In Part 1 of this series, we explored the many health risks and costs of air pollution in Benicia, including premature deaths, hospitalizations and respiratory symptoms including asthma in adults and children. Today we will take a look at air monitoring – and the lack of it – in Benicia.
The City of Benicia and its residents need more information about our air. For too long, voices have called for significant air monitoring, with little to no effect. Valero Refinery contributes heavily to the pollution in the air we breathe, yet it is dragging its feet in addressing the monitoring problem.
Currently, Valero has submitted a proposed plan for fence line air monitoring to the Bay Area Air Management District (BAAQMD, or the Air District). But Valero’s plan would not include monitoring large areas of Benicia, including Southampton residential neighborhoods, schools, and parts of the industrial park. These areas are directly west and southwest of the refinery. Valero’s plan also does not monitor the numerous hilltops and hills and valleys throughout Benicia.
Valero’s air monitoring proposal is woefully inadequate and has drawn numerous other criticisms in formal submissions to the Air District. The proposal lacks transparency and community input and leaves too many issues unaddressed, awaiting decisions after Air District review. Valero’s plan must not be approved in its present form.
Valero’s fence line monitoring proposal does not adequately address “rare conditions.” In Benicia, these conditions include windless days or nights that occur during summer months, and prevailing wind patterns that often blow east-to-west in fall and winter, bringing pollution directly into Benicia’s air space.
A prime example of a recent “rare circumstance” demonstrates why a Monitoring Plan must address circumstances considered “unusual.” On May 5th, 2017 a sudden total loss of power from PG&E triggered an immediate, unexpected shutdown of the entire refinery, which caused instantaneous, unmitigated flaring and burn-off of fuels within all of Valero’s processing units. Evacuations and shelter-in-place orders were given to persons living and working around the refinery boundaries, including school children at two Benicia elementary schools, Robert Semple Elementary and Matthew Turner. Little was known about air quality in nearby businesses, schools and neighborhoods in real time on that day – or since.
Also, Valero’s plan only addresses in part the community’s right and desire to know what is in Benicia’s air on a real-time basis. The Air District’s Rule 12-15 only calls for fence line perimeter monitoring with a minimum requirement to sample a few of the notable refinery gases. Valero’s proposed plan allows for a minimum of 75% reliability rate for the monitoring system – it should be 90%, which is the reliability rate required of other Bay Area refineries.
Valero says fence line monitoring results will be available in near real-time to the public on a website hosted by a third party. But Valero’s Plan is vague about procedures for displaying data on the public website and states that all will be “refined” at a future date. What restrictions to the public will there be, and will there be community involvement? Answers should all be clear PRIOR to the Plan’s approval, not after – with decisions made by whom, and when?
Let’s remember where we are at this point in time discussing air monitoring in Benicia. Do we really need to be reminded of all the dedicated efforts over the past 18+ years of voluntary service by Good Neighbor Steering Committee (GNSC) members? Despite the clear requirement expressed in two separate agreements (in 2003 and in 2008), Valero has neither installed the purchased fence line monitoring equipment nor voluntarily and actively supported establishment of a permanent monitoring station in the community. The assembled state-of-the-art array of monitors required by the agreements now remain “off limits” and mothballed on Valero property.
Valero’s proposed air monitoring “plan” is only a continuation of the successful corporate delay and deflection of the community’s right to know what is in our air – what we can see and can’t see.
We don’t know what is in the air, and Benicia has asthma rates much higher than the state average. Benicia needs air monitors NOW, and state/regional regulations will be slow in coming.
In Part 3, we will take a closer look at the good reasons for Benicia to adopt an Industrial Safety Ordinance (ISO).
Benicia ISO Working Group The Benicia ISO Working Group is an ad hoc citizen’s group of about a dozen Benicia residents. Since October 2017, the Working Group has been studying, writing, meeting with officials and advocating that Benicia join all other Bay Area refinery towns in passing a local community industrial safety ordinance. More information: benindy.wpengine.com/iso.
Most of the time, you cannot see dirty air – for example you can’t see particulates. We know that particulates increase the age-specific mortality risk, particularly from cardiovascular causes. In fact, epidemiological studies suggest public health officials are underestimating the effect of acute pollution exposure on mortality and health outcomes. Other health Issues include those created by oxides of nitrogen, which affect respiratory conditions causing inflammation of the airways – this is often seen as asthma in children and adults.
Every once in a while, we can actually see dirty air such as the May 5, 2017 near catastrophic power loss at Valero and several days and weeks of black smoke. Each type of air pollution has major public health effects.
According to a California State University study in 2008 and subsequent studies by researchers on the cost of air pollution, dirty air in 2008 dollars cost California $28 billion. Some have noted that It may be tempting to think California can’t afford to clean up, but, in fact, dirty air is like a $28 billion lead balloon on our economy. Imagine what could be done if that $28 billion was being spent productively.
The Cal State study applies to Benicia in many ways because it studied two regions with very similar traffic, heavy-duty diesel truck and marine exhaust combined with refineries like those along the Strait including Valero that dominate our region, adding tons of pollutants to the air we breathe every day.
The cost of air pollution in dollars is directly related to premature death, hospitalizations and respiratory symptoms, limiting a person’s normal daily activity and increasing school absences and loss of workday. The $28 billion cost in 2008 reflects the impact these health problems have on the economy. Inflation and little progress on reducing air pollution suggests the costs are much higher now.
Making sense of air monitoring goes hand in hand with public health data. We don’t have this information. Each year, the life- and health-threatening levels of pollution cause the following adverse health effects for the two air basins studied by CSU:
* Premature deaths among those age 30 and older: 3,812
* Premature deaths in infants: 13
* New cases of adult onset chronic bronchitis: 1,950
* Days of reduced activity in adults: 3,517,720
* Hospital admissions: 2,760
* Asthma attacks: 141,370
* Days of school absence: 1,259,840
* Cases of acute bronchitis in children: 16,110
* Lost days of work: 466,880
* Days of respiratory symptoms in children: 2,078,300
* Emergency room visits: 2,800
The same report showed statistics on hospital admissions due to asthma: Benicia 81.08 per 10,000 compared to California at 70.55. Rates for emergency room visits for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and mortality from chronic lower respiratory disease (CLRD) were similarly higher in Benicia than statewide. Air pollution and asthma are contributing factors to these lung diseases. We need to know what exactly is in our air. Air monitoring for Benicia makes sense.
In Parts 2 and 3, we will take a look at air monitoring in Benicia and the good reasons for Benicia to adopt an Industrial Safety Ordinance.
Our High School students who have embraced the #NEVERAGAIN movement are realists.
Benicia High School walkout April 21, 2018
Today I heard from a longtime Benicia resident: “I don’t know if you remember this or not, but Benicia High School students were victims of gun violence, back in the 80s. (were you in town then?) A jealous ex-boyfriend came on campus and shot his ex-girlfriend in front of everybody. The entire town felt the trauma for many months. The fear and anger are legitimate.”
That’s not all – by a long shot! I researched and wrote the following back in 2013, following the Orlando, Florida nightclub shooting. My article was entitled Stop the Mass Shootings, and began with NATIONAL statistics. But gun violence was a very real LOCAL problem in 2010-2013. Someone should research gun violence in Benicia 2013-present… (Important to note that the word “school” appears 14 times below…)
– Roger Straw
Gun Violence is a problem in Benicia
By Roger Straw
May 16, 2013, 2:30 PM
Gun violence is in fact a BENICIA problem … it is time to take action in EVERY city and town. Here are 21 links to Benicia Herald reports of gun violations in Benicia April, 2010 to May 16, 2013.
BREAKING: Armed Liberty High student accused of threatening classmate By Donna Beth Weilenman Benicia Herald Staff Reporter May 16, 2013
Benicia police arrested a 17-year-old Liberty High School student they said made threats Wednesday to kill a classmate, and Thursday brought a gun to campus, Lt. Frank Hartig said. The youth’s identity was not disclosed, but he was accused of felony counts of terrorist threats and possessing a firearm on school grounds, as well as misdemeanor accusations of possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number; of being a minor in possession of ammunition; possession of an assault weapon; and being a minor in possession of a concealed firearm, Hartig said.
County youth homicide rate on the rise – Solano ranks 6th in California By Donna Beth Weilenman Benicia Herald Staff Reporter March 7, 2013 at 11:01 am
Solano County has been ranked sixth among California counties in youth and young adult homicides, said Marty Langley, policy analyst for the the Violence Policy Center, Washington, D.C. San Joaquin County topped the list that is based on 2011 statistics, and several counties reported no homicides among those 10 to 24, the age range that is the focus of the center’s report.
Police search reveals drugs, ‘suspected Molotov cocktail’ By Donna Beth Weilenman Benicia Herald Staff Reporter December 11, 2012 at 3:39 pm
Benicia police arrested a Benicia man early Monday in the Solano County Square parking lot after a police dog detected drugs in the vicinity of the man’s car. A search turned up drugs, weapons and a suspected incendiary device, Lt. Frank Hartig said Tuesday afternoon.
Man sought in Benicia robbery dies in standoff Police: After chase to Treasure Island, Duncan Phillips shot himself By Donna Beth Weilenman Benicia Herald Staff Reporter November 27, 2012 at 4:18 pm
A man sought by Benicia police in the Thanksgiving Day armed robbery of one woman and theft of another women’s car died early Tuesday of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot after a lengthy standoff on Treasure Island, San Francisco police said. Duncan Phillips, 29, had been the subject of a Benicia police search after he was suspected of attacking and robbing a 52-year-old woman at her apartment on the 900 block of Southampton Road, Lt. Frank Hartig said.
Armed robbery at Fast and Easy Mart Benicia Herald Staff Report August 17, 2012 at 10:57 am
Fast and Easy Mart, 1500 East Fifth Street, was held up Thursday night by armed robbers, police said. The lone clerk described the four assailants as African-American men in the 20s or 30s, wearing dark-colored bandanas over their mouths, police said.
Held in county lockup, suspect charged with attempted murder of police officer By Donna Beth Weilenman Benicia Herald Staff Reporter July 17, 2012 at 8:08 am
The 22-year-old American Canyon man identified as the suspect who exchanged gunfire with a Benicia police officer Saturday afternoon remained in Solano County Jail, Fairfield, after his arrest Sunday morning in Vallejo, authorities said Monday. Robert Flores Folster was arrested by Benicia police with help from Vallejo police at 1324 Lincoln Road East in Vallejo on Sunday morning, according to Lt. Mike Greene and Solano County Jail records. Folster has been booked on charges of burglary, endangerment of a child that could result in injury or death, attempted murder, carjacking, receiving stolen property and vehicle theft, according to jail records. All are felony charges. While bail of $1,050,000 was set for the first three charges, Folster is being held without bail on the latter three.
Drug, gun charges for Benicia juvenile By Donna Beth Weilenman Benicia Herald Staff Reporter July 13, 2012 at 4:02 pm
A 17-year-old Benicia driver who ran a stop sign late Thursday was arrested on weapons and drug charges and was taken to Solano County Juvenile Hall in Fairfield, Lt. Frank Hartig said Friday….
BREAKING: Man robs 7-11 at gunpoint By Donna Beth Weilenman Benicia Herald Staff Reporter June 5, 2012 at 5:19 pm
A convenience store clerk was robbed at gunpoint early Tuesday, and the suspect not only demanded money from the register’ but the clerk’s wallet as well, Benicia police Lt. Frank Hartig said.
The robber escaped on foot, and the clerk was not harmed, he said….
Police say Rio Vista man had 2 concealed guns By Donna Beth Weilenman Benicia Herald Staff Reporter May 25, 2012 at 5:54 am
A Rio Vista man has been jailed after Benicia police accused him of two firearms violations following a traffic stop in a residential area….
Gunshots in Benicia lead to charge of endangerment By Donna Beth Weilenman Benicia Herald Staff Reporter May 10, 2012 at 1:37 pm
Benicia Police arrested a 20-year-old Napa man early Wednesday and accused him of endangering a child when he negligently fired a revolver from his car while he on the 1300 block of Southampton Road, Lt. Frank Hartig said….
BREAKING: Armed gunman holds up Benicia business Benicia Herald Staff Report January 26, 2012
Benicia police said an armed robber entered a Southampton business Thursday afternoon and escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash.
No one was injured in the holdup at Check Into Cash, 806 Southampton Road, police said….
Police find 59 guns; resident arrested – SOME of the 59 guns police confiscated from a Benicia resident Thursday, including a 9mm UZI (link not available…) By Donna Beth Weilenman, Benicia Herald, Courtesy BPD October 28, 2011 at 3:13 pm
A 49-year-old Benicia man has been arrested and a cache of guns, including an illegal 9 mm UZI assault weapon, were confiscated after Benicia police looked into reports Thursday that the man had been harassing a 20-year-old Martinez woman, Lt. Mike Daley said….
Police arrest parolee on weapons charges Benicia Herald Staff Report April 8, 2011 at 9:41 pm
Benicia police on Friday arrested a Magalia, Calif., man after finding a handgun and tools commonly used for car theft in his possession. Police Sgt. John Daley stopped a 1994 Acura on the 900 block of Cambridge Drive at about 6:24 a.m. for an expired registration. After the stop police determined that the passenger, Brad Stancliff, 23, had a felony warrant for his arrest from the California Department of Corrections, according to a Benicia Police Department news release.
Police: Man aimed gun at roommate By Donna Beth Weilenman Benicia Herald Staff Reporter March 17, 2011 at 5:31 am
A 28-year-old Benicia man who police said pointed a handgun at his roommate’s forehead Tuesday evening was arrested and charged with a felony. Lt. Mike Daley said the 34-year-old roommate called police and said the man had pointed the gun at him about 6:46 p.m. after they had been arguing….
Absent plate leads to weapons, drug arrest By Donna Beth Weilenman Benicia Herald Staff Reporter March 10, 2011 at 1:32 am
The occupants of a Ford Thunderbird missing its rear license plate were arrested Tuesday night and charged with weapons and drug violations, Benicia police Lt. Mike Daley said Wednesday. Benicia K-9 Officer Damiean Sylvester noticed the Thunderbird was missing its plate and stopped the vehicle on East Fifth Street at the eastbound Interstate 780 on-ramp, Daley said. Sylvester spoke with the driver and passenger and discovered each had some prescription medicine but no prescriptions, Daley said. The passenger also had a substance police believe is methamphetamine, he said.
Lone gunman robs store in Southampton By Marc Ethier Benicia Herald Editor December 30, 2010 at 10:20 pm
“Friday the 13th” it was not, but a lone gunman wearing a mask popularized by the horror film series was deadly serious Wednesday when he entered a Southampton Shopping Center store.
The gunman entered GameStop, 821 Southampton Road, at 9:54 p.m. wearing a white hockey mask, according to a Benicia police report. He brandished but did not point a black, semi-automatic-type handgun and demanded cash, then escaped with an undisclosed amount, police said….
Police: Benicia man hospitalized with apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound By Donna Beth Weilenman Benicia Herald Staff Reporter December 20, 2010 at 10:23 pm
A Benicia man was taken to an area hospital early Monday after police found him wounded by a gun he may have fired himself.
The man was listed in critical but stable condition at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek later that day, Lt. Bob Oettinger said….
Gunpoint robbery at Homecoming “One suspect pulled a black, semiautomatic gun and stuck it into the stomach of one of the victims.” — Benicia police Sgt. Scott Przekurat By Donna Beth Weilenman Benicia Herald Staff Reporter October 18, 2010 at 11:26 pm
Two 14-year-old Benicia High School students were robbed at gunpoint by four teenagers Friday night after the school’s homecoming game, Benicia police said Monday.
A school administrator appeared shortly after the four robbed the two boys of their wallets, cell phones and a small amount of money, prompting the robbers to scatter, said Sgt. Scott C. Przekurat of the department’s investigations unit.
The victims were walking through the campus after the game and had entered an outside hallway along the school’s A Wing at about 11 p.m. when they were approached by the four robbers, all described as wearing dark sweaters or jackets, dark pants, and flat-billed ball caps, Przekurat said….
Gunshots spur school lockdown
None hurt; police arrest 4 in drive-by By Donna Beth Weilenman Benicia Herald Staff Reporter October 1, 2010 at 12:32 am
Robert Semple Elementary School was placed on lockdown about 2:30 p.m. Thursday while authorities searched the area for gunmen who apparently were stalking a Benicia man and his girlfriend.
Vincent Winnie, a 22-year-old Vallejo man, and three others were arrested by Benicia police at the Interstate 780-Interstate 80 interchange, Lt. Mike Daley said. They were still being processed by police at press time.
The incident started before 1 p.m. when police received multiple calls of a possible drive-by shooting at the first block of La Prenda Avenue, Daley said….
City police seek help on reports of gunshots BENICIA POLICE Lt. Mike Daley. Herald file photo None injured in 2 incidents last week By Donna Beth Weilenman Benicia Herald Staff Reporter July 7, 2010 at 11:50 pm
Benicia police are asking residents to help them solve two incidents involving gunfire that occurred four days apart, Lt. Mike Daley said Wednesday.
The first report was of shots fired on the 400 block of East L Street about 8:10 p.m. on June 29, Daley said….
Autopsy confirms Benicians’ deaths came by gunshot By Donna Beth Weilenman Benicia Herald Staff Reporter April 17, 2010 at 12:11 am
Autopsies performed Wednesday on the two Benicia residents who died in an apparent murder-suicide confirmed that Walter Little, 48, and his girlfriend, Julie Strack, 49, both died of gunshot wounds, Solano County Deputy Sheriff Corey McLean said.
Little, of 69 Vista Grande, died of an intraoral gunshot wound while Strack, of the same address, died of two wounds, one to the head and one to the neck, McLean said….
Suspect in ’08 murder sues city – Vallejo man, 19, cites arrest injuries By Donna Beth Weilenman Benicia Herald Staff Reporter February 2, 2010
A 19-year-old Vallejo man who has been charged in connection with the 2008 murder of a Hogan High School student after a party at the Benicia National Guard Armory has filed a civil suit against Benicia, claiming permanent injuries were inflicted on him during his arrest.
Richard Lindsey contends that when he was arrested at his home on in June 2009 in connection with the murder of 17-year-old Mark Anthony Harris in February 2008, he was fired upon several times, permanently damaging his left arm, shoulder, hand, and right leg. Lindsey also said he suffers post-traumatic stress syndrome, severe anxiety and emotional distress….
Benicia High School videographers Iris Sampayo and Chris Weldon put together this moving and powerful 2-minute documentation of the Benicia March For Our Lives. I’m so glad they captured the song, “Shine,” originally created by the Parkland High School Drama Club, and sung here by Dahlia Elgonemy, Ameera Elgonemy, LaPaula Parker, and Gabby Campitelli on guitar.
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