Chevron
Richmond voters will be asked in November to decide whether the city should impose a refinery tax on Chevron as a way to address pollution. City Council unanimously approved the ballot measure Tuesday, citing concerns about the city’s budget deficit, poor air quality and worsening health conditions. Council member Doria Robinson was absent. “What we need is that they pay their fair share so we have the means and resources,” council member Claudia Jiménez said before the vote. The proposed…
Under a historic settlement with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, Chevron recently cleared all 678 of the air pollution infractions that had been pending against its Richmond refinery. With the settlement, BAAQMD, the regional agency that enforces air quality standards, cleared part of a major backlog. While the air district has a history of issuing infractions, it also has a pattern of letting most fines go unpaid for years as it works through cases and negotiates with polluters….
A day after flaring at the Chevron refinery belched smoke and gas for nearly 12 hours over Richmond and into Marin County, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District on Tuesday slapped the company with four violations. The state agency issued three notices of violations for visible emissions, pertaining to a rule that limits the quantity of particulate matter in the atmosphere, and one for causing a public nuisance. BAAQMD lists the violations as “pending.” BAAQMD cited Chevron dozens of…
The sky over Richmond turned black with billowing smoke around 4 p.m. Monday, with flames shooting skyward from the Chevron refinery in what the company called a flaring event. Chevron said a power outage caused the flare, which at 5 p.m. was still blazing and had not prompted an evacuation. The wind apparently was carrying the smoke away from Contra Costa County and into Marin County, according to a post on Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia’s Facebook page. “County…
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…
“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,…
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,…
The long awaited third-party review of the Chevron 2021 diesel spill in the San Francisco Bay was released this week, largely backing up Chevron’s findings that the spill was caused by a corroded pipe and an inadequate system to detect leaks. The consultant, AcuTech, also concluded that Chevron’s hour-long delay in reporting the leak to authorities was not unreasonable. AcuTech will present the report at a public meeting from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday at the Richmond Convention Center…