Category Archives: Air Quality

Air monitors, Air Quality, Benicia CA, Benicia City Council, Community-wide air monitoring, Industrial Safety Ordinance (ISO), ISO Working Group

Important Benicia City Council meeting this Tuesday Nov. 20

By Roger Straw, Monday, November 19, 2018
[Editor:  Highly recommended: Mayor Patterson’s Air monitors and public health – Council agenda for Tuesday.  Also, see Kathy Kerridge’s  invitation to this meeting.  – R.S.]

Valero and City staff report on air monitor progress required by ISO denial

You may want to attend the Benicia City Council meeting this Tuesday evening, November 20, or watch it on Benicia TV.

Last June, City Council chose NOT to review a draft Industrial Safety Ordinance (ISO) prepared by a local citizen activist Working Group.  However, the presentation and discussion at Council that night highlighted a unanimous concern that Benicia needs better air quality monitors and better communication between Valero refinery and the City.

At the end of the Council’s discussion last June, Council members Campbell and Schwartzman demanded that Valero install certain air monitors and undertake improved communications with the City in six months, OR ELSE.  Or else, that  is, they would vote in favor of an ISO to better protect the interests of the City.

Well, the six months has passed, and this Tuesday City Council will hear reports and discuss progress made – or not made.  As always, public comments, written or spoken, are welcome.  (See “Where to write…”)

IMPORTANT PREPARATION MATERIALS: see the Nov. 20 staff report and attachments here, beginning on p. 6 of the agenda.

City Council will meet at 7 pm on Tuesday November 20 in chambers at City Hall, 250 East L Street.  The meeting will be broadcast live on your tv at home on Comcast channel 27 or AT&T U-Verse channel 99 or via live streaming on your computer at Benicia TV, https://www.ci.benicia.ca.us/btv.

Air Quality, Bay Area Air Quality Management District, Bay Area Refineries, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), Reactive organic gases (ROG), Refinery emissions

Bay Area Air District proposing to give refineries a pass on air monitoring

[Editor: For more, including HOW TO SEND THE AIR DISTRICT YOUR COMMENT, see the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s Notice of Public Hearing.  Plan to attend on December 19, 2018.  – RS]

BAAQMD: Costs for daily air monitoring too expensive… poor refineries…

By Benicia Vice Mayor Steve Young, October 23, 2018 
Steve Young, Benicia Vice Mayor

The Bay Area Air District (BAAQMD) recently released their proposal on how to deal with the problem of excess ROG (Reactive Organic Gas) emissions from refinery cooling towers. Here are my favorite two sections from their proposed way of dealing (or more accurately, not dealing), with the problem …

Amendments to Rule 11-10 reduce monitoring of cooling towers for hydrocarbon leaks from daily to weekly, with provisions to extend monitoring periods after proving no leaks for an extended time. Costs for daily monitoring were found to be excessive relative to the potential hydrocarbon emission reductions. Requirements for cooling tower best management practices and reporting were eliminated when found to be focused primarily on Process Safety Management and cooling water chemistry rather than leak detection.

The only feasible method to reduce ROG emissions from cooling towers is more frequent monitoring and repair, but this method was concluded to not be feasible due to economic factors as per CEQA Guidelines §15364. Thus, no feasible mitigation measures have been identified that could avoid the significant impact or reduce the impact to less than significant.

Generally, CEQA (the California Environmental Quality Act) does not allow  an environmental impact to be ignored based on the fact that reducing those impacts will cost money. And refineries certainly SHOULD be expected to spend money on such things as more frequent monitoring and repairs.

Going to testify at these hearings – where testimony is limited to no more than three minutes, and often shorter – is both necessary and, seemingly, pointless.

Air Quality, Air Watch Bay Area, Benicia City Council

Constance Beutel – educational videos on Benicia Air Quality and Valero

From Constance Beutel, Youtube

Constance Beutel

Benicia videographer and educator Constance Beutel has a stellar history of advocating for sustainable clean energy in Benicia.  The former chairperson of Benicia’s Community Sustainability Commission recently made five short educational presentations before our City Council during the Open Comment period.  The presentations are about 5 minutes each, and were videotaped, as follows below.  (Don’t miss the last one, on Valero and our Benicia air!)

Air Quality – August 21, 2018

Air Monitors – September 4, 2018

Air Quality and Health – September 18, 2018

Air Quality and Benicia’s Health – October 2, 2018

Valero and Benicia

Air Quality, Climate action, Climate Change, Global Climate Action Summit, Global warming

National Day of Action for Climate Justice Sept. 8

Repost from People’s Climate Movement

September 8: Rise for Climate, Jobs, and Justice

People's Climate MovementThe weekend before San Francisco’s Global Climate Action Summit, the Peoples Climate Movement will lead a national mobilization for climate, jobs, and justice.

September 8th will be a moving demonstration of the breadth and depth of the climate movement. Across the country, tens of thousands of people will show our power by hitting the streets, holding community forums, and educating voters about the issues – all to ensure that elected and private sector leaders make action on climate a priority.

From Seattle to Miami – and everywhere in-between – activists and non-activists alike will come together to demonstrate to the world that on this day, and every day, climate matters. Like the National Day of Action in 2015, September 8th is about more than just numbers; it’s about telling the story of climate, jobs, and justice; it’s about showing that to change everything, it takes everyone – including you; and it’s about committing to make climate action a part of the national dialogue in November, in the months that follow, and well into 2019 and 2020.