Environment
Scientists, urban designers, elected officials and over 40 residents gathered on Tuesday night at the RYSE Youth Center in Richmond to discuss how the city should respond to sea level rise. The event, hosted by The Watershed Project, was created to support the development of Richmond’s Sea Level Rise Adaptation and Resiliency Plan, which was mandated by a 2023 state law. Attendees mingled around photographs and maps of Richmond’s 32 miles of shoreline. They watched naturalists from The Watershed Project…
Last in a two-part series on Richmond’s exploration into wind turbine manufacturing. This series is part of “The Stakes,” a UC Berkeley Journalism project on executive orders and actions affecting Californians and their communities. The Trump Administration is putting a dent in Richmond’s plans to assemble offshore wind turbines, following an onslaught of actions against clean energy. Richmond has hoped to assemble turbines for the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation & Conservation District in Eureka. The district is building an offshore…
Richmond is preparing to spend $1 million over the next two years to collect new data on every tree in the city, build tree management software, and develop long-term plans for planting and maintenance. The last tree inventory was completed 12 years ago. Since then, Richmond has not had a system to update tree records, tracking declining ones and planning for new ones. “We’re very excited to move forward,” said Jason Lacey, parks maintenance superintendent, who announced the grant during…
First in a two-part series on Richmond’s exploration into wind turbine manufacturing. This series is part of “The Stakes,” a UC Berkeley Journalism project on executive orders and actions affecting Californians and their communities. After decades of manufacturing declines, Richmond leaders have a new pitch: retool the city’s industrial legacy for clean energy. In October, California placed a bet on that vision. The California Energy Commission awarded Richmond a $750,000 grant to study the feasibility of bringing wind turbine manufacturing…
At 6:33 p.m. on Aug. 6, 2012, two days after moving into her new house in Atchison Village, Marisa Goul looked out her window and saw a towering pillar of black smoke curling into the sky over the Chevron Refinery. Five minutes later, Richmond’s Community Warning System sirens split the air. Her new neighbors told her to shelter in place. Goul began sealing shut all her windows and doors with the roll of painters tape from her recent move. “I’m…
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…