Following the January 2025 fire at Vistra’s battery energy storage facility in Moss Landing, California, the EPA has announced that the final phase of cleanup is now underway.
On January 16, 2025, a fire broke out at Vistra’s 300-megawatt battery energy storage facility in Moss Landing. The facility contained approximately 100,000 lithium-ion battery modules, of which about 55% percent were damaged in the incident. The fire continued until January 18 and experienced a flare-up on February 18, 2025. EPA has remained involved in the response since the first night of the fire.
Damaged lithium-ion batteries pose an ongoing risk of fire
Lithium-ion battery fires can produce hydrogen fluoride and other flammable or toxic gases. To reduce the risk of another fire, the building was stabilised and all accessible batteries were delinked, removed from the fire-damaged building, and de-energised for safe transport to EPA-approved recycling facilities.
Over the past year, EPA oversaw the first phase of battery removal work, targeting the removal and preparation of as many batteries as were safely accessible for recycling off-site at EPA-approved facilities. During this time, EPA also oversaw work to stabilise and demolish portions of the fire-damaged Moss Landing building. This work allowed crews to access, remove, de-energise, and transport nearly 40,000 intact batteries for recycling, including more than 5,600 batteries accessed over the past several weeks. Batteries from the first phase were sent to EPA-approved recycling facilities in Nevada and Ohio.
EPA are overseeing cleanup works that are paid for by Vistra
Vistra is considered a potentially responsible party under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).
In July 2025, the company entered into an Administrative Settlement Agreement and Order on Consent, in which Vistra agreed to perform and pay for the costs of battery removal and disposal under EPA’s oversight. EPA will continue to oversee cleanup activities at Moss Landing 300 until the batteries and related materials have been removed from the site.
Debris will now be transported offsite
“The beginning of the final phase of battery removal at Moss Landing is a huge milestone in this unprecedented lithium-ion battery cleanup,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Mike Martucci. “Thanks to our experts’ coordination and close oversight, we’re one step closer to safely eliminating the threat of these potentially dangerous batteries once and for all.”
Following the cleanup of Moss Landing batteries that were safer to access, Vistra, under EPA’s oversight, has now begun removing all remaining, previously inaccessible battery material. To safely transport this material off-site for disposal at specialised facilities, severely damaged batteries will first be treated on-site at Moss Landing. This remnant battery material and fire debris will be tested for waste characterisation purposes, and finally sent for proper disposal at EPA Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)-approved facilities. EPA intends to post these waste characterisation sampling results on its Moss Landing webpage. Material that can be isolated for recycling will continue to be recycled at appropriate facilities.
During this final phase of the cleanup, Vistra will continue the complex process of demolishing the fire-impacted building to allow for the removal of the remaining batteries. Air monitoring and air sampling activities, fire and smoke watch, water collection and testing, battery temperature monitoring, and dust mitigation and suppression activities – such as the application of encapsulants – will continue throughout the process as necessary to immediately detect any safety risks and protect workers and the surrounding community.
Vistra will activate an EPA-approved response plan if any fire incident occurs on-site. Based on current projections, EPA anticipates the battery removal process and building demolition will be completed in mid-2027.
