Tag Archives: Valero Crude by Rail

Lynne Nittler of Davis, CA: Take Action!

Repost from The Davis Enterprise

Exercise the power of public comment

by Lynne Nittler, August 10, 2014
oil train
Oil tanker cars travel by rail through Davis on a recent evening. Valero oil refinery in Benicia wants to expand its oil shipments to 100 tank cars per day. Jean Jackman/Courtesy photo

The story of crude-by-rail in California is not a done deal. As new developments unfold almost daily in this remarkable drama, it is clear that public input can make a significant impact.

For example, last January, fierce community opposition — plus a letter from state Attorney General Kamala Harris urging further scrutiny on air quality and the risk of accidental spills — led city leaders in Pittsburg to reopen the public comment period on its draft environmental documents.

The WesPac Petroleum project had called for an average of 242,000 barrels of crude — the equivalent of 3.5 trains per day — to be unloaded daily and stored in 16 tanks before being piped to the five Bay Area refineries. Now, it appears WesPac may never reapply. An alert public can bring about change.

Valero in Benicia is a long way from giving up on the rail terminal that will allow it to import 100 tank cars of crude by rail daily, most likely from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, and the Bakken Crude shale of North Dakota. These two extreme forms of crude — Bakken crude is highly volatile and proven explosive and tar sands bitumen is toxic and impossible to clean up in a spill (Kalamazoo spill, July 2010) — are already being processed in some Bay Area refineries.

The California Energy Commission predicts within two years that California will receive 25 percent of its crude by rail, mostly from these two extreme crudes that emergency workers currently are not prepared to deal with in the event of a spill or accident. For the Sacramento region, that will mean five to six trains of 100 cars per day by the end of 2016!

Your input now may make a significant difference. The draft environmental impact report for the Valero proposal is open for public review until Sept. 15. A printed copy is at the Stephens Branch Library, 315 E. 14th St. in Davis, and is available online at www.benindy.wpengine.com. Every letter submitted becomes part of the public record and must be addressed in the final EIR.

Frankly, the draft EIR focuses on impacts to Benicia, and just glances at uprail communities like Davis. But two 50-car trains coming across the Yolo Causeway and the protected Yolo Basin Wildlife Area; passing high-tech businesses along Second Street; rolling into town through residential neighborhoods, where the vibrations will be felt from each heavy car; following the unusual and therefore dangerous 10 mph crossover just before the train station; passing through the train station, putting the entire downtown within the blast zone; and skirting the edge of UC Davis, including the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts; puts many people at serious risk.

If you have concerns such as whether the tank cars are safe enough, whether the volatility of the Bakken crude should be reduced before it is loaded into tank cars, who is liable in the event of an accident, whether the trains will be equipped with positive train control to improve braking, how Valero plans to mitigate the increased air and noise pollution, how Valero can claim that accidents happen only once in 111 years, etc., then you can help.

While our city of Davis, Yolo County, Sacramento, Roseville, Fairfield, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments and the Sierra Club Yolano Group are writing their own responses to the Valero draft EIR, letters from private citizens are equally powerful.

Public workshops are planned in August and September to help residents craft their letters. They workshops will provide background on the oil train situation, discuss the California Environmental Quality Act and EIR process and offer helpful resource materials. Participants will find topics, gather evidence, write their letters and then share drafts for feedback.

Workshops are planned from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Aug. 9; 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 21; and 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7. All will take place in the Blanchard Room at the Stephens Branch Library, 315 E. 14th St. in Davis. The room is accessible to people with disabilities.

The draft EIR and mailing directions are posted at www.benindy.wpengine.com. For more information, contact me at lnittler@sbcgloball.net or 530-756-8110.

Bring a friend! Every letter adds to the impact!

— Lynne Nittler is a Davis resident.

VALLEJO TIMES-HERALD: Sacramento-area leaders concerned about crude-rail risks

Repost from The Vallejo Times-Herald

Sacramento-area leaders concerned about crude-rail risks

Uprail communities urge Benicia to address oil train safety hazards
By Tony Burchyns, 08/09/2014

Sacramento-area leaders are voicing concerns about Valero’s proposed crude-by-rail plan, accusing Benicia of paying too little attention to potential “very serious” hazards of increased oil train shipments through Placer, Sacramento, Yolo, Solano and Contra Costa counties.

In a draft comment letter on the project, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments last week sharply criticized a Benicia study that found that the crude oil trains rattling through cities and sensitive habitats would pose no “significant hazard” whatsoever.

“We believe that conclusion is fundamentally flawed, disregards the recent events demonstrating the very serious risk to life and property that these shipments pose, and contradicts the conclusions of the federal government, which is mobilizing to respond to these risks,” the letter states.

In May, the U.S. Department of Transportation found that crude-by-rail shipments pose an “imminent hazard,” based on a recent pattern of fires and spills involving crude oil shipments from the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota.

The letter urges the city to “substantially revise” the project’s draft environmental impact report “so that it will fully inform the public and the City Council of the full impacts.”

Valero is proposing daily shipments of up to 70,000 barrels of crude to its Benicia refinery. The tank cars would originate at unspecified North American sites and be shipped to the Union Pacific Railroad’s Roseville yard, where they would be assembled into two daily 50-car trains to Benicia.

Last month, Benicia officials extended the public comment period on the project’s draft environmental impact report to Sept. 15.

The council — which represents six counties and 22 cities in the Sacramento region — is set to approve its draft letter later this month. Meanwhile, the Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District, Yolo County Board of Supervisors and Caltrans separately have submitted comment letters to Benicia expressing concerns about the project.

Yolo County officials contend that Benicia’s project analysis “provides only a brief review of the environmental, safety, and noise effects on upstream communities.”

“All areas along the route will have the same trains traveling on them,” the Yolo County officials wrote. They added that potential risks to all communities along the rail line should be studied.

The Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District recommended that the city offset increased air emissions from locomotives by supporting clean-tech programs in the region. The district also faulted the city for not studying the project’s cumulative air pollution effects throughout Sacramento and Yolo counties, as well as parts of Placer, El Dorado, Solano and Sutter counties.

Caltrans focussed its concerns on how oil train deliveries would impact Interstate 680 near the Bayshore Road off-ramp. They recommend safety measures — including rail signals — at the Bayshore Road crossing to prevent freeway backups during peak commute hours.

The agency also requested that a mechanism be put in place to advise Caltrans directly of any accidents affecting the freeway.

Benicia Senior Planner Amy Million said the city would respond to all valid project concerns following the close of the public comment period. The next public hearing on the project is set for 7 p.m. Thursday at City Hall, 250 E. L St.

Benicia Herald: Comment period on crude-by-rail extended to 90 days

Reprint from The Benicia Herald

Comment period on crude-by-rail extended to 90 days

July 11, 2014, by Donna Beth Weilenman
OPPONENTS of Valero’s Crude-by-Rail Project rallied in front of City Hall on Thursday, holding sunflowers to honor the residents of Lac-Megantic, Quebec, Canada, who died in a fiery train accident in 2013. Donna Beth Weilenman/Staff
OPPONENTS of Valero’s Crude-by-Rail Project rallied in front of City Hall on Thursday, holding sunflowers to honor the residents of Lac-Megantic, Quebec, Canada, who died in a fiery train accident in 2013. | Donna Beth Weilenman/Staff

Benicia Planning Commission decided Thursday to double the amount of time the public will be able to comment on the Draft Environmental Impact Report for the proposed Valero Crude-by-Rail Project, to 90 from 45 days.

And rather than keep Thursday’s meeting going until those who filled City Hall had a chance to speak, the panel also extended its public hearing on the report to its next regular meeting, Aug. 14.

About 300 attended the meeting, filling the City Council Chamber, the commission room, a conference room and the City Hall courtyard. Some attended a rally in front of City Hall beforehand, many hoisting placards that called for an end to crude oil deliveries by rail.

Of these, 74 carried and waved sunflowers in memory of those who were killed one year ago in the fiery derailment of a runaway train that was carrying crude oil in Lac Megantic, Quebec, Canada.

A smaller number of Valero supporters handed out brochures explaining the project.

Valero Benicia Refinery applied early last year for a use permit that would allow the company to build three sections of track so Union Pacific Railroad could deliver crude on its trains that travel through Roseville to Benicia.

After an initial study, the city chose to have the Environmental Impact Report composed to meet California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requirements in determining how the project would affect multiple facets of the environment.

The initial draft of the EIR has been circulating since June 17, and the public comment period originally was to last 45 days. But by a 4-2 vote, with Chairperson Donald Dean and Commissioner Belinda Smith opposing, the commission agreed with the majority of 31 speakers who asked for more time to study the thick report.

During Thursday’s four-and-a-half-hour meeting, many of the speakers advocated for or against the project. The commission’s primary duty was to listen. Its only decisions Thursday were about how long to give the public to comment on the DEIR, and whether to continue the meeting when it became clear that not all in attendance would have time to speak.

The commission won’t decide whether to certify the environmental report or issue a use permit for the project until public comments and questions are addressed in the document’s final version, which is being prepared by San Francisco-based consultant ESA.

Artist Jack Ruszel, who said his woodworking company at 2980 Bayshore Road employees 25 who work near the proposed project site, called the draft environmental report “distorted,” and a “travesty and an insult.”

“They want you to be their stooges,” he told commissioners during his passionate speech. “They want you to rubber stamp it. You are in their way.”

Though Dean tried to limit Ruszel to the five minutes other public speakers had been given, the artist pressed his case. “It’s our duty to be stewards,” he said. “I implore you to examine this morally and see this as a global issue.”

Admitting he had become emotional about the project, he said, “Don’t damn us with this for years to come.”

In contrast, Pierre Bidou, Benicia’s former police chief, a City Council member and member of the Benicia Unified School District Board of Trustees, spoke quietly to the commission before handing over 100 signatures of those favoring the project.

“Valero is a true friend of this community,” Bidou said, cautioning against taking action that could be detrimental to the refinery, which provide 25 percent of Benicia’s General Fund revenues through taxes.

Bidou, who said he has lived in Benicia for 52 years, described Benicia’s condition when the refinery was built by the Humble Oil company a few years after the U.S. Army closed the Benicia Arsenal, a major employer.

“When Humble came here, this city was starving,” he said. “You really need to think deep and hard about this.”

He wasn’t the only Valero supporter. Rich McChesney described how his employer, Performance Mechanical Inc., was involved in the refinery’s massive maintenance turnaround and its fluescrubber project, which McChesney managed.

He praised Valero for its “culture of safety, quality and integrity,” and said, “We like it when we go there.”

McChesney said the refinery’s highest concern was safety for employees, contractors and community, and that its quality “is second to none.” He urged the commission “to move this thing along.”

Maria Teresa Matthews also called Valero a responsible company that had provided Benicia the information it requested in formulating the DEIR, and urged the panel to consider only facts of the report when deciding whether to issue a use permit.

KATHY KERRIDGE, standing, and Marilyn Bardet. Donna Beth Weilenman/Staff

Jim Riley of Operating Engineers Local 3 said that Californians can’t yet set aside all their combustion engine vehicles. “We’re not ready.” Until then, he said, “the Valero plan is valid. It makes sense.” Like Bidou, he handed to the commission 100 signatures of project supporters.

Many of the 13 who spoke about the DEIR before the meeting closed at 11:30 p.m. came from Davis and Roseville, communities through which crude-carrying trains would to travel on their way to Benicia, should the project be approved.

At an audience member’s suggestion, the commission gave those who had traveled from outside Benicia the first opportunity at the microphone during the limited meeting time.

Most of the visitors joined Ruszel in opposing the project and criticizing the DEIR.

Barbara Burr, of Davis, disagreed with the document’s contention that trains could not be regulated by state or local agencies. “The California Public Utilities Commission has the authority to control the speed of trains,” she said.

Burr criticized the report for failing to address cumulative effects of the project and others, and she called for a moratorium on crude-by-rail terminals.

Elizabeth Lasensky disagreed with the report’s expectation of few to no derailments. She cited a 2003 incident in Davis in which a speeding train collided with another, resulting in a cleanup that disrupted Amtrak’s passenger trains.

Another incident in 2009 involved the turnover of two cars that spilled tons of wine into a residential area, Lasensky said.

Reminding the commission that Davis and other uprail communities would receive no benefit but could experience some hazards from the Valero project, she said, “We like Davis, and we would like it to stay the way it is.”

Others asked whether Valero would have enough liability coverage to address the impacts of spills or crashes, and expressed frustration that CEQA allowed the refinery to submit trade secrets to the city for use in developing the environmental report, even though that information was then withheld from the public.

During the first half of the meeting, speakers were asked to express whether the report’s public comment period should remain at 45 days or be expanded.

Many asked for more time, reminding the panel that the draft’s release coincided with family vacation time. In fact, Commissioner Belinda Smith said she would be on vacation a few hours after the meeting closed.

Jon Van Landschoot, a member of the Historic Preservation Review Commission who spoke as a resident Thursday night, said the report had been expected by mid-2013, and only was finished and made public last month.

To read its 1,450 pages in 45 days, the original public comment period, would require digesting 32 pages a day, he said. Expanding the comment period to a total of 90 days would reduce that to 16 pages a day.

“You need as much time to review this as they had to make it,” he said.

Though most commissioners agreed, Dean and Smith opposed, suggesting that the project had been subject to several public meetings and extending the comment period might generate more quantity, but perhaps no greater quality of comments.

The public also heard from Benicia staff and consultants, including those representing ESA.

Valero’s fire chief, Joe Bateman, and Benicia Fire Department Chief Jim Lydon described how their two departments have trained to handle fires, spills and hazardous materials, addressing some of the public fears that Benicia could experience a Lac-Megantic-type incident.

“We are prepared today to respond to any emergency,” Bateman said, explaining that his employees already have helped Benicia fight fires and have assisted in neighboring refineries’ emergencies.

Kat Wellman, who had presented a longer explanation at a Planning Commission workshop on the CEQA and environmental reports, gave an abbreviated version Thursday.

Bradley Hogin, special CEQA counsel, confirmed that under the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act, the federal government, not regional or city agencies, regulates railroads, and explained how the applicant’s trade secrets can’t be made public in the DEIR, even when they are used as part of the environmental study that has led to the document.

Leaking that information would benefit Valero’s competitors, he said, and could lead to unintentional violations of antitrust laws.

Don Cuffel, Valero Benicia Refinery manager of the Environmental Engineer Group, addressed another public concern, that the project would increase emissions in the Bay Area.

Delivering crude by rail instead of by ship would reduce emissions by 225,000 tons every year, or 10 percent of the current emissions, the DEIR noted.

It also said reducing oil shipments by tanker ship more than compensates for locomotive emissions, but uprail communities would experience locomotive pollution and risks without any benefit.

Cuffel said that increase was the equivalent of 10 round trips by diesel recreational vehicle from Benicia to Tahoe.

He added that the refinery has 700 cards from those who like the project, and said the DEIR was “a tremendous amount of work for a valuable project.”

Because of the commission vote, the public has until Sept. 15 to submit questions and observations to Principal Planner Amy Million in the Community Development Department of Benicia City Hall, 250 East L St.; fax them to her at 707-747-1637; or email her at amillion@ci.benicia.ca.us.

Vallejo Times-Herald: Benicia Planning Commission hears crude-by-rail concerns

Repost from The Vallejo Times-Herald

Benicia Planning Commission hears crude-by-rail concerns

Panel extends Valero’s draft EIR public comment period through Sept. 15, 2014
By Tony Burchyns  | July 11,2014
Katherine Black, left, the steering committee chairperson for Benicians for a Safe and Healthy Community, displays her ’Stop Crude By Rail’
Katherine Black, left, the steering committee chairperson for Benicians for a Safe and Healthy Community, displays her ‘Stop Crude By Rail’ sign as she talks with Anne Smith of Fairfield at a protest outside the Planning Commission meeting in Benicia on Thursday. (MIKE JORY — VALLEJO TIMES-HERALD)

BENICIA>>Citizens from as far away as Davis and Roseville attended a packed public hearing in Benicia on Thursday night on Valero’s disputed crude-by-rail project.

The purpose of the hearing was for the Planning Commission to hear public comments on the project’s roughly 1,500-page draft environmental impact report that was released on June 17.

If approved, the project would allow Valero to ship up to 70,000 barrels of crude daily by rail from Roseville to its Benicia refinery. Opponents in the Bay Area and uprail communities have raised concerns about oil train risks while supporters contend the project would be safe and keep the refinery competitive.

Crude-by-rail opponents Katy Polony, of Oakland, left, and Ann Puntch, of Rodeo, enter Benicia City Hall on Thursday for a hearing on Valero’s
Crude-by-rail opponents Katy Polony, of Oakland, left, and Ann Puntch, of Rodeo, enter Benicia City Hall on Thursday for a hearing on Valero’s proposal to ship up to 70,000 barrels of crude by rail daily to its Benicia plant. (MIKE JORY — VALLEJO TIMES-HERALD)

“This proposal in particular is really disturbing because of the number of crude-by-oil trains that are going to be coming through the area,” Nancy Rieser of Crocket Rodeo United to Defend the Environment said before the meeting. “The agencies, both local and federal, that feel so comfortable endangering local communities disappoint and shock me.”

Others voiced support for the project, which refinery officials claim will create new jobs and generate millions of dollars in local tax revenues. Valero officials also contend the project would reduce air pollution in the Bay Area by replacing smoggier boat shipments of oil with rail deliveries.

“I think all the questions have been asked and answered and it means lots of jobs for the people of Benicia and Solano County,” said Greg Partch, business manager for the Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 343 based in Vallejo. “We’re here to show our support for the project and we want it to go through.”

The meeting lasted more than four hours and required overflow seating to be set up outside the City Council chambers.

Because of the sheer number of people wishing to speak, the commission scheduled a second public hearing for Aug. 14.

Project opponents, who dominated the hearing, held 47 sunflowers representing the number of people killed in last summer’s oil train explosion in Lac-Megantic, Quebec. Before the meeting, Benicians for a Safe and Healthy Community and other opposition groups held a vigil outside of City Hall in remembrance of those killed.

Valero supporters, while outnumbered at the hearing, brought petitions with hundreds of signatures from area residents backing the project.

After several speakers asked for more time to review the lengthy environmental report, the commission voted 4 to 2 to extend the public comment period through Sept. 15. The original deadline was Aug. 1.

The panel also received written requests from the city of Davis and the Sacramento Council of Governments to allow more time to respond to the report.

“Not all members of the community are technically versed … and they would like more time,” Commissioner Stephen Young said. “I think it’s only reasonable we provide that extra time.”

Commissioners Don Dean and Belinda Smith opposed the length of the extension, contending that the added time would not boost the quality of the comments.

However, commissioners George Oakes, Susan Cohen Grossman, Suzanne Sprague and Young supported the move after Valero officials couldn’t persuade them to deny the extension.

Another hearing will be required at the end of the comment period to consider accepting the report and issuing permits for the project.