Richmond not sympathizing with Chevron
Oil company, employing 1,200 local residents, looks into legal options amid refinery regulations
RICHMOND >> With its towering smokestacks and earth-toned tanks, the Chevron Richmond refinery occupies a 2,900-acre swath of land next to a very long wharf, where for decades it has produced the gasoline that fuels the auto industry and provided high-paying jobs to more than 1,200 local residents.
But to many of the thousands of people who live within its shadows, the refinery is more reviled than respected. They say it spews hazardous pollutants into the air, which researchers attribute to an asthma rate that is two times higher in Richmond than surrounding cities. And over its centurylong presence, it has been the scene of numerous explosions and fires.
So when Chevron cried foul after the Bay Area Air Quality Management District voted 19-3 last week to make it and the PBF Energy refinery in Martinez install “wet gas scrubbers” to drastically reduce particulate emissions, local residents and even the city’s mayor didn’t want to hear it.
“They always whine,” Mayor Tom Butt said. “Whenever something like this is imposed on them, they say they’re going to leave Richmond. Who knows, we’ll see — but I don’t think so.”
Chevron officials say they’ve already finished a refinery modernization project that reduced particulate matter by 25% and the costs associated with wet gas scrubbers would devastate their operations.
The scrubbers would cost about $1.48 billion to buy and install, much more than the $241 million to $579 million estimated by district staff, according to Chevron officials, who said they’re exploring legal options.
Sean Woods, an El Sobrante resident who has worked in Richmond for years, isn’t sympathetic. He says Chevron’s costs are irrelevant compared with the number of lives that could be saved by reducing pollution.
“People are having kids, and they’re coming up with bad
breathing problems,” Woods said earlier this week as he was providing free cellphones to homeless people near the BART station on Nevin Avenue. “That’s out of line.”
Besides Chevron and PBF Energy, those who also worry about the additional costs are the refineries’ union workers, some of whom urged the air quality board to not require the scrubbers. The workers said they feared getting laid off to make up for the expense of installing the equipment.
But one Richmond resident who previously worked at the Chevron refinery said he doesn’t believe that will happen.
“Chevron? Come on, they’ve got too much money,” Michael Scott said outside a Point Richmond restaurant. Scott, whose old job was to chip residual crude oil from storage tanks, applauded the air quality board’s decision. “It’d be great if they can cut the air pollution — we’ve got a lot of young people here, and we need to keep the next generation popping — but they ain’t laying nobody off.”
Until the scrubbers are installed, particulates will continue to be emitted into the air by the refineries’ fluid catalytic cracking units, which play a crucial role in converting crude oil to gas and other fuels.
Before the district board met last week, Chevron released a 98-page letter saying the scrubbers are too expensive and that by tweaking the refinery’s existing air control devices it could reduce pollutants by 45%. The district’s goal is a 72% reduction.
The way some Richmond residents see it, however, the issue runs deeper than percentages.
Standing outside a T-Mobile store, longtime city resident Greg McClain said it was no coincidence that central Richmond — the “inner city” — is where pollutants blown by southerly winds regularly end up.
“It’s easy to release it on us — they’re releasing it on Black people,” McClain said. “Wherever the owners of Chevron are at, they’re nowhere around here. They make sure they’re far, far away.”
The city has twice the state’s asthma rate, according to a UC San Francisco study, which previously estimated that 11 people die prematurely each year from air pollution caused by the city’s refinery.
Throughout the years, the refinery has been the scene of explosions and fires, including one in 2012 that resulted in Chevron paying $2 million in fines and restitution after six employees suffered burns.
Charles Simmons, another longtime Richmond resident, said that though the refinery’s “hiccups” are what usually make headlines, the real harm comes in residents having to breathe “Chevron-conditioned air,” which he said has given him and his children asthma.
“Inside of us, I’ll bet you we look like a bouquet of chemicals,” Simmons said as he stood inside a Walgreens store in central Richmond. “We breathe it every day. They should give us free gas — we didn’t ask to breathe this air.”
Bonnie Jo Cullison, a volunteer with the Point Richmond History Association, said Chevron needs to do a better job of engaging local residents.
“If Chevron were a little bit more communicative and willing to explain situations to the community, I think people would probably be a little more understanding,” Cullison said. “Not that they would change their minds. I think there will always be a certain adversarial relationship because of, primarily, the air quality issues. … That’s pretty darn explosive stuff over there.”
A Chevron spokesman did not respond to a request for comment last week about the criticisms from residents.
Chevron does have community outreach initiatives. The company hosts booths at local events, sponsors math and science programs for children and offers its workers opportunities to volunteer or donate locally.
But by pushing back against air quality regulations, the company has invited more backlash, said a diner at Kaleidoscope Cafe in Point Richmond.
“I don’t understand why Chevron doesn’t take the opportunity to help Richmond in more areas,” said Paul Pospisil, who has commuted to work in Richmond for decades. “If they did (agree to reducing air quality), they could greenwash themselves for real, by putting these things in and bragging about it. And it’s better for the community. It surprises me that they don’t jump on these opportunities, especially when it would make themselves look better.”
For East Oakland resident Sadae Douglas, who comes to Richmond frequently as a county social services volunteer, it’s too late for that.
“I wouldn’t want to raise my kids here, that’s for damn sure,” Douglas said. “I love Richmond, but the air here is terrible. They need to shut (the refinery) down.”