2023 Los Angeles Times investigation<\/a>, which cited preliminary soil testing results, found that state-hired cleanup crews often did not remove contaminated soil from next to buildings, walkways and trees, where backhoes and other excavators can\u2019t get in \u2014 areas that require a shovel.<\/p>\nIn some cases, workers mishandled contaminated soil, spreading it onto neighboring properties. The state did not offer soil testing to confirm the properties met state standards after the cleanup, leaving many skeptical their homes were actually clean. <\/p>\n
Mark! Lopez, a community organizer with East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice and a co-author of the study, had long heard complaints from residents and raised concerns about the cleanup. The findings, he said, substantiated many of those claims. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe results are worse than we feared,\u201d said Lopez, who led teams in collecting soil samples from 2021 to 2024. <\/p>\n
When they released initial data, he said, \u201cDTSC was trying to deny its validity … Now that can\u2019t be denied.\u201d <\/p>\n
A DTSC spokesperson said the agency could not accept the study\u2019s findings without more information.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is impossible to evaluate the conclusion of the UC Irvine study without the underlying data and methodology,\u201d the agency spokesperson said. \u201cThat information has not been shared after multiple requests.\u201d <\/p>\n
No cleanup ever replaces every particle of soil, the agency said. \u201cThat said, DTSC has carried out an unprecedented cleanup near the former Exide facility, completing work at more than 6,000 homes, the largest residential cleanup of its kind in the nation. This work confirms DTSC\u2019s commitment to protecting the health of residents.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the team shared results with state officials, DTSC committed to perform soil testing at 100 homes that had their work done early in the process, before procedures underwent an overhaul. The agency also has paid for post-cleanup testing at the most recently cleaned homes. None of that data has been published, and it\u2019s unclear if DTSC intends to order crews to return to homes that have lead contamination above state standards. <\/p>\n
In addition, DTSC now has third-party supervisors monitoring cleanup work. <\/p>\n
Johnston and fellow researchers also tested more than 620 samples from 200 homes outside the official 1.7-mile cleanup area. Almost all, 89%, had lead levels above state standards, suggesting Exide\u2019s pollution may have traveled farther than the cleanup zone designated by the state. <\/p>\n
Some level of lead blankets many urban areas, because of lead paint, leaded jet fuel and tailpipe exhaust from leaded gasoline. But the researchers believe much of this pollution was attributable to Exide. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s because at the direction of state regulators, Exide sampled homes in Long Beach, about 14 miles south, in a similar neighborhood close to freeways, a rail yard and older homes \u2014 but without a lead smelter. Lead concentrations were far lower than in Southeast L.A. County.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe essentially saw lead level patterns that mimicked lead levels in the community \u2014 before cleanup,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cSo the vast majority of homes exceeded state thresholds.\u201d<\/p>\n
DTSC officials have said lead contamination also could have been from older homes with lead paint or leaded gasoline in cars. <\/p>\n
Community leaders have pushed for extending the cleanup area to remove hidden threats in those areas, even as many still worry about residents whose properties already have been cleared. They don\u2019t want residents to have a false sense of security that their property is clean when many still are laced with lead.<\/p>\n
Johnston said some of the risks could\u2019ve been avoided if the state committed to proper safeguards, such as post-cleanup sampling, sooner.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that process started early on and is done in a way where residents and the broader community had transparency to that data, we could have addressed\u201d hot spots of contamination and other neighborhood concerns, she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Homes near a former battery recycler in Southeast Los Angeles County still have excessive lead in their soil,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[4742,1827,15929,115363,1073,115359,48,52,51,115361,47,50,49,39541,288,115360,6259,115362,10585,225,1968],"class_list":{"0":"post-262689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-agency","9":"tag-cleanup","10":"tag-dtsc","11":"tag-exide","12":"tag-home","13":"tag-jill-johnston","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-la-headlines","16":"tag-la-news","17":"tag-lead-level","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","20":"tag-los-angeles-news","21":"tag-new-study","22":"tag-resident","23":"tag-residential-property","24":"tag-soil","25":"tag-soil-sample","26":"tag-standard","27":"tag-state","28":"tag-work"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Exide](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775915713_623_.jpeg\")
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