BENICIA (CBS SF) – The Bay Area Air Quality Management District announced Thursday that they have reached a $345,000 settlement with Valero over violations at its Benicia refinery in 2017.
According to an agency statement, the settlement addresses 17 notices of violations at the facility. Violations include excessive visible emissions, exceeding limits on carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, along with violations on late reporting.
“The hundreds of emissions points at each refinery require regular inspections, monitoring and data review by the Air District,” said Damian Breen, the agency’s senior deputy executive officer of operations/enforcement. “Penalties resulting from that oversight ensure that facilities fix and avoid future air quality violations. This helps to protect public health.”
Agency officials said the violations leading up to the settlement have been corrected.
Thursday’s settlement is unrelated to an abatement order issued against the refinery last week over unreported emissions that the air district was not aware of for years. The air district said that penalties regarding the abatement order have yet to be determined.
It was a LONG time coming, and thanks to the vision, hard work and persistence of Benicia activists and volunteers, Benicia now has a state-of-the-art air monitoring station just outside the Valero Benicia Refinery.
A culmination of the more than decade-long efforts of the Good Neighbor Steering Committee and a recently established and highly effective Governing Board, the Benicia Community Air Monitoring Program (BCAMP) was unveiled to the public in a webinar on March 3rd.
Benicia videographer Constance Beutel recorded the March 3 webinar, and has produced several options for you to view now (see below).
First, however, I am so proud of my friends, neighbors and all involved, and I want to offer profound thanks:
A HUGE THANK-YOU from the BenIndy!
Good Neighbor Steering Committee: Marilyn Bardet, Constance Beutel, Mary Frances Kelly Poh, Kathy Kerridge, Nancy Lund and attorney Dana Dean
BCAMP Board of Directors: Chair David Lindsay, Kathy Kerridge, Marilyn Bardet, Nancy Lund, C. Bart Sullivan
Argos Scientific Team, Don Gamiles, President and Founder
Ruszel Woodworks, accommodating and providing the site
Via a zoom webinar, attendees celebrated the official launch of the Benicia Community Air Monitoring Program (BCAMP), a non profit community run state of the art air monitoring system. This slightly edited (2 hour) video captures the historic launch of this critical community resource regarding air quality.
This edited video (just over an hour) from the launch of the BCAMP community project provides an overview and introduction to BCAMP, the BCAMP Board members and zoom webinar panelists.
This four-minute video is an extract from the 3/2/2022 zoom webinar launching BCAMP in Benicia, CA. It describes the state-of-the-art air monitoring equipment that is being used.
On March 2, 2022, BCAMP was publicly launched with a zoom webinar. This 6-minute video is an extract from the panelist presentation about the partnership of BCAMP with AirWatchBayArea.org
This 12-minute video extract from the zoom webinar on Mar 3, 2022 demonstrates the features and functionalities of the the BCAMP website: https://www.fenceline.org/bcamp/
BENICIA, CA — Representatives from Valero and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District appeared in front of the Benicia City Council Tuesday night after revelations were made known that the refinery was emitting harmful, excessive levels of hazardous chemicals for nearly 16 years before BAAQMD said it became aware of them.
The council and community members also grilled BAAQMD for failing to notify the city of Benicia as soon as it found out about the emissions in 2018. Benicia’s mayor and other city leaders said they were not informed of the problem until two months ago.
BAAQMD began its PowerPoint presentation to the council with an image of Valero’s byzantine system of pipes, storage tanks, chimneys, towers, vents and smokestacks with a red arrow pointing down to one of them. Under the arrow stood a slim, vertical pipe emitting smoke that the air district claims it had thought was merely a steam vent. As it turned out, the innocuous vent had been emitting pollutants at hundreds of times the daily limit since 2003.
According to BAAQMD, Valero had been releasing benzene, ethylbenzene, and other organic compounds considered hazardous. District rules set a cap on such emissions at 15 pounds per day and a maximum of 300 parts per million. What the district discovered was that Valero had been emitting an average of 5,200 pounds per day and 19,148 parts per million.
The presentation given to council was an attempt of the air district to “be more transparent,” something they say they are committed to in the wake of the revelations.
“We should have done better and we should have done better sooner,” said Damian Breen, BAAQMD’s senior deputy executive officer of operations.
Joshua Tulino, general manager of Benicia’s Valero refinery, told the council and community that they, too, were unaware of the emissions until 2018 and “immediately” administered piping modifications that solved 71 percent of the hydrocarbon emission issues. He also said that since then, Valero has reduced the emissions by 98 percent.
Tulino maintained that informing the community about dangerous emissions is an “obligation” they take seriously but that “this source of emissions did not fall into that category.”
Tulino added that they were not aware that the vent was a source that needed to be monitored.
Benicia Mayor Steve Young asked Breen why the air district didn’t release the information it had gathered as soon as it found out and questioned how they could identify toxic releases and not share information with the city.
Breen said Solano County and “hazmat” officials were notified, but that they “should have done better” about notifying Benicia.
“That’s why you see us changing our policies here.”
The changes Breen referenced are holding more public hearings when violations occur, increasing transparency, keeping communities better informed, and monitoring refineries “better.”
As part of this effort, BAAQMD will be holding a March 15 public hearing about these Valero violations. The air district will also be installing a remote air monitoring station in Benicia near the Fire Museum at 900 East Second Street, a move that councilmembers unanimously accepted Tuesday.
[BenIndy Editor: Last October, Baykeeper announced a Notice of Intent to sue, offering 60 days for a settlement. Evidently there was no agreement to settle. Today’s news below. See also: earlier reports on the Benicia Independent.]
The defendants, according to the complaint, are a group of corporations that conduct business in the automotive processing industry, while the plaintiff is a nonprofit organization “whose main focus is to hold polluters and government agencies accountable to create healthier communities and help wildlife thrive”
The complaint states that the defendants have “directly discharge petroleum coke into the Carquinez Strait at the Port of Benicia and that Defendants do so without a valid permit under the Clean Water Act and in violation of California law.”
The plaintiff is claiming that the defendants have gone out and discharged harmful toxins in the Port of Benicia through several means. Some of these means have been through “the washing of petcoke and pollutants off the deck of the ship and other loading-related equipment, directly into the Bay,” as well as the direct “aerial deposition of particulate matter into the water from Amports’ conveyance system and operations.”
According to the plaintiff the substance that the defendants have allegedly been discharging, known as Petroleum coke, or petcoke is a harmful byproduct of petroleum refining. Some of the properties that Petcoke contains are heavy metals such as copper, zinc, nickel arsenic, and mercury. This substance is being claimed to be “a harmful and deleterious to aquatic ecosystems, animal and plant species in and around waters, and poses risks to human health”.
Other allegations that the plaintiff is asserting is that the substance Petcoke makes its way into the public waters of the Carquinez Strait where the defendants do not have the proper authorization to work in.
Ultimately, the defendant is facing 10 counts, including NPDES permit violations, Clean Water Act violations, and violation of unfair competition law.
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