-crossing the state. We can put a battery plant anywhere. It makes absolutely no sense to put them in our populated areas. For our politicians who advocate for battery plants in our towns, I would like to know how many of them are on the take from the battery storage companies.


There is a battery storage site next to the 101, and situated in the heart of Goleta’s business park, and quite near the flight path of the Santa Barbara Airport. I cannot imagine the damage and residual water poisoning should that one explode.


Shilling much for the fossil fuel industry, Andy?


If worrying about the community, because of a less than stellar safety record of flaming storage batteries spewing hundreds of tons of toxins into the air, soil, and water, then yes.


We will shill for whatever industry that can safely and efficiently, create and support energy production.


There have been exactly zero deaths caused by energy storage facilities in the United States. The fossil fuel industry has no such record. In fact, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that the fatality rate for oil and gas extraction workers is 27.1 deaths per 100,000 workers, compared to 3.8 deaths per 100,000 workers for other US workers.


Add to that the climate and pollution fallout from fossil fuels and I would say that there is no comparison in safety between the two energy sources.


Strange. According to the Bureau Of Labor Statistics, your 27.1 per 100,000 fatalities, does not show up on the list of occupation deaths. It does show that truckers and delivery drivers are the closest to your 27.1, but oil, oil extraction, or the oil industry as a whole, is not listed in the “top ten”. Heck, roofers die at over 50 per 100,000. Don’t you have a roof?


The BLS is most certainly NOT the CDC, who has proven over the years to produce a cause for their pre-determined conclusion. BTW, what disease does the oil industry release, that would concern the Center For Disease Control? Remember, this is the same government entity that proclaimed guns, are a plague.


Yeah. I’ll take the word of people that study jobs and occupations instead.


Almost forgot. There have also been zero deaths directly associated with nuclear power generation, in the USA. So, you know, there’s that.


End the Taxpayer subsides that support this insane nonsense.


Know why Texas is running laps around California in renewable energy and housing affordability? It’s because nosey NIMBYs don’t try and stop literally everything from being built. Californians, progressives and so-called-conservatives, always whining for another 10 environment impact report, and another 50 meetings of community input; everyone and their dog has a veto. Can’t cut down a tree or add electricity to the grid without cries of bloody murder. So sad how we dug our grave like this.


There is absolutely no reason these need to be located in such populated areas. They could easily be located several miles a away from cities.


Have you volunteered your backyard, L.B.?


BTW, it wasn’t all that long ago, that Texas renewable energy went completely dark, thanks to the weather those sources depend on…


There are huge transmission lines that traverse the Cariso Plains, a good place for them batteries too.


Good point, next to the solar pannels.