Environment
Zeneca Inc. will begin a series of “groundwater injections” next month at the controversial Campus Bay project site in South Richmond, setting off a nine-month process to break down hazardous compounds underlying the 86-acre patch of coastal land. According to Zeneca planning documents, contractors will pump thousands of gallons of city water, reactive iron, microbes and microbe food into about 400 wells that dot the 86-acre site, which lies due west of Richmond’s Panhandle Annex neighborhood. The idea, California Department…
On a crisp afternoon in early September, Melanie Estrada was walking alone on her usual route in a quiet Richmond suburb, picking up kids from school to bring them to after school care at the May Valley Community Center. Suddenly, she heard a loud crunch. Across the street, Estrada saw a mountain lion passing through the hillside’s tall brush. It was brown with dark gray spots on its shoulder, muscular, and 4-to-5 feet long. “I know we’re not supposed to…
The public can now easily look up notices of pollution violations through the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s new web tool. However, environmental groups say the tool falls short of their expectations. This tool allows users to look up notices of violations in the past five years, filtered by date, county, city and keywords. Each violation entry lists location, facility name, enforcement status, and penalty amount. The information is updated daily. When a penalty is over $100,000, the agency…
A dirty red couch. An old pink baby stroller. Broken appliances. Rusted car parts. These are just some of the biggest pieces of illegally dumped trash spotted this month in a Richmond neighborhood. City crews can’t keep up with the work. “We go to a street and pick up garbage,” said Victor Mejia, a Richmond Public Works Department cleanup worker. “Then after 20 minutes, we go back to the same spot and they dumped it again.” To fight the problem,…
“People of Richmond” is a regular series in which reporters pose a question to people in the community. Answers are presented verbatim, though sometimes edited for brevity. Q: How have you personally been affected by climate change? “During Katrina I got my mom, my family and them out. After that, boarding up the house, and I heard explosions from that. From that part, it took me about three days to get to the convention center. That’s how much water we…
“People of Richmond” is a regular series in which reporters pose a question to people in the community. Answers are presented verbatim, though sometimes edited for brevity. Q: Should California increase the fines Chevron and other refineries have to pay for excessive flaring? “I mean, their profits are exponential and considering the community that they serve that are so underserved, and the impact it’s having on the community on the waterways, on the sewage, on just breathing in air quality,…
Chemtrade’s sulfuric acid manufacturing plant in Richmond has been fined $1.2 million for air quality violations over the last eight years, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District announced Thursday. The plant did not properly calibrate, operate, and maintain its monitoring system, the agency found. That system’s consistent emission measurements are vital to ensure that sulfur dioxide does not reach unsafe and illegal levels, the Air District said in a news release. Without proper upkeep, Chemtrade’s system under-reported sulfur dioxide…
Something went wrong at the Chevron Richmond Refinery on Aug. 10, 2021, as sulfur dioxide was released into the atmosphere and ignited. Residents saw fire shooting above the tree line and a thick cloud of black smoke billowing over the refinery’s fence, smothering houses and businesses. The flare, which prompted the lowest level alert on the Community Warning System, could be seen as far as Petaluma. Flaring incidents at the refinery have increased sharply in recent years, though flaring is…
The Richmond community expressed distrust and skepticism Monday over a Contra Costa County-funded review of Chevron’s investigation into its 2021 diesel spill in San Francisco Bay. AcuTech, a consultant contracted by the county, released its report about the spill last week and then presented it in a public meeting in Richmond, confirming Chevron’s findings that a corroded pipe and faulty leak detection system caused the spill. Around 800 gallons of a diesel-water mixture spilled into the bay on Feb. 9,…