Tag: Benicia

The Valero Refining Co. has been fined $82 million for significant air pollution violations at its Benicia refinery, state and regional air quality agencies said Thursday.

In a joint news release, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and California Air Resources Board announced the penalty, which they say is the largest ever assessed in the Bay Area air district’s history.

More than $64 million of those funds will be reinvested toward air pollution reduction and public health improvement projects in communities around the refinery, the agencies said.

The projects will undergo a public process, with community input and consideration from officials and advocates representing the impacted area, the agencies said.

“This penalty sends a strong message; adherence to air quality standards is both necessary and expected, and failure to do so can lead to significant fines,” said Benicia Mayor Steve Young, who also is a member of the air district board. “Benicia residents need to know that air quality violations are taken seriously. The use of these funds will help us address local air quality issues going forward.”

The rest of the penalty funds will be used for clean air projects in overburdened communities across the Bay Area, the agencies said. In total, nearly $80 million of this historic penalty will be returned to Bay Area communities.

The violation stems from a 2019 inspection that found unreported emissions from the Benicia refinery’s hydrogen system containing an estimated 8,400 tons of harmful organic compounds over the period in question, the agencies said. Those emissions contained cancer-causing chemicals and contributed to the Bay Area’s smog, they said.

Air district inspectors also found that refinery management knew about the toxic emissions since at least 2003 but did not report them or take steps to prevent them, the agencies said.

In addition to the fine, Valero will need to take preventive measures to avoid future violations, including reconfiguring its hydrogen vent system and implementing a worker training program, the agencies said.

It’s the third major fine against a Bay Area refinery this year. In February, the air district fined the Chevron refinery in Richmond $20 million, and earlier this month the Marathon refinery in Martinez was fined $5 million.

People gathered in Benicia Saturday for a community celebration and to also to draw attention to a troubling annual tradition played by some teenagers. It’s a chase and capture game called “La Migra.”

The event was called Fiestas Primavera and it took place at Benicia City Park.

“The main purpose of this is because they are very concerned about a game called La Migra,” said Mario Saucedo.

Both police and school leaders in the area have issued warnings about it.

“Freshman kids from high school pretend they are ICE agents,” Saucedo said.

The district said the event involves older students chasing younger students through the city, trying to catch them.

Monica Gomez knows how dangerous it can be. In 2022, her teenage son and his friend were walking out of a downtown ice cream shop and shot multiple times with ice pellets. One of the pellets narrowly missed her son’s eye.

“Subsequently, we found out that this was stemmed from a traditional game called La Migra, that happens here in this community. So, there was some derogatory and racial slurs prior to the kids prior to being shot at,” she said.

Organizers of Saturday’s event say they want to put and to this game in the community.

“What we’re trying to do is just bring some education and understanding into the community. Some cultural diversity in the hopes that we can eradicate this we are calling for “zero tolerance,’”Gomez said. “We held a town hall in 2022, demanding zero tolerance for these kind of racist and violent games in our community.”

The morning rain didn’t put too much of a damper on the event that also featured vendors, art, food and music.

“It’s fun to see what’s different and what’s the same and just foster that appreciation for other culture,” said Benica resident Jill Johnson.

“Glad to see the community support behind this. Last year, the school district the city and the Benicia police department, we partnered together to just bring awareness,” said Damon Wright, Superintendent of the Benicia Unified School District.

Wright said they have been putting out messaging for the last year and half to bring education and awareness to the cultural insensitivity.

“It’s just something that just really goes against what we stand for as an organization and we just want to bring awareness to try and get it to stop,” he said.