You can never predict how local officials may react to citizen pressure. Often I suspect that the media's posture plays a role in that course; so far, the media accounts that I have read have been fairly impartial on Vernon. I actually think that the plant could be shutdown, again, but Exide has strong grounds for an appeal, as the prior shutdown and reopening demonstrated. I do not see anything in the Vernon case that can't be fixed, and I don't see the additional cost as being life threatening, but I can make no promises on that. This is not, however, The Love Canal or the BP/Gulf oil spill in magnitude. I actually suspect the cost of fixing Frisco may well be higher.
There is another wildcard in the mix of responses, should Vernon be closed. There are only two smelters in the Western U.S., and the RSR/Quemetco smelter in C.O.I., CA is smallish. It would also have to be bound to the same standards as Exide since it functions in the same, basic neighborhood as Vernon, meaning it, too, would likely have to be closed. Exide could simply decide to cease taking back junk batteries in Western Markets due to transportation costs and no place to reprocess them, elsewhere. This would force California to deal with millions of old, dirty and frequently leaking lead/acid batteries, themselves or risk them getting dumped in landfills with catastrophic consequences that would make Vernon's emissions issue look like a sunday school picnic.
The interesting thing in that scenario arises from lead tolling arrangements, a longstanding factor in battery manufacturing logistics. The battery sales guys at Exide, Johnson Controls, East Penn and Ramcar may hate each other, but the lead guys are like a fraternity... they talk, get along and horsetrade all the time because it serves everyone to do so. So JCI sends its junk batteries to Exide and in turn buys back processed lead from them... and so forth. If Vernon closes, NO battery supplier in the West has either a source of reprocessed lead, except RSR IF it stays open... and NO place to send their junk batteries for reprocessing. And with the last primary smelter now closed, that means there is NO lead anywhere for new batteries to be produced unless more Easterly smelter capacity can be expanded, which is unlikely in any kind of narrow timeline.
Were this to actually happen, which I think would be quickly reversed as the true impact began to be felt, Exide's two, remaining smelters would quite literally be worth their weight in gold.
Fear not. Sanity will prevail in Vernon, IMHO.
Yank
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