Refinery Dust 2.0: The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

Confusion, alarm, finger-pointing again descend on Martinez as another incident at MRC is followed by delays getting word out to the community

UPDATE: Please see bottom of article for updates that Contra Costa Health sent to residents on Friday morning reporting that there are no ongoing risks to public health from the coke dust.

Most of you by now have likely heard of the “coke” dust release (not to be confused with Thanksgiving’s “spent catalyst” dust) from the Martinez Refining Co. on Tuesday morning. Here is the upshot from a Contra Costa Health (CCH) news release that was sent out shortly before 3:30 p.m. and also forwarded to “neighbors” of the refinery:

MRC reported through the Community Warning System (CWS) that the released material was coke dust, a byproduct of the petroleum refining process.

The release left the material on the ground, parked cars, and other surfaces in the surrounding neighborhoods. CCH’s Hazardous Materials team is working to assess potential health impacts.

Wipe samples are being taken and will be sent to a lab for analysis. Results are expected by the end of the week. CCH will provide updates after the results are reviewed.

An important thing to note off the top is that, by initial accounts, this incident was much less serious in scope and impact than the Nov. 24-25 accident that showered the community with 20 to 24 tons of toxic dust. This incident, which MRC says lasted less than a minute, registered as a “Level 1” release, the least severe of the three categories that make up the Contra Costa Community Warning System. With Level 1 alerts, “off-site consequences are not expected.” By contrast, the spent catalyst release last November that lasted for hours would have registered as a Level 2 incident, indicating possible off-site health impacts to sensitive populations, had the Community Warning System been activated (it wasn’t, for apparently the first time ever in a major refinery accident).

We’ll have to wait to see what the lab tests show from this particular dust, but the research I’ve done indicates that its health risks are low. This 2013 article from Congressional Research Service says the following:

Most toxicity analyses of petcoke, as referenced by (Environmental Protection Agency), find it has a low health hazard potential in humans, with no observed carcinogenic, reproductive, or developmental effects.

It’s important to note that, in contrast to significant amount of metals found in the catalyst from November’s release, the EPA says coke dust contains only “trace” amounts of toxic materials. CCH’s news release described the coke dust as black and looking like soot. It advised using soap and water to wash it off outdoor surfaces.

But as was the case with the Thanksgiving night “spent catalyst” release, much of the focus Tuesday was on the delay in notifying health authorities and the public. According to Contra Costa Health, the incident occurred around 8:30 a.m., but CCH wasn’t notified until around 10:20 a.m. — a lag for which which the county took MCR to task in much the way it did last November, when the refinery failed to activate the CWS at all, claiming it was unaware of the release when it occurred.

“We are very concerned about the delayed notification to the Community Warning System. We are once again responding to a refinery incident and trying to determine the health impacts,” Contra Costa County Supervisor Federal Glover said in the news release. “We understand this is an ongoing concern for our community and timely notification is critical.”

Yet, Glover’s comment about the delayed notification by the refinery came with a certain degree of irony — because it was contained in an email notification to residents that the agency itself sent out more than five hours after it learned of the release by MRC and dispatched hazardous materials crews to investigate.

Under the CWS notification policy, which has been undergoing revisions since the Thanksgiving night incident and others at MRC that have alarmed the community, the county is not required to directly alert residents for Level 1 incidents such as Tuesday’s, or even post public notifications at all. It does not trigger a public health advisory but rather is “notification only” and may not even be posted on the county’s own websites unless the event lasts 20 minutes or longer.

Indeed, CCH routinely posts Level 1 alerts on its website for relatively minor flaring incidents at local refineries that generally cause little, or no, public alarm, or media attention of note (in fact, it posted one at 12:14 a.m. this morning involving the Phillips 66 refinery in Rodeo). An exception was a major flare at MRC in December, only weeks after the spent catalyst incident, that lit up the night sky.

Tuesday’s incident didn’t even reach that low Level 1 notification bar, which applies to incidents lasting at least 20 minutes, as indicated on the CWS notification levels chart from a county meeting to discuss changes.

As word of Tuesday’s incident, and concern over its severity, steadily spread on social media through the morning and early afternoon, there was nothing to be found about it on the Community Warning System alerts site (https://cwsalerts.com/) or on the Contra Costa County Hazardous Materials website (https://cchealth.org/hazmat/), which has been a primary clearinghouse for information on MRC and the spent catalyst investigation. Contra Costa Health and MRC both put out brief posts on the incident through their Facebook pages.

Yet, as Bay Area media reports steadily trickled out about yet another dust release at the refinery (in some cases taking on alarmist tones that seemed to belie the health concerns, or lack thereof, from a Level 1 incident), Contra Costa Health authorities decided it was a big enough deal to directly notify at least some members of the community through email — five hours after learning about it.

Meanwhile, the city of Martinez, which has been working on its own communications initiatives for months in response to community frustration over the shortcomings of the county CWS, directly informed residents through its new Martinez Alerts tool operated through Rave Mobile Safety. Resident can sign up for it here: https://www.smart911.com/smart911/ref/reg.action?pa=cityofmartinez

I received the city of Martinez alert via email, sent to subscribers of the city newsletter, at 3:17 p.m., 10 minutes before receiving the Contra Costa Health announcement.

In a Facebook video posted Tuesday evening, Mayor Brianne Zorn explained that the city hadn’t planned to go live with the new Martinez Alerts tool until next week, but given the concern over this incident, the city decided to email notification to over 14,500 subscribers to its newsletter.

“When it became clear that there would be no community notification from the Community Warning System, the city activated our own alert system for the first time,” she said.

Although Tuesday’s alert went out only via email, Zorn said going forward text message alerts will be available to those who register for the system. She also expressed frustration about the community being left largely in the dark about another refinery mishap.

“My council colleagues and I are frustrated we’ve had another one of these events and that we have to wait for information just like you, but by rolling out Martinez Alerts, we now have a mechanism to get information out to the community about these incidents as soon as we ourselves are notified.”

The new city’s new alert/warning system is supposed to come up for discussion at the July 19 City Council meeting, when Tuesday’s incident is sure to be a significant focus.

As to the county’s protocols for posting alerts, the official Community Warning System alerts website page has the following disclaimer:

I sent an email inquiry to the CWS, operated by the Sheriff’s Office, inquiring why the MRC alert from 10:20 that morning was not posted on the site but did not receive a response. I also spoke with Tony Semenza, executive director of the Contra Costa County Community Awareness and Emergency Response (CAER) Group, which works closely with the county and refineries on the administration of the CWS. He investigated the question for me and relayed from a CWS representative that hazardous spill alerts such as Tuesday’s are handled through Contra Costa Health’s Hazardous Materials website.

The question of why MRC did not inform health authorities of Tuesday’s release until nearly two hours after it occurred remains to be answered. In the case of the Thanksgiving night accident, MRC has maintained all along that its personnel were unable to detect the release when it occurred and only learned about it from community members the next day. Although Tuesday’s incident involved a different refinery process and material, was there a similar failure to immediately detect the release into the community? Should the refinery have at least known about the possibility of the release, even if it lacked firm evidence, and activated the CWS sooner?

MRC spokesperson Brandon Matson sent me this statement Wednesday afternoon:

At approximately 9 a.m. on Tuesday, July 11, the Martinez Refinery released coke dust for less than one minute. We subsequently notified appropriate government agencies and issued a Community Warning System Level 1 notification at 10:22 a.m. Additionally, refinery personnel conducted offsite monitoring, which included collecting samples, and continue to work cooperatively with the agencies.

MRC is investigating the root cause of the incident as well as the delay in initial notification. We are committed to ensuring we make timely CWS notifications.

Any resident or business that has a claim or concern related to this incident, or would like to speak with a company representative, may call our claims line at 800-542-7113, provide the following information, and a representative will return the call:

• Full Name

• Complete Address

• Telephone Number

• Email address

But once again, there are also questions about the operation of the CWS and whether its protocols, procedures and policies are in tune with the heightened concerns of the community about refinery safety in the wake of the Thanksgiving night accident. Why post information about the alert on Facebook (which many residents don’t use or follow regularly) and not on the county’s official websites dedicated to keeping the public informed of hazardous incidents? Why was email notification even utilized in this case given that the CWS notification policy doesn’t provide for it in Level 1 incidents? And if the county did decide that this incident was of significant enough concern to alert the public directly, why wait five hours after the incident to send out a brief synopsis of the situation (while also scolding MRC for its two-hour delay before an investigation has even been completed into what, if anything, caused that delay)?

CCH has requested a 72-hour report from the refinery about the incident, which will be posted to cchealth.org

Unfortunately, as I discussed at length in this post from Sunday, Contra Costa Health authorities have given no indication that they have any interest in engaging the public in discussing the shortcomings of the CWS system, or areas for improvement, in the context of the investigation into November’s incident. Despite the agency’s own chief executive officer, Anna Roth, vowing in a December press release that CC Health would “work with residents of Martinez, city leaders and the facility on a transparent investigation into why (notification through the Community Warning System) did not happen in this case,” health officials have since said unequivocally that the CWS failure will not be part of the independent investigation led by a third-party consultant into the root cause of the incident because the matter is under review by the District Attorney’s Office.

When asked last week by Martinez News and Reviews whether a transparent, independent investigation by the county into the CWS failure from Nov. 24-25 would complicate its investigation, a D.A. spokesperson gave no indication that it would, saying only: “If there’s new information about the release of the spent catalyst on Thanksgiving weekend in 2022, our office will certainly receive that information for review.”

Contra Costa Health referred MRC’s failure to notify it and the public to the D.A. for possible charges on Jan. 4. More than six months later, the D.A. has still not announced what, if any, action it plans to take, and has given no indication that it will address any shortcomings in the CWS.

Contra Costa Health officials, in sometimes abrasive exchanges with me over the past few weeks, have repeatedly refused to acknowledge any contradiction between what they told the Martinez community through Roth’s comments in December and their current position that the CWS is off the table for discussion as part of the MRC Oversight Committee that includes community and city representatives.

They have also refused to acknowledge any communication shortcomings with Martinez residents or local officials since the spent catalyst accident, including their failure to alert the Martinez Unified School District about the metal-laden spent catalyst dust found in front of Martinez Junior High School by hazardous materials staff two days after the accident, even as they said in a press release days later: “Exposure to high concentrations of these metals over a long period of time could cause more serious health problems.”

The school district superintendent only learned about the discovery in April while watching video of a City Council presentation of a dust fallout map. That came a month after CCH put out a news release warning residents “not to eat produce grown in soil that may have been exposed to ‘spent catalyst’ with heavy metals until further environmental testing is completed.” MJHS hosted a community garden operated by a local nonprofit.

In early June, more than five months after the accident, CCH finally announced that soil testing had revealed no increased risks to public health.

Some of Tuesday’s media coverage, such as a story from the San Francisco Chronicle, took on the same highly alarmist tone that was common in much of the coverage that followed the spent catalyst incident and concerns over eating fruits and vegetables from impacted gardens, before those fears were ultimately put to rest (the news media largely ignored the November accident until CCH’s March health advisory about not eating fruits and vegetables). In contrast to most research I came across, it quoted experts describing coke dust as posing significant health risks, as well as an EPA report referencing “significant quantities of fugitive dust from pet coke storage and handling operations” as potentially affecting the heart and lungs and causing serious health effects if inhaled (the context about “fugitive dust and coke storage and handling operations” was missing in the article, as well as the EPA’s reference to it containing only trace amounts of toxic materials).

That media narrative, however, doesn’t at all square with the fact this was treated as a Level 1 incident, where no off-site impacts are anticipated, and health authorities gave no indication in their announcements Tuesday that there was any immediate risk to public health or need for precautionary actions, saying only that it is “working to assess potential health impacts.” If there had been serious concerns about impacts on public health, even if only for sensitive populations, this would have been a Level 2 or 3 alert, triggering immediate, direct communications to residents.

A list of major Contra Costa refinery/chemical plant accidents dating from the early 1990s to 2018 includes a couple of coke dust incidents at the nearby Golden Eagle refinery in 2004 and 2005. In one case, then-refinery owner Tesoro received two community complaints about the dust; in the second, it received one complaint, and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District received five.

Stay tuned for updates on this incident as they become available.

FRIDAY MORNING UPDATE FROM CC HEALTH: Contra Costa Health issued the following announcement Friday morning on Tuesday’s incident:

Dear Neighbors: 

Contra Costa Health (CCH) would like to provide the following update regarding the July 11 release of coke dust, a petroleum refining byproduct from Martinez Refining Company (MRC). 

What happened 

MRC activated the county’s Community Warning System at about 10:20 a.m. on Tuesday, July 11, 2023 reporting that it had released refinery coke dust, and that some of the airborne material had drifted off the refinery property into surrounding neighborhoods. 

The refinery activated a Level 1 alert, which is the system’s lowest-level alert, used for hazardous materials releases when there are no expected off-site health consequences. 

CCH’s Hazardous Materials Programs immediately deployed a team to investigate and contacted MRC. MRC reported that the release had actually occurred at about 8:30 a.m. on July 11, and lasted approximately one minute. 

CCH and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, responding after the 10:20 a.m. notification, found a black, sooty residue on ground-level surfaces in residential neighborhoods around MRC.

Investigating agencies responding after the release did not detect any immediate cause for concern about community health, so the community warning system alert level was not changed.

CCH collected multiple wipe samples of the material for laboratory analysis which were analyzed for metals that can be harmful over long periods of exposure. The lab results did not show elevated levels of metals, indicating that there is not an increased risk to public health. Read the analytical report here.

MRC must submit its 72-hour incident report, as required by the county’s Hazardous Materials Notification Policy, by the end of business Friday, July 14. CCH will review the report and post it Monday at cchealth.org/hazmat. This report will include additional details about how and why the release occurred and how MRC responded. 

Coke Dust 

Coke dust is a black, sooty or powdery residue created during petroleum refining that primarily contains carbon and is similar chemically to charcoal.

The primary health concern regarding the release of coke dust from a refinery is irritation to the throat, lungs and the respiratory system while the release was occurring and the material was in the air, particularly for people with respiratory conditions such as asthma.

Anyone who believes they have symptoms or health concerns due to breathing coke dust should contact their healthcare provider. 

Long-term exposure to coke dust also can lead to chronic health concerns. Based on currently available information, CCH does not believe the duration and circumstances of the July 11 release at MRC constitute long-term exposure. 

Coke dust can be safely washed off surfaces with soap and water. 

Next Steps 

CCH’s Hazardous Materials Programs and the air district are each conducting investigations to determine whether the July 11 release from MRC violated regulatory laws relating to public and worker health and safety, and air pollution standards, respectively. 

As part of its investigation of this incident, CCH will also determine whether MRC properly followed the county’s notification policy and properly used the Community Warning System, as required by law.

Elements of this investigation will be publicly reported through a series of reports submitted by MRC to the county in coming weeks and months. These reports aim to provide further insight as to the contributing causes of the incident, actions immediately taken, and proposed actions to prevent a similar incident from occurring. The first report will be available Monday at cchealth.org/hazmat. 

Regulatory violations can result in fines and other enforcement actions. 

Oversight Committee 

The oversight committee conducting public investigations of the Nov. 24-25, 2022 hazardous materials release at MRC will next meet at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023.

Committee meetings are held virtually and open to the public through this Zoom link. The agenda for the meeting will be posted at cchealth.org/hazmat in early August. Agendas, minutes and recordings of previous committee meetings are available on this page. 

In addition to its normal business, the committee will receive an informational update on Aug. 10 from the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office about its investigation of the November release, and CCH will provide an informational update regarding the investigation of this week’s release. 

Sign up for non-emergency email updates regarding MRC incidents and incident-related investigations at cchealth.org/hazmat/mrc.

On a lighter note…

Some may have also heard that our Martinez Surgeon hosted the Pecos League Pacific Division All-Star Game, complete with a home run derby, last Sunday. A writeup and photos about the event can be found on the Concord-Clayton-Pleasant Hill Pioneer website. Link https://pioneerpublishers.com/martinez-plays-host-to-pecos-league-all-star-game-for-second-time/

After a slow start to the season, the Sturgeon currently stand in fifth place in the division with an 18-16 record, including a 13-7 mark at home.