Bay Area air quality regulators on Tuesday announced $900,000 in fines against Chevron, amid claims the company didn’t properly monitor air pollution emissions at its Richmond refinery.
The Bay Area Air Quality District’s fines follow the company’s failure to upgrade 20 air quality monitors, after regulators found they weren’t properly configured, according to a news release by the district. As a result, the monitors couldn’t detect the full range of emissions that could emanate from the refinery — meaning that high levels of emissions could go undetected and unreported, the district said.
The failure led the air district to issue nine notices of violation. The company appears to have since “addressed” all the problematic monitors, and regulators are reviewing those fixes to ensure that they are in working order, the district said.
“Requiring Chevron to install and maintain its own monitors provides additional emissions data and further supports compliance and transparency,” Dr. Philip Fine, executive officer of the Air District, said in the news release. “Chevron’s upgrades to its monitoring systems are an important step toward strengthened accountability and accessible information for the communities surrounding the refinery.”
In a statement, a Chevron spokesperson framed the monitors as going “above and beyond federal regulations.”
“We believe the existing monitors were sufficient and any potential instances of noncompliance with monitoring requirements were reported to the Air District,” said the spokesperson, Caitlin Powell. “While we agree data and transparency are a good thing, this requirement by the Air District comes at high cost with little benefit. It is a local example of the type of excessive regulatory action that is driving up costs in California.”
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.