Environment
At least 6,300 residents have filed claims for compensation since Monday, according to figures released by Chevron spokesperson Katie Winter.
Inspectors from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District released a statement on the air quality Wednesday stating that the toxins and pollutants in samples they tested were at a “good-to-moderate” range.
A new, smaller, fire flared up Wednesday afternoon near the location of the leak that sparked an inferno at Chevron’s 2,900-acre refinery Monday evening, as hundreds of locals sought medical treatment for eye and respiratory complaints related to the fire.
Throngs of Richmond residents, upset and ready to be heard, gathered at a town hall meeting held by Chevron on Tuesday night, following the refinery fire that cloaked Richmond in a dark cloud of particulates the night before.
Richmond residents this morning woke up to the lingering smell of burnt oil from Chevron’s Richmond Refinery, which caught fire last night following a leak. Firefighters and engineers at the plant put the main fire out early this morning, and Chevron reported that its engineers were monitoring a controlled burn as a safety measure to contain pressure.
At a press conference held Monday night, Richmond Refinery General Manager Nigel Hearne told journalists that firefighters were still fighting the blaze at the plant, and that a small leak in the diesel processing unit had grown and caught fire.
Early this evening, Richmond residents reported hearing sirens and the flames were visible from miles. The rising plumes were dark black, nearly blotting out the sun as they drifted eastward. They were as dark and looked as dense as thunderclouds in certain spots.
On Tuesday, the city council approved funding that it will re-open Point Molate beach—the city’s only public beach. The beach closed in 2004 due to budget cuts and then was slammed in 2007 by the Cosco Busan fuel spill. The public space has been under lock and key ever since. In anticipation of the beach’s re-opening, we thought it would be fun to see what the area looks like today.
On Saturday night in downtown Richmond, the unmistakable beats of Latin Jazz, followed by cheers and laughter, poured out of a small office tucked away in a row of other non-descript offices. The little space on Macdonald Avenue by the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts was illuminated with ambient lighting and filled with people. In the back corner the band played while people twirled on the dance floor. This is how the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA) was helping two of its own candidates—Marilyn Langlois and Eduardo Martinez—raise money.