[Note from BenIndy: A quick reminder, shortened a bit from the first posting. This meeting is free and open to all, regardless of Party preference or city of residence. This should be a fascinating discussion.]
Smoke from the Valero Benicia refinery wafts over residential neighborhoods during a 2017 incident. | Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
From Progressive Dems of Benicia Meeting Notice, sent April 2, 2024:
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), or “the Air District,” is our local regulatory agency when it comes to air pollution. It’s been around for decades, but its mission and activities are a mystery to many. Luckily, our amazing panel of Air District representatives will be on hand to guide us through what it does, how it does it, and what it’s working on to keep Bay Area residents healthy and safe.
Air District Panel
We are pleased to share that our panel will include BAAQMD’s Executive Officer/Air Pollution Control Officer, Dr. Philip Fine, formerly a presidential appointment to the EPA and the South Coast Air Management Quality District; Deputy Executive Officer of Public Affairs; BAAQMD Board of Directors member and Benicia Mayor Steve Young; and BAAQMD’s Community Advisory Council Co-Chair Ken Szutu, who also founded the Citizen Air Monitoring Network in Vallejo before serving as its director. We also expect that other staff members of the Air District will join us.
[Note from BenIndy: This is a fantastic opportunity to learn from Air District insiders what the District does, how it does it, and what might be next. This is a free public meeting open to all, regardless of party preference or city of residence.]
Smoke from the Valero Benicia refinery wafts over residential neighborhoods during a 2017 incident. | Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
From Progressive Dems of Benicia Meeting Notice, sent April 2, 2024:
Dear members and supporters—
We’re delighted to share more information about our April 9th meeting at 7pm, which we revealed last week will focus on the quality of our air – a hot topic given the warming weather and the recent Level-3 Incident at a local refinery. (The picture here is not from that incident, it is from a 2017 incident; click the image to be redirected to a YouTube news report.)
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), or “the Air District,” is our local regulatory agency when it comes to air pollution. It’s been around for decades, but its mission and activities are a mystery to many. Luckily, our amazing panel of Air District representatives will be on hand to guide us through what it does, how it does it, and what it’s working on to keep Bay Area residents healthy and safe.
Air District Panel
We are pleased to share that our panel will include BAAQMD’s Executive Officer/Air Pollution Control Officer, Dr. Philip Fine, formerly a presidential appointment to the EPA and the South Coast Air Management Quality District; Deputy Executive Officer of Public Affairs Viet Tran; BAAQMD Board of Directors member and Benicia Mayor Steve Young; and BAAQMD’s Community Advisory Council Co-Chair Ken Szutu, who also founded the Citizen Air Monitoring Network in Vallejo before serving as its director. We also expect that other staff members of the Air District will join us.
[Note from BenIndy: Valero’s 30-day report on the February 24 hydrocarbon spill, which was categorized as a “Level-3” incident due to the potential threat to human health, raised yet more concerns about the refinery’s promptness and openness in notifying the City and its residents of hazardous events. If liquid hydrocarbon was detected on Tank 1738’s roof at 4:13am, why was the City not informed “immediately,” as required by its 2019 Cooperation Agreement with Valero? What does “immediately” even mean, in this context? Questions about Valero’s emergency management and dedication to safeguarding the community, particularly when considering the health risks posed by hydrogen sulfide exposure, certainly linger. Additionally, Valero’s tweaking of the spill’s reported volume – which could be 83 or 35 gallons, depending – spotlights why enhanced regulatory oversight and wide-spanning improvements to notification requirements should be an urgent priority of the refinery, its regulators, and of course the City of Benicia. Once again, we urge readers to check out BISHO.org to learn more about the City’s push for an Industrial Safety Ordinance from the perspective of its supporters.]
Valero Benicia Refinery releases cause of Feb. 24 incident, closes investigation
The Valero Benicia Refinery released its required 30-day report on Monday to provide additional details about the Feb. 24 releasing of a foul odor into the city of Benicia, and announced that the investigation has been officially closed.
The incident began on Friday, Feb. 23 when a gas turbine in the Benicia Refinery Fluid Catalytic Cracker Unit tripped, causing an emergency shutdown procedures and rerouting to “slop system” tanks to take place. During this process, Tank 1738 was turned off at approximately 4:13 a.m. Feb. 24 after it was discovered that there was some liquid hydrocarbon on the roof of that tank.
By 5:30 a.m. the next morning, the report noted that the Benicia Refinery Fence-line monitors detected Hydrogen Sulfide above background levels Southwest of the Refinery that was accompanied by the signature odor of H2S, which accounted for the rotten egg smell that was present throughout the city of Benicia at that time.
“Refinery Operations began investigating the source of the odor and identified hydrocarbon on the roof of Tank 1738 at approximately 4:13 a.m. (Feb. 24) as the source,” read the report. “… Cleanup efforts began at approximately 1 p.m. and refinery personnel continued to clean material off of the tank roof until the majority of the material had been removed and there was insufficient daylight to continue. At the time the work stopped, odors were no longer being detected beyond the refinery fence-line. Operations resumed the next morning to continue spot cleaning the residue on the tank roof and cleanup was completed on Monday, Feb. 26.”
Refinery officials said their initial report estimated that there was approximately 83 gallons of refined hydrocarbon material.
“However, based on visual accounts from the personnel overseeing the cleanup of the material, it was noted that the material on the roof was a very light sheen and the roof of the tank was still visible through the sheen, indicating it was a very thin layer of liquid hydrocarbon,” read the report. “Based on the information on the sheen thickness and the area of the roof that had material, the estimate was revised to be approximately 35 gallons of hydrocarbon material. The bulk of the material removed from the roof was rainwater.”
According to the report, an investigation team – composed of managers, engineers and hourly operators from the facility – was formed two days after the incident occurred to determine the root cause and recommend corrective actions for the Feb. 24 event.
“Data was gathered from multiple sources, including equipment monitoring trends and accounts from personnel involved in the incident,” read the report.
According to the report, the investigation identified that the floating roof on Tank 1738 had slightly tilted, and was most likely caused by vapors entering the tank.
“The investigation team looked at the various sources of slop material that were routed to the tank during the event to identify potential sources of lighter hydrocarbon materials to the tank,” read the report. “From those potential source streams, there was insufficient data for the team to identify which stream was the conclusive source of the vapors.”
The investigation team did, however, determined that the volume of material on the roof was likely not significant enough to cause offsite impacts, and therefore a vapor release from the tank was suspected to have occurred.
“The investigation team also considered the possibility of other sources as the cause of the odor, but evidence from refinery fixed H2S monitors and the wind direction during the event provided evidence that the tank was the source of the odor,” read the report.
Because the investigative team believed that light hydrocarbon materials vaporized in Tank 1738 causing the roof tilt and atmospheric substances to be released, the Refinery will schedule a meeting on or before Sept. 30 with the City of Benicia and Solano County Certified Unified Program Agency to develop engineering solution for the potential slop sources and options for monitoring and alarms, procedural options, or other means to reducing potential for vapor carry under to tankage and to implement engineering solutions.
Further actions on how to proceed with corrective action will be discussed and acted on at that time but the investigation into the incident has now been closed, according to Refinery officials.
The Benicia City Council has appointed a Council Subcommittee consisting of Vice Mayor Terry Scott and Councilmember Kari Birdseye, with Fire Chief Josh Chadwick as the appointed staff member, to create an Industrial Safety and Health Ordinance (ISO) for the City of Benicia. As part of the ISO development process, the subcommittee is conducting public outreach, gathering input from key stakeholders, and consulting with subject matter experts in the field of industrial safety.
As part of the public outreach process, the subcommittee is hosting a series of community outreach meetings. The first option is an in-person meeting at the Benicia Public Library on Tuesday, March 26. Due to the size of the Dona Benicia room, there will be two sessions of the same content: one at 5 p.m. and one at 6 p.m. Please attend only one session to allow for more participation.
There will also be a virtual community outreach meeting with the same content on Wednesday, April 3 from 6 -7 p.m. To join the meeting, visit https://tinyurl.com/yxb39xv6 and use passcode 162947.
To learn more about the project and the public engagement process, please visit the City’s public engagement website, www.EngageBenicia.com.
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