On April 8 the Air District invited us to help decide how those millions of dollars will be spent!
Smoke from the Valero Benicia refinery during a 2017 incident. | Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
For years, Benicians have been calling for the Bay Area Air District to direct some of the millions in violation money collected from refineries to the communities where the refineries are located – the communities that suffer from the harm caused by the violations.
Finally, this year, the Air District is getting serious about sharing those funds. And here in Benicia, the dollars are huge!
Last October, the Air District (and CARB) fined Valero Refining Co. $82 million for Benicia air quality violations! In an email yesterday, Benicia Mayor Steve Young sent out an alert with the subject line, “Help decide how to spend $64 million from the Valero settlement in Benicia.”
Young was referring to an invitation issued by the Air District to fill out a survey and attend an ONLINE WORKSHOP TODAY AT 5PM. Here is the content of the invitation as it appears in the Benicia City Manager’s latest newsletter:
Help Shape How Millions in Community Funds Are Spent – Take the Survey or Join the Workshop!
The Bay Area Air District has established a new Community Investments Office to help direct funding from enforcement actions into projects that benefit communities most impacted by air pollution across the Bay Area. Your voice is critical in shaping how these funds will be distributed.
We’re reaching out to ask for your input in two ways:
Take a brief survey to share your thoughts on community priorities, funding needs, and more: Take the Survey
Join us for a virtual community workshop on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, from 5:00– 6:00 PM to learn more and walk through the survey together.
[BenIndy: At last, the rumors have been confirmed. We won’t speculate as to what prompted the Valero Benicia Refinery’s exiting GM/VP to retire at 49; we will simply wish him good luck. The incoming GM/VP Lauren Bird, who has more than 37 years experience working in the oil refining industry, served as GM/VP for two other refineries and worked at the Benicia refinery when it was Exxon Benicia. This leadership transition bears careful attention, especially in light of the imminent votes on an Industrial Safety Ordinance for Benicia.]
Josh Tulino, Vice President (VP) and General Manager (GM) of the Valero Benicia Refinery has elected to retire. Josh began his career with Exxon as a process engineer at Benicia and became a Valero employee when Valero purchased the Benicia Refinery in 2000. Josh held different positions throughout the Valero Energy Corporation circuit and was promoted to VP & GM at our Memphis Refinery in 2017 and then transferred to Benicia as our VP/GM in 2020.
With Josh’s retirement, Lauren Bird will relocate to Benicia as VP/GM effective June 1, 2024. Lauren started his career at Exxon Baytown and later transferred to Exxon Benicia progressing through positions of increasing responsibilities. He joined Valero when Valero purchased the Benicia Refinery and was promoted to Director of Refinery Operations in 2002. Lauren was then promoted to VP and General Manager of Valero’s Meraux Refinery in 2012, he then relocated to Valero’s McKee Refinery as the VP and GM in 2014. We are excited that Lauren will be coming back to Benicia where he raised his family.
There is a group of concerned citizens of Benicia who support the adoption of a Benicia Industrial Safety and Health Ordinance (BISHO). To learn more about the effort and add your support, visit www.bisho.org.
Read more!As Air Quality is so essential to our health, you might want to check out these resources:
Please – anyone can report Air Quality issues/events to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District: General Public Information: (415) 749-4900, or Air Quality Complaints: 1-800-334-ODOR (6367)
BENICIA – The Bay Area Air Quality Management District announced Thursday that it had discovered continued violations at the Valero Benicia refinery during its investigation into years of toxic releases.
Specifically, the air district said that Valero had failed to install required pollution control equipment on eight pressure relief devices, safety devices that prevent extreme over pressurization that could cause a catastrophic equipment failure. The violations led to 165 tons of illegal emissions, the air district said. [Emph. added by BenIndy contributor.]
The air district said it is seeking an abatement order from its independent hearing board that would require Valero to immediately correct the violations.
“The extensive violations discovered at Valero’s Benicia refinery are of great concern,” air district chief counsel Alexander Crockett said in a statement. “Our priority is to protect the health and well-being of our communities, and we will vigorously pursue enforcement measures to achieve cleaner and safer air for all residents of the Bay Area.”
A Valero spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Benicia Mayor Steve Young said in a statement that Valero’s alleged continued pattern of emissions violations is “particularly concerning” and “should bother all Benicia residents.”
“The City is also waiting, with increasing impatience, to see how the separate, bigger, case of 16 years of unreported hydrogen emissions will be ultimately resolved,” Young said. “The citizens of Benicia deserve much more transparency from the refinery about these operational deficiencies than we have been receiving.”
The air district discovered the violations during its investigation into the release of toxic emissions from a hydrogen vent at the refinery that went on for nearly 20 years. The air district separately obtained an abatement order for those violations last year, though by the time it revealed the excess emissions publicly, it had already worked with Valero to correct them for some time.
Those excess emissions were first detected by Valero in 2003 when it started measuring output from the hydrogen vent, but the air district believes it likely had been going on even earlier and has no measurements from that time.
Since 2003, the air district estimates that the vent was releasing about 4,000 pounds of hydrocarbons per day, far more than state regulations allow. Overall, the district found that Valero released more than 10,000 tons of excess hydrocarbons over 16 years, including 138 tons of toxic air contaminants ethylbenzene, tolyrene, zolerine and the especially carcinogenic benzene.
Please – anyone can report Air Quality issues/events to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District: General Public Information: (415) 749-4900, or Air Quality Complaints: 1-800-334-ODOR (6367)
[Note from BenIndy Contributor Nathalie Christian: Please note that this BAAQMD news release regards separate and new violations distinct from the 16 years of undisclosed, unchecked emissions at the Valero-operated refinery that were first reported in early 2022. According to this release, Valero has also failed to measure and report widespread hydrogen emissions violations at the Benicia Refinery – for up to a decade. The risk to our community is presently unknown. What is known is that our ‘good neighbor’ Valero is failing our community and will continue to do so unless oversight and remediation mechanisms improve. After yet another decades-long series of violations, a pattern of alleged dangerous incompetence at best, and lawless disregard for our community and environment at worst is clearer than ever. Benicia deserves better, and you can help. The Air District will hold a hearing to consider issuing the abatement order, where the public can participate and demand action. I will post the notice for that hearing when it is scheduled, and you can sign up for Hearing Board updates at https://www.baaqmd.gov/contact-us/sign-up-for-information. The bolded elements below reflect my added emphasis.]
Requested abatement order would require the refinery to install pollution control equipment
Valero’s Benicia Refinery. Pat Toth-Smith.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 10, 2023 CONTACT: communications@baaqmd.gov
SAN FRANCISCO – The Bay Area Air Quality Management District announced today that it is seeking an abatement order from the agency’s independent Hearing Board to require Valero Refining Co. to cease ongoing violations of Air District regulations at its Benicia refinery.
The Air District is seeking an abatement order to require Valero to install pollution control equipment on eight pressure relief devices, or PRDs, installed on the refinery’s hydrogen compressor unit. PRDs are safety devices used to prevent extreme overpressures that could cause catastrophic equipment failure – not unlike the pressure relief valve on a home pressure cooker, but on an industrial scale.
Air District regulations require pollution control equipment to be installed on PRDs that experience two or more releases within five years. Valero’s PRDs have been subject to these requirements for years, and in some cases for over a decade, but Valero has failed to install the required pollution control equipment.
“The extensive violations discovered at Valero’s Benicia refinery are of great concern and the Air District is seeking an abatement order to ensure that Valero takes action to prevent harmful emissions from impacting the communities surrounding the refinery,” said Alexander Crockett, the Air District’s chief counsel. “Our priority is to protect the health and well-being of our communities, and we will vigorously pursue enforcement measures to achieve cleaner and safer air for all residents of the Bay Area.”
PRDs release emissions during upset conditions and not on a day-to-day basis. However, when PRDs releases do occur, the emissions go directly to the atmosphere unless they are captured and/or abated. The Air District is seeking this abatement order to require abatement equipment to prevent emissions from going into the atmosphere if and when any PRDs do experience releases.
Air District staff discovered these PRD violations in connection with an investigation into a series of widespread violations involving Valero’s hydrogen system, including extensive emissions from a hydrogen vent for which the Hearing Board issued an abatement order in 2022. Valero is required to report releases from its hydrogen system PRDs to the Air District, but it failed to do so for over ten years. As a result, these ongoing violations did not come to light until the Air District conducted further investigations after it found the hydrogen vent violations.
The Air District’s Hearing Board is an independent tribunal created by state law with the power to order violators to cease operating until they come into compliance with Air District regulations. Hearing Board proceedings are open to the public, and the public is encouraged to participate and comment when the Hearing Board holds a hearing to consider issuing the requested abatement order. Once the hearing is scheduled, a link will be posted on the Air District’s website at www.baaqmd.gov. The public can also sign up for Hearing Board updates at https://www.baaqmd.gov/contact-us/sign-up-for-information.
The Hearing Board is not empowered to impose monetary penalties for violations of Air District regulations. The Air District will take separate enforcement action to assess penalties for these violations to the maximum extent provided for by law. The purpose of this abatement order request is to seek an order requiring Valero to cease its ongoing violations with respect to these PRDs and immediately come into compliance.
Read more!As Air Quality is so essential to our health, you might want to check out these resources:
Please – anyone can report Air Quality issues/events to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District: General Public Information: (415) 749-4900, or Air Quality Complaints: 1-800-334-ODOR (6367)
The Bay Area Air District has established a new Community Investments Office to help direct funding from enforcement actions into projects that benefit communities most impacted by air pollution across the Bay Area. Your voice is critical in shaping how these funds will be distributed.
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