The explosion and hours-long fire at Chevron’s large oil refinery in Richmond, California has triggered calls for tougher regulation of toxic chemicals. The Chevron fire reportedly released toxic chemicals including sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide in unknown amounts, sending hundreds of local residents to local hospitals with breathing and eye complaints.
California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control claims it has little to no oversight of dangerous substances produced in refinery accidents.
“The Department of Toxic Substances Control regulates hazardous waste in the state of California,” said Consumer Watchdog’s Liza Tucker. “And there isn’t a single refinery that doesn’t produce or store hazardous waste.”
“The DTSC limits itself to regulating around 80 hazardous waste facilities that specifically process hazardous waste. It only oversees hazardous waste storage at refineries. Even recyclers of used motor oil are not subject to its purview if an accident involves certified recycled oil.”
Consumer Watchdog called on the State Attorney General to investigate the failure of the state to adequately supervise hazardous refineries and their toxic emissions in the wake of a series of recent refinery fires, including Chevron and Evergreen Oil.
Refinery oversight is distributed among city and county fire and health agencies, the state Air Quality Management Districts, California Occupational Safety and Health Agency, various water agencies, and Cal-EPA.
The state Department of Toxic Substances Control has declined to seek authority over toxins produced by refineries, even though their large-scale toxic releases can put far more residents in immediate danger than a toxic waste collector or recycler, Tucker said.
The Monday fire at Chevron was a near duplicate of a 1999 incident at the Richmond refinery that involved multiple explosions and fires and sickened an even larger number of residents.
A smaller 2007 fire was apparently triggered by a pipe leak and shut down the entire refinery for a few months at the beginning of the year.
“Chevron glibly blames environmentalists and local residents for blocking plant expansions, but refuses blame for failing to make its refinery, in the middle of the densely populated Bay Area, as safe as it could be,” Tucker said. “State regulators make such evasion easy by passing the buck to other state and local agencies. And now what we’re seeing is regulation by crisis. Huge corporations just aren’t going to bother to be in safety compliance when they don’t fear real accountability.”