Environment
On the 37th day of the federal government shutdown, about two dozen Richmond residents and environmentalists met at Easter Hill United Methodist Church to discuss the cleanup of the United Heckathorn Superfund Site. The Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for monitoring and decontaminating the site, which includes the Lauritzen Channel (pictured above) in Richmond’s Inner Harbor and an adjacent section of land. The federal government shutdown has delayed the development of an agency-approved cleanup plan. However, Richmond residents at last…
(This story is part of “The Stakes,” a UC Berkeley Journalism project on executive orders and actions affecting Californians and their communities. It was co-published with The Contra Costa Pulse.) Amid the rows of sunflowers, tomatoes and kale on a North Richmond farm, sits an abandoned concrete slab. It is the foundation of what was meant to be the area’s first community resilience center — a sanctuary for air-quality disasters and extreme heat that’s now stalled after the Trump administration revoked its…
Chevron is partnering with respiratory therapists at LifeLong Medical to train 15-20 health promoters, who will go into neighborhoods near the refinery to create individual medical action plans, the company announced at a recent town hall meeting in Richmond. As a result, some residents may get humidifiers and other devices to help reduce asthma triggers at home, Lily Rahnema, Chevron community engagement manager, told about 60 people who attended the meeting on Oct. 22. Town halls began last fall, mandated…
The morning air smelled of damp soil as the volunteers’ shovels struck buried rocks, glass bottles and bits of old plastic, reminders that the area was once a dumping ground. On Saturday morning, this stretch of land in Richmond’s Greenway was being reborn, as roughly 50 volunteers, from children to retirees, gathered for the city’s 14th annual Arbor Day celebration. Over the course of three hours, volunteers planted 29 trees along the Richmond Greenway. The nonprofit Groundwork Richmond, which improves…
Dozens of volunteers worked with the community organization Urban Tilth to clean up Wildcat Creek in North Richmond Ballpark on Saturday morning, extracting chunks of tires, stretches of inner tube, mud-encrusted plastic bottles, solitary shoes, a tired-looking soccer ball, and a plethora of other man-made waste from around spindly trees that hide the waterway. “It feels really good to come out and be part of a group like this, get dirty, get bitten by mosquitoes,” said Wittiker Schlauoh-Saiyawong, who joined…
Asked to be a better neighbor, Chevron has agreed to be more transparent in reporting off-site pollution, to file quarterly reports about it, and to engage the Richmond community on how it can better present pollution data. The Bay Area Air District said Tuesday Chevron is the first of the area’s five refineries to agree to be more transparent in measuring pollutants near its property lines. The refineries don’t have a good track record with the monitoring program. The Air…
“The Stakes” is a UC Berkeley Journalism project on executive orders and actions affecting Californians and their communities. For months community members devoted to reducing pollution and improving the quality of life for vulnerable people in Richmond and other parts of the Bay Area have been stuck in limbo, hoping that the EPA grants they were told they won wouldn’t be taken away. On Friday, after promising these groups millions of dollars and then cutting off access to the money…
Contra Costa Health, in collaboration with the Community Warning System, has updated its text notification system for hazardous materials alerts. This system now allows residents to sign up for text messages for Level 1, 2 and 3 events at industrial facilities regulated by the county, including the four oil refineries. That means residents receiving alerts will even be notified of refinery flares. Previously, residents were only receiving text messages about Level 2 and 3 events — the kinds of incidents…
“The Stakes” is a UC Berkeley Journalism project on executive orders and actions affecting Californians and their communities. Sometime since Friday, when Contra Costa County officials last checked on an anticipated grant for North Richmond, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency suspended the promised $19 million, marking the second time the grant has been put on hold since President Donald Trump tried to freeze federal grants in January. The suspension throws into question several community development projects to improve the environment,…