Refineries’ water pollutants cataloged by new research
Chevron’s oil refinery in Richmond is among the U.S. petroleum producers that most regularly exceed limits aimed at keeping pollution out of local waterways, according to a nonprofit that ranked it eighth worst out of 81 oil refineries on that point after studying Environmental Protection Agency reports.
From 2019 through 2021, the EPA recorded 27 instances when the Richmond facility reported dumping unpermitted amounts of regulated substances into San Pablo Bay, researchers with national nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project found. None of those violations resulted in official enforcement actions or financial penalties, the group said.
Chevron representatives said the report is misleading because federal data includes stormwater discharge treated at the facility. State data, the company says, does not include the stormwater releases and shows they were in violation just once in that same two-year time period, company spokesman Allen Ross said.
The bulk of the project’s report, however, focused on pollution discharges that don’t have limits — an even bigger problem signaling that the government should take a more aggressive stance toward protecting water, said Eric Shaeffer, Environmental Integrity Project executive director.
Schaeffer criticized the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to update rules in place since the 1980s limiting how much pollution refineries can discharge into rivers, lakes or bays. That was nearly a half-century ago, and in the meantime, oil refining facilities have grown in size and complexity, producing far more waste than before.
“Progress stalled,” Schaeffer said.
The EPA has not lived up to its obligations under the Clean Water Act to ensure waterways are safe for people and wildlife again, he said. The report highlighted that roughly half of the 81 U.S. oil refineries are located near working class communities of color — including Richmond’s Chevron facility — potentially putting these communities at greater risk for any health impacts near the facilities.
EPA spokesman John Senn said the agency was
“The oil industry is one of the most polluting and one of the most under-regulated industries — that to me is shocking.” Sejal Choksi-Chugh, executive director of San Francisco Baykeeper
aware of the report and would review it.
The American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group, challenged the report’s findings, saying that the EPA had in fact reviewed its standards for wastewater discharge as recently as 2019.
“Our industry takes seriously its obligation to protect our nation’s waters and adheres to strict local, state and federal requirements to ensure water is properly treated and tested prior to leaving a facility,” according to an emailed statement attributed to Will Hupman, vice president of downstream policy for the institute.
Environmental Integrity Project researchers said the government allows troubling amounts of polluting substances to be discharged into local waterways. They calculated that the amount of wastewater — containing substances like heavy metals, oils and greases, industrial salts and ammonia — from 81 refineries across the country is enough to fill 712 Olympic-size pools every 24 hours.
Researchers looked at violation records as well as wastewater discharge reports. The Environmental Protection Administration
requires refineries to track and report certain chemicals, heavy metals and other substances they dump into water, although not all are subject to limits.
The Bay Area’s four working oil refineries — Chevron’s Richmond refinery, Valero in Benicia, PBF (formerly Shell) in Martinez and Phillips 66 in Rodeo — have the capacity to process about 667,000 barrels of crude oil per day to make products like gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, according to the California Energy Commission.
The Richmond refinery, perched on San Pablo Bay for more than a century, was ranked fifth among all refineries for discharging nickel, according to the report. Nickel is a heavy metal that the Environmental Integrity Project said is toxic to fish and other aquatic life yet remains unregulated. PBF’s Martinez refinery was ranked 10th on nickel releases.
In 2021, Bay Area refineries collectively dumped at least 1,057 pounds of selenium into the San Francisco Bay and its tributaries. UC Davis researchers have said selenium has caused widespread spinal deformities in an endemic minnow, the Sacramento splittail.
PBF and Valero didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. A Phillips 66 representative referred The Chronicle to the American Petroleum Institute’s comments.
There are no federal limits for the amounts of nickel or selenium oil refiners can discharge. Schaeffer said that’s a problem because the research used to leave these substances off the restricted list is outdated.
The Clean Water Act called for the EPA to limit how much from a long list of substances are released into waterways, but the agency has enacted limits on only ten pollutants, including ammonia, chromium, suspended solids, sulfides, oils and grease, according to the report.
But refineries produce far more chemicals and other substances and send discharges into local waters, according to the report.
In 2021, for example, Bay Area refineries released 1.2 million pounds of total nitrogen, 32,298 pounds of oil and grease, 525 pounds of arsenic, 271 pounds of lead and lead compounds, 196 pounds of cyanide, and 142 pounds of hexavalent chromium, among other pollutants, according to the nonprofit’s report. While oil, grease, hexavalent chromium and ammonia are restricted, selenium, arsenic, cyanide, lead and total nitrogen are not, the organization said.
These substances contribute to harmful algae blooms, corrode drinking water infrastructure and lurk in the sediment lining the bottoms of river, lakes and estuaries, according to the Environmental Integrity Project.
Sejal Choksi-Chugh, executive director of environmental group San Francisco Baykeeper, said both federal and state regulations are too lenient.
“The oil industry is one of the most polluting and one of the most under-regulated industries — that to me is shocking,” ChoksiChugh said.