Refinery Town Hall Scheduled for Thursday at John Muir Elementary School

PBF Energy announces plans for resuming refinery operations following Feb. 1 fire; City Council provides direction on parking initiatives; MUSD urged to take measures to end deficit spending

Contra Costa County Supervisor Shanelle Scales-Preston will host a town hall meeting to discuss the major Feb. 1 fire at PBF Energy’s Martinez refinery on Thursday, March 13 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at John Muir Elementary School, 250 Vista Way.

In an interview Saturday morning, Scales-Preston said her main goal for the town hall is to provide a forum for community members to ask questions and express their concerns, as well as to provide updates from the refinery and various public agencies involved in responding to and investigating the fire. In addition to Martinez Refining Co., other agencies invited to attend are Contra Costa Health and its hazardous materials program, the Contra Costa Water District, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), the Contra Costa Fire Protection District and the city of Martinez.

“I just want to bring the community together with the agencies,” Scales-Preston, who represents Martinez on the Board of Supervisors, said. “Since I don’t have all the answers, I have the ability to bring the community together to get answers to their questions.”

She said she wants at least half the time at the town hall devoted to questions and comments from community members. She added that she is open to holding a future town hall to address any questions that cannot be answered on Thursday.

Among the prominent questions likely to be addressed at the town hall:

• The timeline and process for conducting an independent root cause investigation into the Feb. 1 fire.

• The proposal for a “full-facility” audit of the refinery that would be broader and deeper in scope than the inspections, audits and safety culture assessment conducted over the past two years. Both Scales-Preston and U.S. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier have expressed support for pursuing such an audit.

• The status of refinery operations and the conditions under which the refinery will be allowed to resume normal operations. The refinery’s processing units have remained shuttered since the fire, but PBF Energy said in a news release on Thursday that it plans to restart the crude unit “early in the second quarter of 2025,” which starts in April, and the remaining units by the fourth quarter, which starts in September.

• The status of the ongoing “joint enforcement action” launched against the refinery in November 2023 by the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office, BAAQMD, Contra Costa Health and the state Department of Fish and Game. (The D.A. actually started investigating the refinery in January 2023.) The enforcement action has yet to yield any results stemming from the November 2022 spent catalyst release and other health and environmental violations. The District Attorney and BAAQMD issued a joint statement in the aftermath of the fire last month saying the joint enforcement action was continuing. “While we understand the public’s interest, the confidential nature of the process prevents us from commenting on the status of this enforcement action,” the statement read.

• The operation of the Contra Costa County Community Warning System during the Feb. 1 fire in which the initial Level 2 advisory directed only at those with respiratory sensitivity was later upgraded to a Level 3 alert advising a shelter-in-place for all residents in impacted neighborhoods. Given that the fire was raging out of control for several hours with no way to know how dangerous it might grow, some have questioned why a Level 3 alert wasn’t issued immediately.

• The nature of the odor complaints that BAAQMD received hours before the fire erupted and whether they might have been connected to the events that sparked the blaze. The question also has been raised about whether BAAQMD should have communicated the odor complaints with Contra Costa Health that day.

Scales-Preston said Saturday that she wants to see more community outreach and education focused on the CWS.

“We need to get people signed up,” she said. “There just needs to be more education around it so that people understand what the different levels are.”

She said she also favors a system, similar to what exists at the state level for Amber Alerts, for residents living near the refinery to automatically receive notifications of major incidents even if they haven’t opted into the CWS.

Meanwhile, MRC recently filed its required 30-day report with Contra Costa Health in which it shared additional details about the fire, including that it released roughly 70 barrels (7,140 gallons) of “hydrocarbon materials.” Some of the materials were previously disclosed by Contra Costa Health to contain chemicals “that can cause cancer, as well as heart and lung disease,” but fortunately for the community, the toxic smoke mostly traveled away from populated areas.

The 30-day report also confirmed that the fire originated around 1:35 p.m. on Feb. 1 in the Cat Feed Hydrotreater (CFH) unit, which had been shut down Jan. 30 for planned maintenance. The fire occurred when hydrocarbon material started to leak as two contract workers were opening a flange. The material caught fire “within seconds,” according to the report. Though the fire was brought under control that evening, it was not completely extinguished until approximately 6:45 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 4.

The refinery also disclosed that “greater than 500 pounds of sulfur dioxide” were released because of flaring from the unplanned shutdown of operating units.

“MRC and contract personnel continue to monitor the scene of the incident, assess equipment damage, and ensure the general safety of the CFH area,” MRC said in the report dated Feb. 28. “Refinery operating units remain shut down while damage assessment continues, with the exception of required utility and environmental systems. At this time, the length of the operating units shutdown arising from the incident cannot be reasonably estimated.”

However, PBF Energy’s news release on March 6 outlined the steps it plans to take to resume such operations in two stages.

“The timing of both stages is dependent on factors impacting the company’s ability to effect necessary repairs, including those outside of the company’s control such as regulatory permitting and approvals and the availability of certain critical equipment and components,” the company wrote.

PBF went on to say that the costs of repairs and “restoring the refinery to full operational status” will be largely covered by insurance.

“Restoring the Martinez refinery operations in a safe and environmentally responsible manner is our focus,” PBF Energy CEO Matt Lucey said.

In its 2024 annual report filed shortly after the Feb. 1 fire, PBF told investors that the “operational and/or financial impact (of the fire) cannot be reasonably estimated.”

It went on to say: “In the event the Martinez refinery is forced to shut down for a significant period of time, it could have a material adverse effect on our earnings, our other results of operations and our financial condition as a whole.”

PBF Energy’s stock price has plummeted by nearly 56% over the past year, with the slide particularly pronounced since the Feb. 1 fire.

While PBF awaits regulatory penalties for the Feb. 1 fire and the spate of other incidents at at the Martinez refinery that preceded it, the company did recently settle a civil liability case brought by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board stemming from illegal discharges into the Carquinez Strait and failure to submit Climate Change Adaptation information. The refinery agreed to a penalty totaling approximately $4.5 million, including funding for the following local environmental programs:

• Peyton Slough Marshes Water Quality Improvements and Management Project ($1,046,000) to improve water quality and habitat in the Peyton Slough and its associated marshes (mid-marsh, McNabney Marsh) adjacent to the refinery, which will be implemented by Contra Costa Resource Conservation District.

• Martinez Watershed Rangers Program ($153,600) to be implemented by Earth Island Institute/KIDS for the BAY, a nonprofit organization.

• Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay ($1,041,400), which will provide information to support management of water quality in the San Francisco Bay.

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