Wait Continues for Investigation into Cause of Thanksgiving Refinery Accident; County to Pursue Safety Culture Assessment of MRC

Also, Sturgeon baseball wraps up winning season; residents invited to help name park; parking enforcement to resume for first time since pandemic; and crime numbers for July

The following story by freelance writer Tom Lochner is made possible by the financial support of paid subscribers and other donors to the newsletter. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber if not already to continue to fund such work. Also, please see the bottom of today’s post for a newsletter update from me.

By Tom Lochner

Eight months after a "spent catalyst" release at a Martinez petroleum refinery showered surrounding communities with dust containing toxic metals, an independent investigation into what caused the incident had yet to get started as of late last week.

What's held up the so-called root cause analysis is a non-disclosure agreement, as of last week yet to be hammered out, related to trade secrets and other confidential business information between Martinez Refining Co. and consultant Scott Berger and Associates. Although Contra Costa County hired the consultant, the county will not be party to the agreement; that will be solely between the consultant and the refinery, according to Contra Costa Health officials, although the county is trying to help get the process moving.

"Comments have been going back and forth between MRC's counsel and county counsel to ensure that that agreement does not …compromise the transparency of the investigation," Contra Costa Deputy Health Services Director Matt Kaufmann said at a July 27 meeting of the ISO/CWS Ad Hoc Committee – the initials stand for the county's Industrial Safety Ordinance and Community Warning System.

The delay has prompted frustration among some members of the public as well as some public officials. County Supervisor Federal Glover, who is part of the two-person ad hoc committee along with Supervisor John Gioia, expressed concern about "gridlock" and proposed that the county perform its own independent safety culture assessment of MRC. Gioia said he supports that idea, noting that there have been other, albeit less significant, mishaps at MRC since Thanksgiving, including a coke dust release on July 11 that impacted some residents.

He cited a series of incidents at the former General Chemical, now Chemtrade, sulfuric acid manufacturing plant in Richmond some years ago that led to the county ordering a safety culture assessment. (Later in the meeting, Gioia announced that the Bay Area Air Quality Management District had just fined Chemtrade $1.15 million for more recent air quality and other violations. More information is contained in a July 27 BAAQMD news release at https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/files/communications-and-outreach/publications/news-releases/2023/settle_chemtrade_230727_2023_017-pdf.pdf?la=en .]

In the meantime, another investigation related to the Nov. 24-25 incident at MRC, this one conducted outside the refinery grounds – an independent risk assessment involving soil samplings – is moving forward.

The Nov. 24-25 incident spewed some 20 to 24 tons of dust laden with toxic metals. The soil samplings were collected about six months after the incident by consultant TRC at 14 locations in Contra Costa and Solano counties selected on the basis of a plume map produced by the air district as well as community input. The soil samplings were scrutinized in a laboratory for 13 metals found in a spent catalyst sample.

County Director of Hazardous Materials Programs Nicole Heath, citing information previously reported at a June 8 MRC Oversight Committee meeting, reported that TRC found that none of the metals analyzed exceeded their regional background range, and that two of them – arsenic and lead – exceeded human health-protective screening levels, but that the exceedances are not likely associated with spent catalyst. Based on those findings, CCH on June 8 lifted a health advisory that it had issued in March cautioning people not to eat produce grown in potentially contaminated soil in the affected areas.

The TRC report, along with the Oversight Committee's comments, is slated for a 45-day public comment period beginning hopefully in mid-August, Heath said, culminating in a public meeting, and a final report to the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors and the Martinez City Council.

As for the root cause analysis, once the non-disclosure issue is settled, Berger and Associates can do its investigation, then present a draft report to the MRC Oversight Committee. That will be followed by a 45-day public comment period and public meeting. After responses to public comments, the report will be presented to the Board of Supervisors and the City Council. 

Additionally, the ISO and the California Accidental Release Prevention Program require the refinery to conduct a safety culture assessment every five years, with the next one due in December of this year, Heath said, adding that she believes MRC has already started to collect data for it.

Refinery spokesman Brandon Matson reiterated the refinery's commitment to transparency. Another refinery official at the meeting said a refinery workers' union, USW, will participate in the safety culture assessment.

The Berger investigation will not address MRC's failure to notify authorities of the Nov. 24-25 night release; the refinery has said it only found out about it the day after Thanksgiving, when some residents alerted it to dust deposits on their properties. That failure to notify is the subject of an investigation by the Contra Costa County District Attorney, initiated in January.

Gioia said he wants the D.A.'s investigation to be filed in court, so that it will be public, and thus available to the MRC Oversight Committee.

"Based on my experience, that is the most complete, thorough investigation that can be obtained into the cause of MRC's failure to notify in the November 2022 incident," Gioia said, adding that "any additional civil investigation would not yield anything more and in fact could potentially interfere with the D.A.'s ability to collect information."

Kaufmann, summarizing his takeaway of the ad hoc committee's directions, said the county staff should work with the Oversight Committee to initiate the safety culture assessment provision, and explore with the county counsel a dispute -resolution procedure for instances when a non-disclosure agreement regarding trade secrets and other confidential business information cannot be agreed on, or problems arise during the assessment.

Later in the meeting, Heath described recent changes to the County Hazardous Materials Incident Notification Policy. There are three levels of gravity, from 1 (lowest) to 3 (highest). A previous Level 0 was eliminated in March 2022; it had addressed major unit start-ups and shutdowns not associated with an actual or threatened release of a hazardous material.

• Level 1 covers events with no expected off-site health consequences and requires only notification.

• Level 2 covers events with expected off-site health consequences that may impact the health of sensitive persons, and generates a Public Health Advisory.

• Level 3 covers events with expected off-site health consequences that may impact the health of the general public, and requires public protective actions, some examples being sirens, shelter-in-place orders and evacuations. 

The time frame for notification is within 15 minutes of discovery if the origin of a release is known, and within 20 minutes if the origin is unknown.

Additionally, all flaring must be reported.

Other changes went into effect on May 9 of this year. Level 2 CWS Community Messaging is to be automatically sent to CWS registered users in Zone 0, defined as within 1,000 feet of the affected facility, as well as to users who selected all notifications from the facility activating the CWS. Additional zones for notification could be activated depending on the incident, and possible additional community notifications for certain Level 1 incidents will be explored, according to the report.

Heath said her department is putting together a work group that will solicit input from residents surrounding large chemical facilities countywide to help define what types of incidents warrant community notification, and how to get the message out. The work group will also solicit input from law enforcement, fire departments and regulatory agencies as well as from the facilities, and will also work with Community Awareness Emergency Response (CAER). The work group's recommendations will be submitted to the ISO/CWS Ad Hoc Committee, Heath added. 

Heath also reported that there had been 136 CWS Level 1 notifications countywide this year as of July 20, including 63 flaring incidents that lasted longer than 20 minutes.

Regarding the increased notification requirements, Heath cautioned that "we don't want to ‘over-communicate'" incidents that have no impact on the community and would not require any action or further information.

But in the ensuing public comment period, resident Heidi Taylor, proclaiming herself "a big fan of more information," said: "We have Nixle (a community alert system); we get notified about all kinds of things" including traffic accidents. "If there is some way that you can push out that information, and people can choose to do with it what they will, I don't think that that is stoking panic or fear. It's just information so that they can make better decisions about their lives.”

Another commenter, Hercules resident Charles Davidson, who is on the board of the Rodeo-Hercules fire district, warned of the refinery's impact in its regular operation, not just during malfunctions, noting that "every day, there's nearly a ton of PM 2.5 (particulate matter 2.5 microns or less in width) being released" from the refinery. He also urged officials to look into "opacity detectors" that automatically flag release events, rather than rely on inspectors who rely on visual observations, sometimes a day after the actual event.

Maureen Brennan, who said she lives along the fence line of the Phillips 66 refinery in Rodeo, urged expansion of the 1,000-foot "Zone 0" for Level 2 CWS messaging to 5,000 feet, and said that a lot of people don't know about the CWS registered users program.

Kathy Petricca said more attention should be paid to chronic illnesses caused by both large and small particles. 

The agenda packet of the July 27 ISO/CWS Ad Hoc Committee meeting is at http://64.166.146.245/docs/2023/ISOCWS/20230727_2272/2282_ISO%20CWS%20Ad%20Hoc%20Committee%20Meeting%20Agenda%20Packet%20%28July%2027%2C%202023%29.pdf?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email . It includes the Community Warning System and Hazardous Materials Notification Update on pages 14-20 and the Independent Risk Assessment update on pages 10-12.

Video of the meeting can be viewed at this link:

Note from Craig: I also provided public comment at Thursday’s ISO/CWS Ad Hoc Committee meeting, where I again expressed my disagreement with the county’s decision not to address the Community Warning System failure as part of the independent root cause investigation. I wrote a detailed commentary explaining my views on the matter in this post, noting that the DA’s investigation (which is now going on seven months) into this failure is not transparent, does not involve the community, and will not necessarily address shortcomings in CWS training requirements, communication protocols between the county and refinery, gray areas for situations where CWS activation is required, and other systemic issues that may have contributed to the lack of notification for the Thanksgiving incident. I also criticized Contra Costa Health for failing to make clear to the public in its communications on July 11 that the coke dust release from MRC was a Level 1 incident where no off-site health consequences were anticipated, which I believe helped fuel alarmist media coverage and stoked unwarranted fears among the public. I believe that future public notifications through the CWS must make clear both the level of the alert and what the alert indicates in terms of public health risks.

The following items were written by Craig Lazzeretti

Sturgeon season wrap-up

Martinez’s professional baseball team, the Sturgeon, wrapped up the 2023 season with a 25-24 record, finishing sixth in the Pecos League Pacific Division. The San Rafael Pacifics cruised to the regular-season division title with a 40-8 record, including a wild 16-14 win over the Sturgeon in Sunday’s season finale. The poor Dublin Leprechauns had no luck this year, finishing at the bottom of the division with a 4-44 record.

The Sturgeon definitely preferred the friendly confines of Waterfront Park this season, going 18-9 at home versus only 7-15 on the road. Nick Adgar led the Sturgeon in hitting with a .364 batting average, 15 home runs and 51 RBI. On the pitcher’s mound, Eric Estrada, Craig Broadman and Harrison Aiken each recorded five wins.

Help name new park

Martinez residents are invited to help name the new eight-acre park planned for Pine Meadows Drive, at the former site of the Pine Meadows golf course. The park will complement a residential subdivision planned for the site. Property owners, businesses and residents in Martinez who are interested in participating in the naming of the new park can fill out and submit an application on the city of Martinez website: https://www.cityofmartinez.org/our-city/community-programs/naming-policy

Copies of the application can also be picked up and dropped off at City Hall, located at 525 Henrietta Street, or by email at ahatefi@cityofmartinez.org (applications must be received by Aug. 25).

For further information on the new park and the naming process, go to https://www.cityofmartinez.org/Home/Components/News/News/212/15

Parking meter enforcement to resume

On Aug. 29, the city will resume enforcing parking in designated metered, permitted or zoned areas for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Police will issue warnings only for the first two weeks, before starting to issue citations on Sept. 12. A map and summary of the parking zones are available at https://www.cityofmartinez.org/government/parking-map

Martinez crime report

The Martinez Police Department provides an online map of reported crimes and arrests that residents can view at https://martinez.crimegraphics.com/2013/default.aspx

A review of July data shows generally low crime levels in the city, particularly when it comes to violent crime. Two robberies, four arsons, eight stolen vehicles, nine assaults, 11 larceny thefts and 14 burglaries were reported in the city during the month. There were no cases of rape, manslaughter or homicide.

Note to readers: I’m going to be taking a bit of a breather from the newsletter in August to recharge my batteries, so to speak, and spend some time working on longer-term projects. This seems like good timing for a break as the City Council is taking the month of August off. I will still aim to produce timely posts on any significant news developments around the refinery investigation/incidents or other major topics of interest, and I hope to produce a couple special posts for my paid subscribers as a thank you for their financial support. You can also look for short, quick updates on topics of note by clicking on the “Notes” button at the top of the Martinez News and Views website. Look for regular posts to resume in September for all subscribers. Thanks again for all the support you’ve provided over the past year and please feel free to offer any feedback or suggestions for making this newsletter more valuable to the residents of Martinez. I can be reached at craig.lazzeretti@gmail.com — Craig