Environment
The council passed a unanimous resolution to collaborate with the West Contra Costa Integrated Waste Management Authority to develop a single-use bag ordinance and to conduct an environmental review. Richmond Environmental Initiatives, a division of the City Manager’s office that has studied the issue, recommends a ban on plastic bags, and a minimum 5-cent fee for each paper bag in all retail establishments.
Chevron will host a “Back to School” event at Nevin Park this Friday to provide school supplies to 1,000 disadvantaged Richmond children. The event is part of the Volunteer Center’s Week of Caring, during which Chevron, the United Way and other Bay Area corporations sponsor employees to volunteer and help complete projects at local Bay Area nonprofit agencies. Chevron employees will participate in 47 projects in West Contra Costa County during the Week of Caring. This is Chevron’s fourth year…
After a series of foul odors released from its sewage treatment plant over the last year, the multinational company Veolia may only have 90 days left in Richmond. Although the City Council had considered terminating the contract immediately at the council meeting Tuesday, council members opted to consider the arguments and the possibility of alternatives, and set a decision on the contract for Dec. 6. Mark Russell, a lawyer who is providing the city with outside legal counsel, said Tuesday…
The City Council narrowly failed to pass an ordinance Tuesday that would have required the three medical marijuana collectives in Richmond to purchase their marijuana from suppliers that either grow their crop outside without the use of artificial light, or indoors with solar-powered light.
Visitors gathered in a parking lot off Castro Street, where they were greeted with balloons, candy, hand puppets for kids, information on Chevron’s Renewal Project and postcards of refinery workers through the ages – and asked to leave behind all bags and cameras, for security reasons.
When Fremont-based solar power company Solyndra LLC filed bankruptcy last week, “green job” supporters in Richmond shrugged their shoulders in indifference.
Last year, on California’s annual coastal cleanup day, about 600 volunteers picked up 75,000 pounds of trash off of the Contra Costa coastline, said Linda Hunter, executive director of The Watershed Project. On Saturday, Sept. 17, the event arrives again, and this year Hunter said she wants to “change the dialogue” — to make those volunteers someday unnecessary by preventing trash buildup to begin with.
Chevron’s Richmond Refinery will open its gates to the public Saturday morning, during its second annual Community Tour Day. Over 500 people from Richmond and surrounding cities have signed up to tour the refinery, an event that Chevron officials hope will help demystify its operations. “People have a lot of misinformation about the refinery, and are not sure about what happens behind the gates,” said Chevron spokesperson Melissa Ritchie. “We want them to know what’s happening here.” Local residents had…
Tickets will be tough to come by when Bill Clinton comes to Richmond.