[BenIndy: This information is at the bottom of the release, but it’s worth repeating top and center. You can view data from the Benicia-Fitzgerald air monitoring station (BFAMS) on the Air District website by Air Quality Index level and by pollutant concentration level. If you go to those pages, scroll down to the “Eastern Zone” section to check on BFAMS’s data. More info on the effort to expand air monitoring in communities near refineries can be found here. A brief BenIndy overview of the site with screenshots follow this release. To be totally transparent, the BenIndy has unilaterally assigned the station acronym of BFAMS  as it’s currently unclear if there’s an official acronym.]

July 18, 2024, 10:01 AM

SAN FRANCISCO – The Bay Area Air Quality Management District is announcing a new air monitoring station in Benicia as part of the agency’s efforts to establish or expand air monitoring stations in areas where large sources of pollution may contribute to localized pollution sources that are not captured by the Air District’s existing network.

The additional data generated by community monitors, like the Benicia air monitoring station, will provide refinery frontline communities with real-time, local-scale air pollution data, reflecting day-to-day cumulative air pollution levels. This data also supports analysis of air quality trends and other air quality assessments.

“This new, state-of-the-art air monitoring station in Benicia is a major step forward in assessing and addressing refinery emissions in a community impacted by those emissions” said Dr. Philip Fine, executive officer of the Air District. “The station will provide crucial data to better respond to incidents and to inform our plans to better protect residents. It is one of many tools the Air District is employing to improve air quality in communities near large pollution sources such as refineries.”

“This new Benicia air monitoring station is a vital addition to our community, providing us with the detailed, real-time data needed to understand and address our air quality concerns,” said Steve Young, Benicia mayor and member of the Air District Board of Directors. “It’s a step in the right direction for ensuring the health and safety of Benicia’s residents.”

The Air District is prioritizing communities with petroleum refineries and large renewable fuels manufacturing facilities, such as Benicia. The new station, the Benicia-Fitzgerald air monitoring station, is located near East 2nd and East J Street in Benicia.

The Benicia-Fitzgerald air monitoring station provides real-time data on the following pollutants: particulate matter, or PM2.5, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, nitric oxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and black carbon.

While the Air District operates numerous ambient air monitoring stations across the Bay Area, the data from those stations does not reflect pollutant concentrations in every neighborhood. In addition, exposure to pollution varies from place to place and some communities near large industrial facilities bear a disproportionate burden from emissions or other forms of air pollution.

Data from the Benicia-Fitzgerald air monitoring station can be viewed on the Air District website by Air Quality Index level and by pollutant concentration level. More info on the effort to expand air monitoring in communities near refineries can be found here.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District is the regional agency responsible for protecting air quality in the nine-county Bay Area. Connect with the Air District via X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

Notes on BFAMS from BenIndy:

So what does this new beast look like? Let’s take a look. The following screenshots were taken around 7 pm on July 18, 2024. They are here for illustrative purposes only.

• This screenshot from BAAQMD’s Air Quality Data webpage shows the Benicia-Fitzgerald Air Monitoring Station’s (BFAMS) readings of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5), helpfully indicating elevated levels with yellow.

• Users can click the Pollutants button to toggle the display to check on other pollutants.

• The pollutants BFAMS is monitoring include Ozone, Fine Particulate Matter, High Conditions, Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Dioxide, and Sulfur Dioxide. Clicking the pollutant you are interested in will change the display to show those readouts specifically.

• Per BAAQMD’s explainers, “High Conditions displays the highest overall AQI value estimate for each hour, and in the right-hand column the highest AQI for the day, which will usually be for ozone in the summertime and PM2.5 in the wintertime.”

This is a wonderful tool for a refinery town.

Copy of Marilyn Bardet’s letter, forcefully asking the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to follow through on promised enforcement of refinery air monitoring standards…

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From: Marilyn Bardet <email>
Subject: BAAQMD oversight/enforcement of Reg 12 – Rule 15, the Petroleum Refining Emissions Tracking Rule.
Date: October 21, 2020 at 3:37:37 PM PDT
To: Marcy Hiratzka <email@baaqmd.gov>

October 21, 2020

BAAQMD Board of Directors
Chair: Council member Rod Sinks, City of Cupertino
Vice Chair: Supervisor Cindy Chavez, Santa Clara County
Secretary: Supervisor Karen Mitchoff,  Contra Costa County

Sent via email:  <email@baaqmd.gov>

Subject:    BAAQMD oversight and enforcement of Regulation 12 – Rule 15, the Petroleum Refining Emissions Tracking Rule.

Dear Chair Rod Sinks, Vice Chair Cindy Chaves, Secretary Karen Mitchoff and Direrctors

I’m writing  as a 34-year resident of Benicia and a founding active member of the Good Neighbor Steering Committee, [“GNSC”] which was organized in 2000 to address public concerns and protect community health and safety as related to operations of the Valero refinery. I’d hope to express the following concerns at the Special Meeting held as a webinar today, but was unable to do so.

On August 1st, the Board received emailed letters from Jay Gunkelman and myself, outlining problems to date with refineries’ fenceline monitoring systems’ performance and reliability.

As you recall, Rule 15 was adopted in April, 2016. It required Bay Area refineries to install new, best technology fenceline monitoring systems, with raw data to be collected in real time at 5 minute intervals, and with a website provided for public access to that data.

After 4 years since Rule 15’s adoption, for the sake of public health and community safety, we would have expected by now that the Air District would have enforced standards for reliable performance of fenceline monitoring systems at all Bay Area refineries, and that data quality would be assured. Yet, to date, as per Rule 15 protocols, the District has not yet signed off on—e.g., given final approval of— the refineries’ fenceline monitoring and quality assurance plans. This is an unacceptable situation.

Today, we encourage the board and staff to fully address the various problems associated to Rule 15’s implementation at all Bay Area refineries. 

Pertinent to the Benicia community, Valero recently asserted that their Benicia refinery will be “the last man standing” among Bay Are refineries, and will continue to refine crude oil and produce petroleum products. Emissions tracking and fenceline monitoring will continue to be of particular concern to Benicians. The reliability of Valero’s fenceline systems’ performance is in serious doubt. 

In 2017, as per Rule 15 Guidelines, the GNSC submitted substantial comments to the District on Valero’s plans that had been created by Sonoma Tech for Valero.

In late 2019, the Benicia City Council voted to encourage Valero to get their fenceline systems installed and up and running before the District’s original deadline. Valero complied, installing 3 pathway systems and creating a public website to provide access to the data collected. Later, when public questions began to arise, Valero said that the new Hydrogen Sulfide monitoring system they’d purchased had never been field tested. After a year’s worth of data collection, data reliability remains questionable even for “signature” gases, including benzene. According to the Federal EPA’s Benzene Fenceline Monitoring Program, Valero’s benzene emissions were not only found to be the highest in the Bay Area; Valero’s total benzene emissions are four times greater than the four other refineries in the region.

It is implausible that there would be so few reportable detections, as the website routinely reports. Repeatedly, the website indicates that instruments are offline, or data is “pending final review.” Whose review? There is apparently no public access to archived data. Good science requires independent validation of data. Credibility of the systems and the data collection is at stake. Without independent review, public confusion and doubt about the sytems’ reliability will persist.

Right now, there is no independent, 3rd party data analysis required by the Air District. Yet verification of data for accuracy is crucial to public trust. Unfortunately, in our case, the District has still not yet approved Valero’s fenceline monitoring system plan including the required quality assurance plan as mandated by Rule 12-15.

In the meantime, concerned Benicia residents formed a non-profit, incorporated in 2019, to provide an independently operated, community-based air-monitoring station for Benicia, called Benicia Community Air Monitoring Program. The system will be operated by solar, and will meet international standards for data quality. (Funding was appropriated through GNSC’s urging amendments to the  Settlement Agreement negotiated with Valero and City of Benicia.) We expect the new station will be operational by the end of 2020.

How is it possible that a small community group in Benicia can locate, configure and install an array of air monitoring equipment in less than a year, while the refineries in the Bay Area are still installing technologically inferior fenceline systems four years after they were told by the BAAQMD that these systems had to be approved and proven reliable, thus producing accurate data by now? 

I reiterate my request made in my letter of August 1st: 

We ask the Board to compel Valero to present all of the data associated with these systems to the public as soon as possible. In addition, we would like to see all raw data produced by the fenceline system at Valero so that it can be reviewed by independent experts. We ask that the  public have access to all District staff comments on refineries’ monitoring plans including quality assurance plans.

Thank you for your timely consideration of these matters.

Respectfully,

Marilyn Bardet
Benicia CA 94510