Category Archives: Bay Area Refineries

Bakken Crude, Bay Area Refineries, Martinez CA, Phillips 66, Santa Maria Refinery, Shell Oil, Tesoro

CCTimes: concerns over crude by rail in Martinez

Repost from The Contra Costa Times

Martinez Environmental Group concerned over crude oil rail transport

By Dana Guzzetti  |  05/13/2014

MARTINEZ — Bill Nichols of the Martinez Environmental Group said the city is in “dire peril” because of trains transporting oil through the region.

“Accidents have risen exponentially,” he said, at the May 7 City Council meeting.

The Martinez group is part of a larger movement working to stop crude oil rail shipments partly because of the increased number of accidents in recent years. Explosions, fires and spills have occurred, sometimes in populated areas. Nichols cited a July 2013 accident in Canada resulting in 47 deaths.

Trains have intersected Martinez since 1877 and the tracks are now used by the BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) and Union Pacific railroads. As well as passenger service, some freight trains contain oil and chemicals.

Nichols said his concern about lighter Bakken crude is due to the fact that it is highly combustible, and because shale oil production has boomed at the Bakken formation in North Dakota. Heavier Canadian tar sands crude is also increasingly shipped from Alberta, Canada.

Mayor Rob Schroder noted that the Martinez rail switching yard is not far from his home.

“Of course we are very concerned. The safety of our residents is the most important part of my job,” he said. “It is not just Bakken oil, other trains carry chemicals.”

The Bakken crude oil is desirable in the market partly because it does not require as much refining to make gasoline, and is therefore cheaper to produce. While that helps reduce American dependence on Middle East oil, there is little pipeline infrastructure in place and new pipeline construction has been resisted for environmental reasons.

Oil producers turned to rail because it is environmentally cleaner, safer and more cost effective than trucking to refineries in the Bay Area and elsewhere, but not to Shell Martinez Refinery.

Tesoro began receiving Bakken crude shipments at the Kinder Morgan terminal in Richmond and trucking them to the refinery near Martinez, according to a Reuters report.

In March, Valero Energy Corp. revealed plans for a new rail terminal in Benicia to receive Bakken crude shipments, and Phillips 66 has plans for a project in Santa Maria which would facilitate train transport through Martinez to its Rodeo refinery.

“In 2008, there were 9,500 trainloads (of oil) in the United States,” Nichols said. “In 2013, that number has increased to 413,000.”

In spite of that volume, Lena L. Kent, BNSF spokeswoman later said, “BNSF experienced the fewest mainline derailments in its history in 2013, and the Federal Railroad Administration says that preliminary data indicates it may have been the safest year for the rail industry as well, following 2012, which had been the safest year in history for both BNSF and the rail industry.”

At the meeting, Nichols’ lengthy presentation was full of alarming statistics, and he requested the City Council to take a stand against the shipments. He asked the council to appeal to other elected officials, including Gov. Jerry Brown and to do the same.

Councilman Mark Ross subsequently observed, “It is important to pursue safety in the overall production and transport of oil, but there has to be a reduction in demand. It has only increased because it has become more profitable.”

Ross serves on the Bay Area Air Quality Management District board, but said it only controls stationary sources.

“It is up to the railroads and the federal government to make it safe. It is far short of what is needed nationwide,” Ross said. “The demand is going to be met … if they have to carry (crude oil) by buckets. It will have to be met.”

Air Quality, Bakken Crude, Bay Area Refineries, Benicia-Martinez rail bridge, Martinez CA, Spill prevention and response, Take Action

Request to Martinez City Council: moratorium on crude by rail

Repost from The Martinez Gazette

Martinez Environmental Group: Martinez moratorium resolution, facts to consider

May 11, 2014 | by GUY COOPER,  Special to the Gazette

The Martinez Environmental Group presented a resolution to the City Council May 7, proposing opposition to increased crude-by-rail (CBR) traffic through our city, mirroring similar resolutions and expressions of concern already proffered by Berkeley, Richmond, Davis, Benicia, and many other communities along the tracks. The following is what I wish I would have said in support at that meeting if I hadn’t chickened out.

A major attraction of Martinez is its status as a transportation hub. People commute and travel via Amtrak. There are connections to BART and bus destinations north, south, east and west. The train brings people to our town, sometimes for the first time. They stop, stroll, eat, drink, shop. I’ve talked to many of them. They like what they see, are amazed by the friendliness of the locals. Many are surprised such a town even exists huddled beside those hulking refineries. Basically, they come and go with a good impression that can’t hurt.

Personally, I love being able to jump on the train, catch a Giants game, make a trip to the City or Jack London Square for an event, or head towards Davis, Sacramento, or Truckee for a weekend. Naturally, money is spent on tickets, restaurants, hotels, etc.

If WestPac, Tesoro, Valero, Kinder Morgan, Chevron and Phillips 66 have their way, we could see five to six oil trains a day pass through. Each train consists of about 100 tanker cars. Each car holds about 30,000 gallons of crude. So each train contains about 3 million gallons, is over a mile long, and weighs about 28 million pounds.

A major consideration: How much can our 85-year-old rusty Benicia/Martinez rail trestle tolerate? Has it ever had to endure that kind of traffic before? What’s the frequency of inspections and maintenance of that span? None of this info is easily accessible. The Coast Guard and rail companies have haggled over a bridge refurb for years. How can it be done without contaminating the water, and who’s going to pay for it? Meanwhile, nothing happens. A few years back Channel 4 did a piece on the trestle, noting the heavy rust, separated metal and bent bolts. I guess it was stoutly built way back when, but how long can we expect our elderly bridge to endure an onslaught not seen since WWII? If the rail bridge failed under the load of one of these trains … well, I don’t even want to contemplate that disaster.

These oil trains would use the same tracks used by the California Zephyr, the Capital Corridor commuters, the Coast Starlight.

Farmers, industrial customers, and rail passengers in the heartland of this country are already complaining about train delays and freight delivery impacts due to oil train traffic kludging up the system. What exactly will the local economic impact be if passenger rail schedules are severely disrupted?

Have you noticed the increase in delays lately just trying to get across the tracks to the waterfront as oil trains are built, rolling back and forth, attaching more cars, blocking traffic?

Exactly what economic impact do the local refineries have? Taxes, wages … I’d like to see the details. And please, not the contributions to local causes. For them, that’s just a drop in the PR bucket. What about the health effects of the carcinogens and other toxics spewed into our local environment? We rate amongst the worst in the country in that regard, because of the refineries. What are those costs? The more trains, the more detrimental health impacts. These trains out-gas toxic stuff while unloading or just sitting. Has that been factored into the cost/benefit mix? How about emergency response costs? Not just in responding to a sudden emergency, but in equipping and staffing for the eventuality. Are the oil producers and refiners offering to cover those costs?

Here’s some more math. These so-called “Bakken Bombers” carry a crude that has been likened to gasoline in volatility. One gallon of gas is equivalent to the explosive power of 63 sticks of dynamite. A Bakken Bomber contains about 3 million gallons, or the equivalent of 189,000,000 sticks of dynamite. You know, I’ve been to Hiroshima, Japan. A sobering experience. The power of the bomb that flattened that city was rated at 12 kilotons, or equivalent to 4.8 million sticks of TNT. So one Bakken Bomber train could potentially contain the explosive power of 39 Hiroshimas.

My point is, there is very little benefit to our city hosting this exponential increase in oil train traffic. And much at risk. Any one of these trains could annihilate our town or indelibly poison our water front. It’s just not worth it.

I believe the City of Martinez should be acutely concerned about this issue and wish to join our neighboring municipalities in conveying that concern to the powers at the state and federal levels that can do something about it. So I ask that the City Council call for a moratorium on crude-by-rail until all safety and health concerns are remedied. Vote to pass our resolution.

Bay Area Refineries, Take Action

Refinery to Refinery, Martinez to Benicia – a Healing Walk

Repost from Sunflower Alliance & Idle No More – Download: Media Advisory – All about the Benicia-Martinez Walk on May 17
[Editor – EVERYONE in the Bay Area is invited!  It will be fun, inspiring, colorful and an important contribution to our visionary opposition to Crude By Rail.  Details follow.  Please come!  – RS]

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National Day of Action Coming to Martinez and Benicia on May 17th. Local citizens conduct refinery corridor healing walk.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 6, 2014

Contact: Pennie Opal Plant, Refinery Corridor Healing Walks (510) 390-0386

National Day of Action Coming to Martinez and Benicia on May 17th

Local citizens conduct refinery corridor healing walk and say
“It’s time to transition to clean energy – No Keystone XL pipeline”

WHAT: The second in a series of four Connect the Dots: Refinery Corridor Healing Walks along the Northeast San Francisco Bay focussing on the Keystone XL pipeline,  issues related to living near refineries and a just transition to clean energy. This walk is  in conjunction with the May 17 Day of Action against Dirty Fuels to ask the president and local officials to reject the Keystone XL pipeline and other dirty fuel projects that threaten our communities and destabilize our climate. The Refinery Corridor Healing Walk will be one of hundreds of synchronized events with Hands Across the Sand/Land and other partners to raise awareness about the dangers of dirty fuels and the need to speed the transition to available, affordable clean energy solutions.

The upcoming National Day of Action is another manifestation of a growing movement demanding that our leaders act quickly and boldly to address climate change. It comes in the wake of the Department of State’s recent announcement that it was extending its review of the pipeline, and the Reject & Protect encampment in Washington, DC which dramatically highlighted the opposition of farmers, ranchers and Native Americans who would be directly impacted by the pipeline, In early March, Keystone activists presented the Administration with over 2.5 million comments opposing the pipeline.

WHO: Citizens from Martinez, Benicia and the Bay Area will be joined by members of the Sierra Club, Martinez Environmental Group, Stop Crude by Rail, CRUDE, Sunflower Alliance, APEN, Communities for a Better Environment, The Global Monitor, CREDO action, Greenpeace, 350.org, the Center for Biological Diversity and other organizations. Residents from Martinez and Benicia will be speaking at the morning and afternoon rallies.

WHEN:   Saturday, May 17th – 8:15 a.m. Prayer for water, 9:00 a.m. Rally. Walkers will finish at 9th Street Park in Benicia

WHERE: Beginning at Martinez Waterfront Park and ending at the 9th Street Park in Benicia

***VISUALS WILL INCLUDE BANNERS, FLAGS, – See attached photos of Refinery Healing Walk #1 on April 12th attached

**EXCELLENT INTERVIEW AND PHOTO/ VIDEO OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE**

More information at: https://actionnetwork.org/events/time-to-transition-no-kxl-refinery-corridor-healing-walk

Air Quality, Bakken Crude, Bay Area Refineries, Martinez CA, Rail accidents, Shell Oil, Tar sands crude

The hypocrisy of our our “friendly” giants: Big Oil in our back yards

Repost from The Martinez Gazette
[Editor: The following letter to the editor of The Martinez Gazette comes from our sister city across the Carquinez Strait, but it describes life in every refinery town.  Like Shell Oil, Valero in Benicia does an excellent job of contributing to popular charitable causes here and promotes itself as highly concerned with public health and safety – all the while filling our California skies with pollutants and seeking permission to bring in toxic and dangerous tar-sands and Bakken crudes that lay waste to the earth and its inhabitants from the strip mines and fracking fields all the way to our back door.  – RS]

‘Shell Oil is the hypocrisy at Earth Day’

 May 4, 2014

Dear editor:

Martinez celebrated John Muir’s Birthday and Earth Day last weekend at the John Muir Historical Site. Attendees were offered environmental information from sustainable and recyclable, to energy and water saving to causes of greenhouse gas (GHG) and global warming with the usual sponsors of the IBEW, Republic Services, City of Martinez, and Shell Oil of Martinez.

How does a fossil fuel industry corporation that produces 175 tons of hydrocarbons a day at it’s Martinez Refinery, owns 60 percent of Canadian Boreal Forest that is decimating the ecology to strip mine highly toxic tar sands crude oil to be shipped to its refineries, and has less than 2.5 percent of its overall expenditures in sustainable and renewable energy while totally divesting itself of solar energy and decreasing wind energy interests, get a place at John Muir’s Birthday/ Earth Day event? Certainly, John Muir would have left them off the list.

Shell and Big Oil was the elephant at the party. The Earth Day hypocrisy is that refineries in the Bay Area are the single largest stationary source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Shell is responsible for 492 million pounds of VOCs per year. Contra Costa County is the third most toxic county in the state of California. Short term exposure to sulfur dioxide, a refining byproduct, can result in respiratory illness and cardiovascular issues as well as aggravation of asthma. Do you or someone you know have asthma or respiratory illnesses?

There is no spare the air day for Shell or any refinery. When you can’t put a log on the fire, Shell emits over 700,000 tons of hydrocarbons per year, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Shell as well as the four other refineries in the Bay Area, are now refining a dirtier crude oil high in sulfur and other metals which emits more hydrocarbons. The tar sand oil from Alberta Canada is heavy like tar and sinks when it hits water, making oil spill recovery impossible. Shell receives this type of crude by ship and a spill of this type while off loading would foul our drinking water in Martinez.

Bakken crude oil, extracted from the Dakotas, is very explosive because of its low flash point and can explode before it is refined. This type of crude is being shipped by rail car through our downtown to the Bay Area refineries and has been in the news recently with train derailments and explosions in Casselton, North Dakota, Louisiana, Lac Megantic Canada and most recently in Lynchburg, Virginia.

The fossil fuel industry is always trying to improve their image within their communities despite their records as gross polluters. Chevron takes a single page ad in the Times every week telling us what a partner they are in the community since sending 15,000 residents to neighboring hospitals after a 2012 fire at their Richmond Refinery. Shell distributed flyers at Earth Day proposing to modernize their Martinez facility by cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 700,000 metric tons a year and reducing water usage by 15 percent. Why did it take them until the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said the fossil fuel industry is the leading contributor of GHG  emissions and a drought in California to get them to start reducing the amount of toxins they emit and the amount of water they use?

If the fossil fuel industry was truly committed to solving the energy issue as it relates to climate change and becoming a leader of green technology, they would not have eliminated wind and solar energy from their repertoire. The easy to extract oil has now been processed and these companies insist on extracting every drop of oil by drilling, hydro fracking, or strip mining to the point where the cost to extract crude oil is equal to the cost to burn it in an efficient engine.

The hypocrisy lies in the fact that Shell Oil made almost $20 billion dollars last year and was awarded the Martinez Business of the Year Award all the while convincing the planners, leaders, and deciders that they are entitled to a seat at the Birthday Party because they put change in the pockets of the community.

Our children and grandchildren are the apples of our eyes and the soft spot in our hearts. Shell Oil knows this and they focus their donations to Martinez Education Foundation, Martinez Unified School District, school scholarships, back packs so our kids can shelter in place, etc… for the children. THIS is the hypocrisy. They contaminate the ground, spew toxics that foul our air, our children’s air: because the money in the community’s pockets makes this poisoning acceptable.

Shell Oil is the Earth Day Hypocrisy.

– James Neu, Martinez