Today is a very, very good day for Boyle Heights.
The Exide battery recycling plant, the one that has been poisoning the air and ground in BH for decades, is shutting down. The company made a deal with the US attorney to close in exchange for the feds not pressing criminal charges for illegal dumping / release of lead and arsenic into the environment.
Obviously, it would be nice to see some people go to jail for all of the harm that plant has caused. But it’s in everyone’s interest to get the plant shut ASAP, even if it means forgoing retribution against some very bad actors.
Now the community can focus on cleaning up and moving on from this slow-motion environmental disaster.