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Benicia Fire Department, Benicia Industrial Park, Valero Benicia Refinery

Weekend odor in Benicia caused by mechanical issue at refinery

[Note from BenIndy: You may be wondering why we’ve been slow to report on this incident at the Valero Benicia Refinery when usually we’d be all over it, and well ahead of the game at that. In this case there was a need elsewhere, in the form of helping the good folks in the Benicia Industrial Safety and Healthy Ordinance Working Group (BISHO) put a website together to generate more interest and community engagement in pursuit of Benicia adopting its own industrial safety ordinance. We regret the sparse coverage of this important incident at the Valero Benicia Refinery, but hope you understand that those of us keeping the BenIndy going are also active in service to delivering the brilliant, overarching goal of meaningful City and community oversight over heavy industry in Benicia. Please forgive this lapse in our coverage, and take a minute to review the BISHO.org website. If you are interested in these matters, please sign up using the contact forms on that website. Also, don’t forget to sign up for future incident alerts at www.solanocounty.com/AlertSolano.]

Valero Benicia Refinery file photo. | Paul Chinn / SF Chron.

Vallejo Times-Herald, by Lynzie Lowe, February 26, 2024

The Valero Benicia Refinery informed the Benicia Fire Department on Friday of an unanticipated mechanical issue, which released refined hydrocarbons that caused a strong odor throughout the city of Benicia over the weekend.

When the unit went down, officials said it was necessary to immediately move the product inside into another tank.

“It was discovered that in the process of moving the product, some of it got on the lid of a tank and that was the source of the strong odor,” read a release issued by city officials on Saturday. “There is no specific name for the product; it is a mixture of refined hydrocarbons similar to a light oil. The chemical vapor in the air causing the odor is H2S, hydrogen sulfide. The odor has dissipated significantly in most parts of Benicia.”

Della Olm, Management Analyst and Benicia Fire Department Public Information Officer, said, as of Monday morning, the spill on the tank lid is almost cleaned up and is expected to be completely mitigated by the end of the day Monday or Tuesday morning.

City officials said the Benicia Fire Department has been in continuous communication with Solano County Public Health, who has recommended to only shelter in place if the odor smell was too strong and/or it was aggravating. The Benicia Fire Department staff were also activated at the Valero Emergency Operations Center over the weekend.

“The refinery is flaring intermittently due to the unit shut off on the evening of February 23,” according to a press release. “Intermittent flaring will continue for an undetermined period of time.”

To receive city alerts in the future, sign up for AlertSolano at www.solanocounty.com/AlertSolano.

Other reporting on this recent refinery incident:

Solano County Board of Supervisors, Solano County CA

Benicia resident Ramón Castellblanch: Supervisor candidate Rochelle Sherlock will restore the public’s voice in County governance

District 2 Supervisor Candidate Dr. Rochelle Sherlock. | SherlockforSupervisor.com.

By Ramón Castellblanch, February 26, 2024

I’m voting for Rochelle Sherlock for District 2 Supervisor because she’ll help bring the effectiveness of public participation back to County government.  For years, a majority of the County Board of Supervisors has been shutting down the voices of concerned residents and ceding control to power-seeking bumbling bureaucrats.  The board cut off an organization where Montezuma Hills farmers could have stood up to California Forever’s land grab when the eliminated the Agricultural Advisory Board.  They shut out health care activists fighting Solano’s increasingly deadly opioid epidemic when then dissolved the Alcohol & Drug Advisory Board. They stopped the work of advocates for food security for Solano families when then terminated the Commission for Women and Girls.  They undermined history buffs’ protection of the County’s records of its history, including our long military history, when they disbanded the Historical Records Commission.  The board took all these actions peremptorily, holding public comment to a bare minimum.  In disbanding the Historical Records Commission, they dismissed a petition signed by hundreds with just a few days’ notice.

Solano needs these critical matters and more to be addressed by concerned residents in the open and not left to County bureaucrats operating behind closed doors.  Rochelle Sherlock is committed to building a board majority that opens up critical County decisions to local participation.  That’s why I’m voting for Sherlock for county supervisor.

Ramón Castellblanch
Benicia resident

Monica Brown, Solano County Board of Supervisors, Solano County CA, Solano Supervisor Monica Brown

Benicia resident Pat Toth-Smith: Why I think Monica Brown deserves another four years as Solano County supervisor

Solano County Supervisor for District 2 incumbent Monica Brown, center, shakes hands with Congressman John Garamendi in 2016. | Robinson Kunt z/ Daily Republic.

By Pat Toth-Smith, February 25, 2024

During the pandemic, Monica Brown served as supervisor for Solano County’s District 2, which includes Benicia, Glen Cove and parts of southern Vallejo.  District 2’s proximity to the SF Bay Area counties of Contra Costa, Napa, and Alameda for employment, recreation, etc., put us at a bigger risk in 2020, when Covid first started – before we had vaccines, Covid anti-viral medications and a full understanding of how it was spread.  For this reason, after mask mandates were initiated in these other Bay Area counties, Monica worked hard to try to get mandatory mask mandates for Solano County. Unfortunately, a lack of support on the board of supervisors meant Monica’s proposal was not taken up at their meetings.

Nevertheless, Monica helped the Solano County Democratic Central Committee’s Covid Subcommittee provide education and support to Solano residents and supported efforts to get mask mandates passed in Vallejo and Benicia. Both cities passed mandatory mask mandates before the statewide mandate went into effect. Lives were probably saved as a result.

Monica also provided valuable educational information about Covid-19, the new vaccines and where to find Covid testing and vaccine injection sites in her regular newsletter and emails that were posted and sent out to her constituents.  She made herself very accessible and was a voice of reason, providing the information people needed.

As a county supervisor for the past seven years, Monica has a track record and experience that benefits all members of Solano County.  She has helped get funding for seniors and families in need, and she supports measures for mental health and homelessness. She started the “Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation” in Solano County, so chefs can prepare and serve food cooked in their homes to consumers. She was there for us Benicians when we opposed the “Crude by Rail” Proposal that could have led to dangerous environmental and civilian hazards.

In Vallejo, Monica supported residents opposed to the toxic Orcem cement plant, and all Solano County residents who opposed the increase in expensive bridge tolls. Monica Brown will be there supporting us citizens when the next dangerous proposals come our way in the future. I urge you to support Monica Brown for the next four years.

Pat Toth-Smith
Benicia Resident

Benicia Fire Department, Benicia Industrial Park, Benicia Mayor Elizabeth Patterson, Emergency Readiness & Response, Flaring, Valero Benicia Refinery

Cleanup operations paused at Bay Area refinery after flaring, odor

Valero’s Benicia Refinery.  | File photo.

SF Chronicle, by Danielle Echeverria, February 24, 2024

Cleanup operations paused Saturday night after a work on a mechanical problem at Benicia’s Valero Refinery that caused flaring and emitted an odor in the area, the city announced.

The source of the odor was a refined hydrocarbon that was being moved between two tanks at the refinery, the city’s Fire Department said.

Della Olm, the public information officer for the Fire Department, explained that a unit at the refinery malfunctioned Friday night and had to be shut off, prompting the flaring. Refinery crews were moving the product to a functioning unit Saturday, emitting the odor, she said.

Any additional flaring Saturday was associated with the same issue, she said.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co., Benicia Fire and Valero’s own Fire Department were at the scene and investigating, she said.

“The odor has dissipated significantly in most parts of Benicia,” the city posted in an update early Saturday afternoon.

Cleanup operations paused Saturday night and will restart again Sunday morning, the city posted in an update at 7:40 p.m. Saturday.

“Intermittent flaring will continue for an undetermined period of time,” the city announced. “We will continue to monitor air quality throughout the night.”

Benicia Fire was testing air quality using portable air monitors at multiple points in the city. The department recommended that people remain indoors and close doors and windows if the odor was strong in their area.

Warren Pederson contributed to this report. 

Other reporting on this recent refinery incident: