Richmond limits Chevron's crude oil processing
Dateline:
06/06/2008By Katherine Tam
Richmond city officials slammed a restriction on the crude the Chevron refinery can process if it upgrades its equipment, a major provision that they say will ease public concerns over increased pollution and health risks.
The city's five-member Planning Commission made the decision around 12:15 a.m. Friday after more than five hours of public testimony and deliberation.
"Let's try something a bit groundbreaking and see if it flies," Commissioner Charles Duncan said. "The health of the community is at stake."
Critics, who lobbied persistently for a crude limit, broke into applause and hugged one another. Refinery representatives absorbed the news quietly in the front rows.
How much the crude cap will alter Chevron's plan to upgrade equipment will depend on how extensive it is. The commission directed the city staff to return on June 19 with legal language for a "comprehensive cap" that limits how much crude the refinery would process as well as the kind of crude.
One commissioner expressed an interest in restricting the sulfur content to 1.5 percent, a major change from what Chevron has pitched. The oil company wants to replace its hydrogen plant, power plant and reformer at its Richmond refinery to refine a wider range of crude that includes increasing the sulfur content from around 1.5 percent now to a maximum of 3 percent. The Planning Commission's vote was 3-2 with members Virginia Finlay and Jeff Lee dissenting. Finlay and Lee preferred a city consultant's recommendation to restrict the crude that runs through one piece of machinery considered to be a critical point in the refining process. Consultant Ranajit Sahu said that would accomplish the same thing as a comprehensive crude cap, but it would be easier to enforce.
Chevron 3-year-old proposal touched off public debate from the outset. Public discussion has centered mostly on whether upgrades would allow Chevron to refine more contaminated crude that some feared would increase pollution and health problems. Other issues have included greenhouse gas emissions and flaring at the refinery.
The signs that peppered Kennedy High School's multipurpose room at the Planning Commission's hearing showed the public divide. Opponents' signs declared "Don't Let Chevron Gamble With Richmond's Future" and "No Toxic Pollution." Chevron supporters, many of them employees, had a different message: "Yes for Chevron; Yes for Richmond Jobs."
Refinery representatives defended their project, saying replacing 40- to 70-year-old equipment will mean a safer and more efficient facility. They said they will continue to process light to intermediate crude. Overall emissions won't increase, they added.
Opponents want guarantees and urged officials to impose tougher restrictions. They also want the project's environmental impact report, which they say is incomplete, to be revised and recirculated.
In the end, the Planning Commission decided not to recirculate the EIR. Instead, commissioners certified the document as complete, even as they recognized it is imperfect.
They could approve a conditional use permit for the project, with a crude cap, as early as June 19.
They extracted five provisions, commonly referred to as a "community benefits agreement," from the proposed permit because they said it is unfair to require Chevron to do what other businesses aren't mandated to perform.
The five provisions would have required Chevron to give a total of $1 million a year to the city's construction training program, summer youth employment and an industrial arts training academy; create an urban forest in the city; and provide semi-annual reports to the Richmond Neighborhood Coordinating Council which is a coalition of neighborhood groups.
These "community benefits," plus a request that Chevron give land and funding to expand the Bay Trail at the edge of the refinery, will be forwarded to the City Council for consideration.
Ninety minutes before the Planning Commission meeting Thursday, dozens of protesters gathered outside around a homemade "Wheel of Misfortune" fashioned after the popular television game show "Wheel of Fortune." Concerns such as "asthma" and "global warming" appeared on the wheel in place of monetary prizes.
Rose Marie Castro, who has lived in Richmond's Atchison Village neighborhood for 10 years, spun the wheel and landed on "chronic headaches."
"The only thing we're going to have to do is take the aspirin of change," Castro said. "Change the EIR. Cap the crude."
A few Chevron supporters stood nearby. One supporter and an opponent had a verbal exchange.
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