Environment
Volunteers trickled into Pinole’s Bayfront Park Saturday morning, signing in, receiving cleanup instructions, grabbing plastic bags and heading for the shoreline. The gathering was part of California Coastal Cleanup Day, a statewide effort organized by the California Coastal Commission that brings volunteers together to remove trash from waterways throughout the state. In Pinole, about 80 or so people joined in the cleanup, organized by the city and the Friends of Pinole Creek Watershed. That was fewer than last year, when…
Kennedy High School will reopen for students on Tuesday, allowing school to start on schedule and on campus, two weeks after the site was closed because of toxic vapors. The Kennedy High community has been living with uncertainty since July 31, when tests confirmed the presence of tetrachloroethylene, also known as PCE, in soil vapors on the campus at Berk Avenue and Cutting Boulevard. PCE was found in six locations within 0.7 mile of the campus, on the north and…
Kennedy High School students will begin their school year on schedule, with several backup locations under consideration while further testing for a toxic chemical on campus is conducted. Richmond’s Kennedy High School was closed on Monday after preliminary test results indicated levels of tetrachloroethylene, also known as PCE, underground. At a town hall meeting Thursday night, Jeff Carter, West Contra Costa Unified School District interim associate superintendent of business services, said the district is “planning for no delays to the…
Chevron reported on Facebook Wednesday that less than a barrel of hydrocarbon liquid had spilled into San Francisco Bay at the Richmond Refinery Long Wharf during a maintenance activity. The company said it responded immediately to contain the spill, along with the U.S. Coast Guard and California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and that it was investigating the cause. “The release was quickly stopped, kept away from environmentally sensitive areas, and clean up has concluded. There were no reported community…
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…