Chevron working to clean up spill that dumped more than 100 gallons of oil in San Francisco Bay

Chevron says it has contained an oil spill that contaminated the San Francisco Bay at the Richmond Wharf on Thursday, and is working to clean it up.

A Chevron employee reported the spill to state authorities at 5:14 a.m. The company said less than three barrels of a diesel-based liquid leaked into the bay because of a pump failure at the Richmond Long Wharf.

Caitlin Powell, a Chevron spokesperson, said the company is still trying to determine the exact time the spill began.  

“Chevron immediately initiated its response protocol, stopped the release, and notified all applicable agencies,” the company said in a written statement Friday. “The released material is fully contained, there are no known impacts to wildlife or the shoreline, and air monitoring found no impact to the community. The safety and health of our workforce, our communities and the environment remain our highest priorities.”

State regulations require that spills of hazardous materials be reported immediately to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. The U.S. Coast Guard, Contra Costa County, California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Richmond Fire Department responded to Thursday’s spill. Marine Spill Response Corp. has been contracted to contain and clean up the spill. Absorbent booms were put in place to absorb the oil. 

Coast Guard Petty Officer Hunter Schnabel said about three barrels spilled, which is roughly 130 gallons of oil. Two barrels have been recovered. 

“The federal on-scene coordinator and the state on-scene coordinators went to the site where the cleanup was taking place, and there was no observable sheen anymore,” Schnabel said Friday afternoon. “They had cleaned up what they could clean up, and then the rest had either dissipated or filtered away.”

A little after 3 p.m. Thursday, Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response said that it had “concluded the spill response into Richmond Wharf, but an investigation will continue.” 

Kristina Werner, Fish and Wildlife information officer, said that while most of the oil has already been cleaned up, the containment and absorbent measures will remain in place until they are no longer needed. She said that while no impact to wildlife or aquatic life has been found so far, the responding agencies will continue to monitor the situation.

In 2021, a Chevron pipeline ruptured at the Richmond refinery, spilling nearly 800 gallons of diesel into the bay. The spill cost Chevron more than $130,000 to clean up and $70,000 in civil penalties. It left an oil sheen on the bay for three days, affecting bird and aquatic life.

Last November, the refinery was slapped with four notices of violation because of a flaring event that spewed smoke for 12 hours, shrouding Richmond and parts of Marin County.

Earlier this year, Chevron agreed to pay $20 million to settle fines withe Bay Area Air Quality Management District for 678 outstanding air pollution violations.

Chevron is one of Richmond’s biggest polluter but also its largest taxpayer and employer, with a workforce of about 1,200 people. The city has co-existed uneasily with Chevron, which predates it. In 2012, a fire at the refinery blazed for hours, forcing thousands of people to seek treatment for breathing issues. That led to a protracted legal fight that ended in 2018, when Chevron settled with the city for $5 million, a sum many in Richmond considered low for the damage done. 

Recently, Chevron agreed to pay Richmond $550 million over the course of a decade, beginning next year. The company brokered the deal after the City Council had decided to put a measure on the November ballot that would have imposed a special excise tax on the refinery.

Reporter Anasooya Thorakkattu contributed to this story.

(Top photo: Beyond the oil pipes in the foreground, orange booms absorb the spilled diesel, courtesy of California Department of Fish and Wildlife)

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