The Exide Baton Rouge site sits in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. It operated as a secondary lead smelter and refinery from 1969 to 2009, recycling lead-bearing materials. EPA added it to the National Priorities List in March 2024. The site is divided into two operable units: a sitewide area and Operable Unit 1, each addressed separately to make cleanup more efficient.
The main contamination concern is metals leaching from unlined waste pits left behind after the facility closed. That leachate drains toward Bayou Baton Rouge. An on-site wastewater treatment plant collects and treats the leachate before it is discharged. When the environmental trust managing the property ran out of settlement funds in early 2023 and planned to shut down the treatment plant, EPA stepped in to keep it running starting in April 2023.
EPA is carrying out a Non-Time Critical Removal Action to maintain the wastewater treatment plant while long-term planning moves forward. A Non-Time Critical Removal Action is a type of Superfund cleanup used when there is at least six months before work must start, letting the agency address priority risks quickly. EPA has prepared an Engineering Evaluation and Cost Analysis document describing this action, which will be released for public comment. A full Remedial Investigation began in December 2025 and will assess the nature and extent of contamination across the site. Reports from that investigation are expected in 2027. Physical construction of cleanup work has not yet been completed, and current data are not sufficient to determine whether human exposure is under control or whether contaminated groundwater movement has been stabilized.
Community members can review site documents at the Scotlandville Branch Library at 7373 Scenic Highway in Baton Rouge. The library is open Sunday 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The phone number is 225.364.7540. Documents are also available through EPA's online database.
