From Never Again Moss Landing
Press release
September 24, 2026
– – – –
CONTACT: Brian Roeder
INFO@NEVERAGAINMOSSLANDING.ORG
831-737-0689
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24th, 2026
PRESS ADVISORY: MEDIA EXPOSÉ & ANNOUNCEMENT
“GAMED” AIR DATA, IGNORED WARNINGS, AND THE REIGNITION
CRISIS: WHISTLEBLOWER REVELATIONS OF DATA FALSIFICATION VS
NEW SCIENTIFIC FINDINGS AT MOSS LANDING
MOSS LANDING, CA — On Friday, September 25, 2026, at 9:00 AM PST, community advocates and independent environmental investigators will hold a high-impact media briefing directly in front of the damaged Vistra facility
stacks.
Following the September 18th reignition of the Moss Landing battery complex—and explosive federal whistleblower revelations detailing how corporate contractors manipulated toxic air monitoring data— presenters will reveal how testing was “gamed,” why public agencies were left blind to active plume contents, and how scientists and an independent team is taking matters into their own hands.
EVENT DETAILS
- WHEN: Friday, September 25, 2026, at 9:00 AM PST
- WHERE: Behind the former Whole Enchilada restaurant, 7902 Highway 1, Moss Landing, CA 95039
- SPEAKERS:
– Tonya Rivera, and Brian Roeder, Co-Founders of Never Again Moss Landing
– Ed Mitchell, Lead Investigator for Never Again Moss Landing
– Scott Smith, Nationally Recognized Independent Environmental Investigator & Testing Expert - WHAT: Whistleblower Disclosures Linking CTEH Practices to Moss Landing Oversight: On September 23, 2026, The Wall Street Journal exposed a sworn federal whistleblower complaint filed by the Government Accountability Project
against Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health (CTEH) – Now rebranded as Onterris—Vistra’s client-retained environmental contractor at Moss Landing. - Whistleblower Bombshells:
– The whistleblower affidavit details widespread practices where field teams documenting the East Palestine train derailment disaster were pressured to produce “zeroes” or non-detects, downgrade toxic exposure readings, and manipulate air monitoring data—raising immediate questions about the validity of safety claims issued to the Moss Landing community.
– Testing methods were structured to minimize recorded exceedances of state and federal health-based screening thresholds.
– Allegations detail the deliberate miscalibration or relocation of handheld monitoring instruments away from visible toxic plumes and downwind residential areas to artificially dilute baseline concentration measurements.
– Sampling data for volatile organic compounds (VOCs), particulate matter, and combustion byproducts was routinely filtered, delayed, or selectively released.
– Throughout the January 2025 fire and subsequent cleanup phases, the EPA, Vistra and CTEH have repeatedly assured the citizens of the Monterey Bay Area that air sampling showed “no levels of concern” or health risks outside the site facility fence line. The whistleblower disclosures cast immediate doubt on the
integrity and accuracy of these claims.
– CTEH operates as a client-retained contractor whose financial compensation flows directly from corporate polluters. The report highlights how this structure creates an inherent conflict of interest, prioritizing liability
mitigation for facility owners over public health protection.
– The whistleblower was also deployed to the Moss Landing site in the immediate aftermath of the January 16th 2025 explosion. - Presentation of Independent Testing Findings by Scott Smith:
– Nationally recognized environmental investigator Scott Smith will present background on CTEH’s ongoing efforts to hide and minimize the toxic impacts at the East Palestine OH, Moss Landing, and other industrial disaster sites while in the employ of corporate toxic polluters.
– Smith’s findings directly challenge reports produced by Vistra, CTEH, and Terraphase Engineering that claimed no health-based thresholds were exceeded or that no further health evaluations were warranted. - Anatomy of the September 18th Reignition & Mismanagement:
– NAML will demonstrate how site operators, the U.S. EPA, and state regulatory bodies failed to state the actual risks to the public or prepare for predictable secondary thermal runaway events, leaving the surrounding community unprotected from the initial fire and two successive reignitions.
– Speakers will outline how regulatory reliance on data supplied by CTEH as well as Terraphase have dismissed ongoing health impacts, created community insecurity, and a false narrative of transparency culminating in the September 18th reignition.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS & DEVELOPMENTS TO BE PRESENTED - The Whistleblower Trail: Unpacking sworn disclosures exposing how CTEH pressures field crews to produce “zeroes,” downgrade toxic exposure readings, and mislead both local officials and the public while hundreds of residents
suffer acute symptoms. - Agency Blind Spots: The U.S. EPA, California DTSC, and local air districts have relied on ground-level sensors while completely failing to sample the active toxic smoke plumes—it took county officials nearly 2.5 hours to warn the
public during the recent September 18th flare-up. - Corporate Misdirection vs. Scientific Reality: EMBR scientific findings directly contradict the narrative of VISTRA, CTEH, and Terraphase; dismantling the false narrative that soil, water, and air have been left uncompromised.
- The Demand for Transparent Real-Time Independent Monitoring (TRIM):
– NAML will reiterate its mandate for local and state authorities to enforce a framework requiring live public data dashboards, drone smoke plume monitoring, automated health alerts, and operator-funded
monitoring governed by third party public health agencies rather than corporate-retained consultants.
– NAML will call on elected officials to honor their constitutional duty to protect citizen health, safety, and welfare by legislating that BESS installers and operators immediately transition away from volatile, toxic lithium-ion chemistries to alternative commercially available non-combustible storage systems.
MEDIA KIT BACKGROUNDER
SUBJECT: Wall Street Journal CTEH Whistleblower Allegations & Application to Moss Landing BESS Fires
ISSUED BY: Never Again Moss Landing (NAML)
DATE: September 24, 2026
Executive Summary
On September 23, 2026, The Wall Street Journal detailed a sworn federal whistleblower complaint filed by the Government Accountability Project against the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health (CTEH)—the private environmental consulting firm hired directly by Vistra Corp. to handle emergency air monitoring and community exposure testing at the Moss
Landing Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) facility.
The whistleblower disclosures allege systemic scientific misconduct, deliberate manipulation of air monitoring data, and corporate pressure to underreport environmental hazards during industrial chemical disasters. These revelations directly challenge the validity of public safety claims issued by the Vistra, CTEH, Terraphase Engineering, and regulatory agencies following the January 2025 BESS fire and leading up to the September 18, 2026 reignition.
Direct Application to the Moss Landing Crisis - Flawed Community Air Quality Baselines: Throughout the January 2025 fire and subsequent cleanup phases, Vistra and CTEH repeatedly assured the Monterey Peninsula community that air sampling showed “no levels of concern” or
health risks outside the site fence line. The whistleblower disclosures cast immediate doubt on the integrity and accuracy of these claims. - Overlooked Heavy Metal Deposition: Independent testing led by Never Again Moss Landing in conjunction with BioMax Environmental, environmental investigator Scott Smith, Dr. Ivano Aiello of San Jose State University,
researchers at the Moss Landing Marine Labs, UCSC toxicologist Dr. Don Smith and others reveal widespread chemical transport and heavy metal particulates (including nickel, cobalt, and manganese) in human hair samples,
the Elkhorn estuary water column and mollusks, surrounding soil and agricultural areas and residential yards across an 800 square mile region of the Monterey Bay. In all these disparate tests, the identical chemical signature of a nearly 3-2-1 ratio in the primary Lithium-ion cathode materials is present—findings that directly contradict CTEH and Terraphase Engineering reports. (Link provided below) - Complacency Leading to the September 18 Reignition: By relying on client-retained contractor data rather than establishing independent, continuous testing, regulatory authorities (including the U.S. EPA and county officials)
allowed compromised battery modules to remain unmitigated in the damaged structure for 20 months, culminating in the secondary reignition on September 18, 2026.
NAML Policy Demand: Mandating “TRIM”
The CTEH whistleblower scandal proves that corporate self-monitoring is fundamentally broken. Never Again Moss Landing calls on local, state, and federal leaders to immediately reject client-retained contractor reporting and mandate TRIM (Transparent Real-Time Independent Monitoring) for all grid-scale energy storage facilities: - Transparent Public Data: Live, unedited public dashboards for all environmental, heavy metal, and off-gassing data.
- Real-Time Automated Alerts: continuous sensor networks that trigger immediate community health notifications upon thermal or chemical anomalies. Pre-positioned drone and fixed monitoring resources deployed in the event of thermal runaway events.
- Independent Public Governance: Monitoring managed exclusively by public health authorities—funded by the corporate operator.
- Community Accountability: Verifiable oversight that integrates independent data directly into municipal safety planning.
MEDIA RESOURCES:
https://mlml.sjsu.edu/estuary-monitoring-of-battery-emissions-and-residues/
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://mlml.sjsu.edu/wpcontent/uploads/2026/08/Aiello_et_al_Response-to_Terraphase_Technical_Review_6-8-2026.pdf
www.wsj.com (1) – Adobe cloud storage
https://neveragainmosslanding.org/
https://www.mosslandingresponse.com/testing-health
Never Again Moss Landing
We are a locally created, citizen-led, all-volunteer group facilitating community awareness and response to the Moss Landing/Vistra BESS plant fire.
