Chevron
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…
Good fences make good neighbors — depending on who owns the fence. On a chain link fence by Richmond Parkway separating the Chevron refinery and a neighborhood downwind of it, community volunteers, including Mayor Eduardo Martinez, wove technicolor wooden slats through the metal bars on Earth Day. The artwork was covered with messages saying, “Richmond deserves clean air + water,” “Chevron!!! A horrible neighbor!,” and “Land = Liberation,” and topped with ribbons blowing with the wind from the Richmond plant…
The Contra Costa County district attorney’s office announced Friday that it and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife have reached a settlement with the Chevron Richmond Refinery over a 2021 pipe rupture that dumped nearly 800 gallons of diesel into San Francisco Bay. Under the agreement, approved Monday in Contra Costa County Superior Court, Chevron will cover cleanup costs of $130,543.26 and will pay $70,000 in civil penalties to the state and county. “Corporations must be held strictly liable for…
Family, friends, co-workers and community members gathered at Lucky A’s North Richmond Baseball Field on Saturday to celebrate the life and legacy of Henry Arthur Clark, a pioneer of the environmental justice movement in Richmond and beyond. Clark passed away on June 2, at 77 years old. To a gathering of more than 50 people, speakers recounted the leadership that would be a hallmark of Clark’s life. He grew up in the shadow of the Chevron Refinery and Richmond’s industrial…