Addressing battery storage facility risks in San Diego County

Earlier this week, the Board of Supervisors was faced with critical decisions on how to handle the growing concerns around battery storage facilities across the County. Battery storage is becoming a significant issue in San Diego County, especially in North County.

We've seen three significant fires across the county at different facilities in the past year alone. Just last week, a fire at a battery storage facility in Escondido burned for multiple days, and last year, a fire at a large warehouse in East Otay Mesa raged for over two weeks. In Valley Center, another facility caught fire just last September.

While I appreciate some of the measures the Board took to address these incidents, including the implementation of more extensive fire suppression technical reports and the requirement for a fire protection engineer's study on fire safety design, these steps alone fall short of what we need.

Without a moratorium on new battery storage facilities, especially in large warehouses where fires are difficult to extinguish, we're not taking sufficient action to protect our communities.

I could not support the approved measures because they do not stop the approval of new facilities until we have better planning and zoning standards, as well as fire suppression and detection technologies in place. We cannot afford to allow new applications to proceed while these risks remain unresolved.

The battery storage industry must prioritize safety and compatibility with communities before any more of these facilities are sited near neighborhoods, schools, or environmentally sensitive areas. The toxic smoke and fumes generated by these fires pose a hazard to both public health and the environment, and we need to act decisively to prevent future incidents.

My commitment remains to the safety of our communities, and I will continue to push for more robust measures to address this growing concern.