Which reminds a little bit of when I lived in Detroit, lots of fire and burning buildings when I lived here. Obviously this has an effect on air quality, and of course it's monitored to some extent by the EPA, but I guess the Air Quality Egg is something that could be deployed in a situation like this? Anyone know of other citizen available tools that exist now that could be deployed, and I'm also wondering if the Air Quality Egg would be able to give an indication of the levels of toxins that come from and industrial fire, over short or long terms.
In this situation, the bucket sample tool would be more appropriate. GCM
(who started the bucket brigades) is located in California:
http://www.gcmonitor.org/. The buckets are designed to take spot grab
samples by communities for monitoring around refineries. I emailed GCM to
see if any samples have been taken.
Longer term, based on the AQE, Public Lab also has the Air Column Monitor
in development: http://publiclaboratory.org/tool/air-column-monitor which
is based on the AQE board, but will include sensors specific to toxics at
industrial sites.
On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 10:12 AM, Matthew Xi
<deepwin...@rhus.winterroot.net>wrote:
> Which reminds a little bit of when I lived in Detroit, lots of fire and
> burning buildings when I lived here. Obviously this has an effect on air
> quality, and of course it's monitored to some extent by the EPA, but I
> guess the Air Quality Egg is something that could be deployed in a
> situation like this? Anyone know of other citizen available tools that
> exist now that could be deployed, and I'm also wondering if the Air Quality
> Egg would be able to give an indication of the levels of toxins that come
> from and industrial fire, over short or long terms.
This is the sort of situation which we're trying to monitor with
Safecast. We've been doing large-scale radiation mapping, but now
we're developing a general sensing platform which will log
environmental data on a continual basis to an open database (site:
http://blog.safecast.org/2012/07/safecast-office-opening-event/ ). I
was actually working with one of my colleagues on updating our API in
Oakland when this happened. We're hoping to go live with our first
air quality monitor in the next few weeks.
<shannon.dosema...@gmail.com> wrote:
> In this situation, the bucket sample tool would be more appropriate. GCM
> (who started the bucket brigades) is located in California:
> http://www.gcmonitor.org/. The buckets are designed to take spot grab
> samples by communities for monitoring around refineries. I emailed GCM to
> see if any samples have been taken.
> Longer term, based on the AQE, Public Lab also has the Air Column Monitor in
> development: http://publiclaboratory.org/tool/air-column-monitor which is
> based on the AQE board, but will include sensors specific to toxics at
> industrial sites.
> On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 10:12 AM, Matthew Xi <deepwin...@rhus.winterroot.net>
> wrote:
>> I'm in Detroit right now, but there was a huge fire at a Chevron oil
>> refinery near Oakland last night.
>> Which reminds a little bit of when I lived in Detroit, lots of fire and
>> burning buildings when I lived here. Obviously this has an effect on air
>> quality, and of course it's monitored to some extent by the EPA, but I guess
>> the Air Quality Egg is something that could be deployed in a situation like
>> this? Anyone know of other citizen available tools that exist now that
>> could be deployed, and I'm also wondering if the Air Quality Egg would be
>> able to give an indication of the levels of toxins that come from and
>> industrial fire, over short or long terms.
Here's an article following up on the Chevron Fire (Originally sent from Denny Larson of the Global Community Monitor):
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iDxdJa0AIpy3B_PxnyH... *
*
*"Events like this most recent fire are a trigger for a longstanding mistrust of Chevron," said Jason Corburn, a University of California, Berkeley public health and urban planning professor. "People feel these spikes in air pollutants, and feel these dangerous events in the context of the daily (air quality issues) that don't show up on county air monitors."*
*
*
*Refinery fire highlights pollution concerns of dirty energy*
By By JASON DEAREN – 1 day ago
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A massive Chevron oil refinery fire that sent hundreds of people rushing to hospitals and is pushing West Coast gas prices higher was just the latest pollution incident at the facility that records show has increasingly violated air quality rules over the past five years.
The refinery is one of three such facilities near San Francisco that rank among the state's top 10 emitters of toxic chemicals, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Release Inventory.
Chevron's Richmond refinery — the scene of Monday's fire that shrouded the area in black smoke — has been cited by San Francisco Bay area regulators for violating air regulations 93 times in the past five years.
The number has increased from 15 violations in 2007 to 23 in both 2010 and 2011. The refinery is also the state's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, according to state regulators.
The Richmond refinery produces about 150,000 barrels of gasoline a day — or 16 percent of the West Coast's daily gasoline consumption of 963,000 barrels, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service.
With inventories of gasoline in the region already low compared with the rest of the country, pump prices on the West Coast will soon average more than $4 a gallon, Kloza said.
This week's disruption in production quickly sent the price of a gallon of regular gasoline in California up 3 cents, said analyst Patrick DeHaan of the website GasBuddy.com <http://gasbuddy.com/>.
Investigations continued Wednesday into Chevron's response to the fire and the effectiveness of Contra Costa County's emergency warning system. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board, a federal agency, sent a seven-member team to look into possible exposure of workers after vapor ignited and caused the fire.
Monday wasn't the first time Richmond residents had received shelter-in-place orders to stay in their homes and close the doors and windows after fires or accidents at nearby refineries.
They were anxious about the latest fire, and reports of a minor, secondary fire at the refinery on Wednesday only magnified concerns.
*"Events like this most recent fire are a trigger for a longstanding mistrust of Chevron," said Jason Corburn, a University of California, Berkeley public health and urban planning professor. "People feel these spikes in air pollutants, and feel these dangerous events in the context of the daily (air quality issues) that don't show up on county air monitors."*
The Richmond facility is not the biggest violator of air quality laws among the region's five oil refineries, but it has been cited for violating air regulations numerous times. Some of the violations remain under investigation for determination of penalties.
Chevron spokeswoman Melissa Ritchie said in an email that the refinery "places the highest priority on the health and safety of our work force, our neighbors and the protection of the environment."
"We know our ability to do so is dependent on a proven capability to operate safely and in an environmentally sound way," she wrote.
Some of the San Francisco Bay area's other refineries have more violations than Chevron. The most involved a Valero-owned refinery in nearby Benicia, which has 222 violations over the same five-year period. A Shell refinery in Martinez, a few miles east of the Chevron facility, posted the fewest violations with 83.
Not all of the air violations were for exceeding legal limits on pollution emissions, said Brian Bateman, the district's health and science officer. Some, he said, can be for bad record-keeping or other administrative problems, as well as equipment problems.
While the sprawling Chevron refinery has produced much of the West Coast's daily gasoline supply over the past dozen years, it has also emitted an average of 543,155 pounds of toxic chemicals into the air annually, according to EPA data.
In 2010, all of the state's toxic emitters, including hazardous waste disposal sites combined, released more than 9 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the air.
Still, most releases, when mixed with the cleaner air surrounding the refineries, fall below thresholds considered dangerous to human health, Bateman said.
Chevron paid $170,000 to the air district for all of its violations between 2005 and 2009 after reaching a settlement. The total amount of fines for more recent violations has not been determined.
The federal Clean Air Act sets limits on pollutants that refineries and other emitters can release and imposes penalties for violations. Local air districts enforce the law.
While some of the region's 27 air monitoring station's detected an uptick in pollution during Monday's fire, further laboratory testing confirmed that the levels did not pose a significant health concern, the air district said.
Fires and accidents over the years have inspired community protests and litigation.
A court recently blocked Chevron's plans to expand the facility, after a lawsuit from community groups alleged Chevron had not properly determined the potential health impacts.
"The fact that we've had two major fires in the last five years is unacceptable and symptomatic of Chevron's tenuous relationship with the community," said Roger Kim, executive director of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network.
On Tuesday, August 7, 2012 11:59:35 AM UTC-4, Levi Simons wrote:
> This is the sort of situation which we're trying to monitor with > Safecast. We've been doing large-scale radiation mapping, but now > we're developing a general sensing platform which will log > environmental data on a continual basis to an open database (site: > http://blog.safecast.org/2012/07/safecast-office-opening-event/ ). I > was actually working with one of my colleagues on updating our API in > Oakland when this happened. We're hoping to go live with our first > air quality monitor in the next few weeks.
> On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 8:19 AM, Shannon Dosemagen > <shannon....@gmail.com <javascript:>> wrote: > > In this situation, the bucket sample tool would be more appropriate. GCM > > (who started the bucket brigades) is located in California: > > http://www.gcmonitor.org/. The buckets are designed to take spot grab > > samples by communities for monitoring around refineries. I emailed GCM > to > > see if any samples have been taken.
> > Longer term, based on the AQE, Public Lab also has the Air Column > Monitor in > > development: http://publiclaboratory.org/tool/air-column-monitor which > is > > based on the AQE board, but will include sensors specific to toxics at > > industrial sites.
> > On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 10:12 AM, Matthew Xi <
> deepw...@rhus.winterroot.net <javascript:>> > > wrote:
> >> I'm in Detroit right now, but there was a huge fire at a Chevron oil > >> refinery near Oakland last night.
> >> Which reminds a little bit of when I lived in Detroit, lots of fire and > >> burning buildings when I lived here. Obviously this has an effect on > air > >> quality, and of course it's monitored to some extent by the EPA, but I > guess > >> the Air Quality Egg is something that could be deployed in a situation > like > >> this? Anyone know of other citizen available tools that exist now that > >> could be deployed, and I'm also wondering if the Air Quality Egg would > be > >> able to give an indication of the levels of toxins that come from and > >> industrial fire, over short or long terms.
> >> m.
> >> -- Post to this group at publicla...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>. > To > >> unsubscribe, email publiclaborato...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>. > Options at > >> https://groups.google.com/d/forum/publiclaboratory?hl=en
I'm going to forward some of the resources shared on this thread over to a
few friends who are looking into setting up automated claims for people
whose air quality is being affected.
I think the idea is to set up some kind of sensor system that automatically
sends claims to Chevron if pollutants are over the designated threshold.
If anyone wants to talk directly to them, let me know! It's just an idea
being kicked around at this phase.
On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 10:21 AM, sara wylie <sawy...@mit.edu> wrote:
> Here's an article following up on the Chevron Fire (Originally sent from
> Denny Larson of the Global Community Monitor):
> http://www.google.com/**hostednews/ap/article/** > ALeqM5iDxdJa0AIpy3B_PxnyHPZ8_**XIZBQ?docId=**
> abd6d605632642e8a1b920b858b1b8**e6<http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iDxdJa0AIpy3B_PxnyH...>
> *
> *
> *"Events like this most recent fire are a trigger for a longstanding
> mistrust of Chevron," said Jason Corburn, a University of California,
> Berkeley public health and urban planning professor. "People feel these
> spikes in air pollutants, and feel these dangerous events in the context of
> the daily (air quality issues) that don't show up on county air monitors."
> *
> *
> *
> *Refinery fire highlights pollution concerns of dirty energy*
> By By JASON DEAREN – 1 day ago
> SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A massive Chevron oil refinery fire that sent
> hundreds of people rushing to hospitals and is pushing West Coast gas
> prices higher was just the latest pollution incident at the facility that
> records show has increasingly violated air quality rules over the past five
> years.
> The refinery is one of three such facilities near San Francisco that rank
> among the state's top 10 emitters of toxic chemicals, according to the U.S.
> Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Release Inventory.
> Chevron's Richmond refinery — the scene of Monday's fire that shrouded the
> area in black smoke — has been cited by San Francisco Bay area regulators
> for violating air regulations 93 times in the past five years.
> The number has increased from 15 violations in 2007 to 23 in both 2010 and
> 2011. The refinery is also the state's largest emitter of greenhouse gases,
> according to state regulators.
> The Richmond refinery produces about 150,000 barrels of gasoline a day —
> or 16 percent of the West Coast's daily gasoline consumption of 963,000
> barrels, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service.
> With inventories of gasoline in the region already low compared with the
> rest of the country, pump prices on the West Coast will soon average more
> than $4 a gallon, Kloza said.
> This week's disruption in production quickly sent the price of a gallon of
> regular gasoline in California up 3 cents, said analyst Patrick DeHaan of
> the website GasBuddy.com <http://gasbuddy.com/>.
> Investigations continued Wednesday into Chevron's response to the fire and
> the effectiveness of Contra Costa County's emergency warning system. The
> U.S. Chemical Safety Board, a federal agency, sent a seven-member team to
> look into possible exposure of workers after vapor ignited and caused the
> fire.
> Monday wasn't the first time Richmond residents had received
> shelter-in-place orders to stay in their homes and close the doors and
> windows after fires or accidents at nearby refineries.
> They were anxious about the latest fire, and reports of a minor, secondary
> fire at the refinery on Wednesday only magnified concerns.
> *"Events like this most recent fire are a trigger for a longstanding
> mistrust of Chevron," said Jason Corburn, a University of California,
> Berkeley public health and urban planning professor. "People feel these
> spikes in air pollutants, and feel these dangerous events in the context of
> the daily (air quality issues) that don't show up on county air monitors."
> *
> The Richmond facility is not the biggest violator of air quality laws
> among the region's five oil refineries, but it has been cited for violating
> air regulations numerous times. Some of the violations remain under
> investigation for determination of penalties.
> Chevron spokeswoman Melissa Ritchie said in an email that the refinery
> "places the highest priority on the health and safety of our work force,
> our neighbors and the protection of the environment."
> "We know our ability to do so is dependent on a proven capability to
> operate safely and in an environmentally sound way," she wrote.
> Some of the San Francisco Bay area's other refineries have more violations
> than Chevron. The most involved a Valero-owned refinery in nearby Benicia,
> which has 222 violations over the same five-year period. A Shell refinery
> in Martinez, a few miles east of the Chevron facility, posted the fewest
> violations with 83.
> Not all of the air violations were for exceeding legal limits on pollution
> emissions, said Brian Bateman, the district's health and science officer.
> Some, he said, can be for bad record-keeping or other administrative
> problems, as well as equipment problems.
> While the sprawling Chevron refinery has produced much of the West Coast's
> daily gasoline supply over the past dozen years, it has also emitted an
> average of 543,155 pounds of toxic chemicals into the air annually,
> according to EPA data.
> In 2010, all of the state's toxic emitters, including hazardous waste
> disposal sites combined, released more than 9 million pounds of toxic
> chemicals into the air.
> Still, most releases, when mixed with the cleaner air surrounding the
> refineries, fall below thresholds considered dangerous to human health,
> Bateman said.
> Chevron paid $170,000 to the air district for all of its violations
> between 2005 and 2009 after reaching a settlement. The total amount of
> fines for more recent violations has not been determined.
> The federal Clean Air Act sets limits on pollutants that refineries and
> other emitters can release and imposes penalties for violations. Local air
> districts enforce the law.
> While some of the region's 27 air monitoring station's detected an uptick
> in pollution during Monday's fire, further laboratory testing confirmed
> that the levels did not pose a significant health concern, the air district
> said.
> Fires and accidents over the years have inspired community protests and
> litigation.
> A court recently blocked Chevron's plans to expand the facility, after a
> lawsuit from community groups alleged Chevron had not properly determined
> the potential health impacts.
> "The fact that we've had two major fires in the last five years is
> unacceptable and symptomatic of Chevron's tenuous relationship with the
> community," said Roger Kim, executive director of the Asian Pacific
> Environmental Network.
> On Tuesday, August 7, 2012 11:59:35 AM UTC-4, Levi Simons wrote:
>> This is the sort of situation which we're trying to monitor with
>> Safecast. We've been doing large-scale radiation mapping, but now
>> we're developing a general sensing platform which will log
>> environmental data on a continual basis to an open database (site:
>> http://blog.safecast.org/2012/**07/safecast-office-opening-**event/<http://blog.safecast.org/2012/07/safecast-office-opening-event/>). I
>> was actually working with one of my colleagues on updating our API in
>> Oakland when this happened. We're hoping to go live with our first
>> air quality monitor in the next few weeks.
>> On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 8:19 AM, Shannon Dosemagen
>> <shannon....@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > In this situation, the bucket sample tool would be more appropriate.
>> GCM
>> > (who started the bucket brigades) is located in California:
>> > http://www.gcmonitor.org/. The buckets are designed to take spot grab
>> > samples by communities for monitoring around refineries. I emailed GCM
>> to
>> > see if any samples have been taken.
>> >> Which reminds a little bit of when I lived in Detroit, lots of fire
>> and
>> >> burning buildings when I lived here. Obviously this has an effect on
>> air
>> >> quality, and of course it's monitored to some extent by the EPA, but I
>> guess
>> >> the Air Quality Egg is something that could be deployed in a situation
>> like
>> >> this? Anyone know of other citizen available tools that exist now
>> that
>> >> could be deployed, and I'm also wondering if the Air Quality Egg would
>> be
>> >> able to give an indication of the levels of toxins that come from and
>> >> industrial fire, over short or long terms.
Cool Christina.. do you know why they want to send the claims to Chevron?
In Louisiana sending data back to the company responsible for the
accident/emissions is a dead end.
Matthew- just as a follow-up I spoke with Denny and he said that they
aren't going to be doing much bucket sampling because the smoke went pretty
straight up, but GCM is working on getting information out to people on how
they can test soot and fallout from the smoke.
On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 9:56 AM, Christina Xu <christina.k...@gmail.com>wrote:
> I'm going to forward some of the resources shared on this thread over to a
> few friends who are looking into setting up automated claims for people
> whose air quality is being affected.
> I think the idea is to set up some kind of sensor system that
> automatically sends claims to Chevron if pollutants are over the designated
> threshold.
> If anyone wants to talk directly to them, let me know! It's just an idea
> being kicked around at this phase.
> Thanks!
> Christina
> On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 10:21 AM, sara wylie <sawy...@mit.edu> wrote:
>> Here's an article following up on the Chevron Fire (Originally sent from
>> Denny Larson of the Global Community Monitor):
>> http://www.google.com/**hostednews/ap/article/** >> ALeqM5iDxdJa0AIpy3B_PxnyHPZ8_**XIZBQ?docId=**
>> abd6d605632642e8a1b920b858b1b8**e6<http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iDxdJa0AIpy3B_PxnyH...>
>> *
>> *
>> *"Events like this most recent fire are a trigger for a longstanding
>> mistrust of Chevron," said Jason Corburn, a University of California,
>> Berkeley public health and urban planning professor. "People feel these
>> spikes in air pollutants, and feel these dangerous events in the context of
>> the daily (air quality issues) that don't show up on county air monitors."
>> *
>> *
>> *
>> *Refinery fire highlights pollution concerns of dirty energy*
>> By By JASON DEAREN – 1 day ago
>> SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A massive Chevron oil refinery fire that sent
>> hundreds of people rushing to hospitals and is pushing West Coast gas
>> prices higher was just the latest pollution incident at the facility that
>> records show has increasingly violated air quality rules over the past five
>> years.
>> The refinery is one of three such facilities near San Francisco that rank
>> among the state's top 10 emitters of toxic chemicals, according to the U.S.
>> Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Release Inventory.
>> Chevron's Richmond refinery — the scene of Monday's fire that shrouded
>> the area in black smoke — has been cited by San Francisco Bay area
>> regulators for violating air regulations 93 times in the past five years.
>> The number has increased from 15 violations in 2007 to 23 in both 2010
>> and 2011. The refinery is also the state's largest emitter of greenhouse
>> gases, according to state regulators.
>> The Richmond refinery produces about 150,000 barrels of gasoline a day —
>> or 16 percent of the West Coast's daily gasoline consumption of 963,000
>> barrels, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service.
>> With inventories of gasoline in the region already low compared with the
>> rest of the country, pump prices on the West Coast will soon average more
>> than $4 a gallon, Kloza said.
>> This week's disruption in production quickly sent the price of a gallon
>> of regular gasoline in California up 3 cents, said analyst Patrick DeHaan
>> of the website GasBuddy.com <http://gasbuddy.com/>.
>> Investigations continued Wednesday into Chevron's response to the fire
>> and the effectiveness of Contra Costa County's emergency warning system.
>> The U.S. Chemical Safety Board, a federal agency, sent a seven-member team
>> to look into possible exposure of workers after vapor ignited and caused
>> the fire.
>> Monday wasn't the first time Richmond residents had received
>> shelter-in-place orders to stay in their homes and close the doors and
>> windows after fires or accidents at nearby refineries.
>> They were anxious about the latest fire, and reports of a minor,
>> secondary fire at the refinery on Wednesday only magnified concerns.
>> *"Events like this most recent fire are a trigger for a longstanding
>> mistrust of Chevron," said Jason Corburn, a University of California,
>> Berkeley public health and urban planning professor. "People feel these
>> spikes in air pollutants, and feel these dangerous events in the context of
>> the daily (air quality issues) that don't show up on county air monitors."
>> *
>> The Richmond facility is not the biggest violator of air quality laws
>> among the region's five oil refineries, but it has been cited for violating
>> air regulations numerous times. Some of the violations remain under
>> investigation for determination of penalties.
>> Chevron spokeswoman Melissa Ritchie said in an email that the refinery
>> "places the highest priority on the health and safety of our work force,
>> our neighbors and the protection of the environment."
>> "We know our ability to do so is dependent on a proven capability to
>> operate safely and in an environmentally sound way," she wrote.
>> Some of the San Francisco Bay area's other refineries have more
>> violations than Chevron. The most involved a Valero-owned refinery in
>> nearby Benicia, which has 222 violations over the same five-year period. A
>> Shell refinery in Martinez, a few miles east of the Chevron facility,
>> posted the fewest violations with 83.
>> Not all of the air violations were for exceeding legal limits on
>> pollution emissions, said Brian Bateman, the district's health and science
>> officer. Some, he said, can be for bad record-keeping or other
>> administrative problems, as well as equipment problems.
>> While the sprawling Chevron refinery has produced much of the West
>> Coast's daily gasoline supply over the past dozen years, it has also
>> emitted an average of 543,155 pounds of toxic chemicals into the air
>> annually, according to EPA data.
>> In 2010, all of the state's toxic emitters, including hazardous waste
>> disposal sites combined, released more than 9 million pounds of toxic
>> chemicals into the air.
>> Still, most releases, when mixed with the cleaner air surrounding the
>> refineries, fall below thresholds considered dangerous to human health,
>> Bateman said.
>> Chevron paid $170,000 to the air district for all of its violations
>> between 2005 and 2009 after reaching a settlement. The total amount of
>> fines for more recent violations has not been determined.
>> The federal Clean Air Act sets limits on pollutants that refineries and
>> other emitters can release and imposes penalties for violations. Local air
>> districts enforce the law.
>> While some of the region's 27 air monitoring station's detected an uptick
>> in pollution during Monday's fire, further laboratory testing confirmed
>> that the levels did not pose a significant health concern, the air district
>> said.
>> Fires and accidents over the years have inspired community protests and
>> litigation.
>> A court recently blocked Chevron's plans to expand the facility, after a
>> lawsuit from community groups alleged Chevron had not properly determined
>> the potential health impacts.
>> "The fact that we've had two major fires in the last five years is
>> unacceptable and symptomatic of Chevron's tenuous relationship with the
>> community," said Roger Kim, executive director of the Asian Pacific
>> Environmental Network.
>> On Tuesday, August 7, 2012 11:59:35 AM UTC-4, Levi Simons wrote:
>>> This is the sort of situation which we're trying to monitor with
>>> Safecast. We've been doing large-scale radiation mapping, but now
>>> we're developing a general sensing platform which will log
>>> environmental data on a continual basis to an open database (site:
>>> http://blog.safecast.org/2012/**07/safecast-office-opening-**event/<http://blog.safecast.org/2012/07/safecast-office-opening-event/>). I
>>> was actually working with one of my colleagues on updating our API in
>>> Oakland when this happened. We're hoping to go live with our first
>>> air quality monitor in the next few weeks.
>>> On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 8:19 AM, Shannon Dosemagen
>>> <shannon....@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> > In this situation, the bucket sample tool would be more appropriate.
>>> GCM
>>> > (who started the bucket brigades) is located in California:
>>> > http://www.gcmonitor.org/. The buckets are designed to take spot grab
>>> > samples by communities for monitoring around refineries. I emailed GCM
>>> to
>>> > see if any samples have been taken.
shannon.dosema...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Cool Christina.. do you know why they want to send the claims to Chevron?
> In Louisiana sending data back to the company responsible for the
> accident/emissions is a dead end.
> Matthew- just as a follow-up I spoke with Denny and he said that they
> aren't going to be doing much bucket sampling because the smoke went pretty
> straight up, but GCM is working on getting information out to people on how
> they can test soot and fallout from the smoke.
> On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 9:56 AM, Christina Xu <christina.k...@gmail.com>wrote:
>> Hey guys,
>> I'm going to forward some of the resources shared on this thread over to
>> a few friends who are looking into setting up automated claims for people
>> whose air quality is being affected.
>> I think the idea is to set up some kind of sensor system that
>> automatically sends claims to Chevron if pollutants are over the designated
>> threshold.
>> If anyone wants to talk directly to them, let me know! It's just an idea
>> being kicked around at this phase.
>> Thanks!
>> Christina
>> On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 10:21 AM, sara wylie <sawy...@mit.edu> wrote:
>>> Here's an article following up on the Chevron Fire (Originally sent from
>>> Denny Larson of the Global Community Monitor):
>>> http://www.google.com/**hostednews/ap/article/** >>> ALeqM5iDxdJa0AIpy3B_PxnyHPZ8_**XIZBQ?docId=**
>>> abd6d605632642e8a1b920b858b1b8**e6<http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iDxdJa0AIpy3B_PxnyH...>
>>> *
>>> *
>>> *"Events like this most recent fire are a trigger for a longstanding
>>> mistrust of Chevron," said Jason Corburn, a University of California,
>>> Berkeley public health and urban planning professor. "People feel these
>>> spikes in air pollutants, and feel these dangerous events in the context of
>>> the daily (air quality issues) that don't show up on county air monitors."
>>> *
>>> *
>>> *
>>> *Refinery fire highlights pollution concerns of dirty energy*
>>> By By JASON DEAREN – 1 day ago
>>> SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A massive Chevron oil refinery fire that sent
>>> hundreds of people rushing to hospitals and is pushing West Coast gas
>>> prices higher was just the latest pollution incident at the facility that
>>> records show has increasingly violated air quality rules over the past five
>>> years.
>>> The refinery is one of three such facilities near San Francisco that
>>> rank among the state's top 10 emitters of toxic chemicals, according to the
>>> U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Release Inventory.
>>> Chevron's Richmond refinery — the scene of Monday's fire that shrouded
>>> the area in black smoke — has been cited by San Francisco Bay area
>>> regulators for violating air regulations 93 times in the past five years.
>>> The number has increased from 15 violations in 2007 to 23 in both 2010
>>> and 2011. The refinery is also the state's largest emitter of greenhouse
>>> gases, according to state regulators.
>>> The Richmond refinery produces about 150,000 barrels of gasoline a day —
>>> or 16 percent of the West Coast's daily gasoline consumption of 963,000
>>> barrels, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service.
>>> With inventories of gasoline in the region already low compared with the
>>> rest of the country, pump prices on the West Coast will soon average more
>>> than $4 a gallon, Kloza said.
>>> This week's disruption in production quickly sent the price of a gallon
>>> of regular gasoline in California up 3 cents, said analyst Patrick DeHaan
>>> of the website GasBuddy.com <http://gasbuddy.com/>.
>>> Investigations continued Wednesday into Chevron's response to the fire
>>> and the effectiveness of Contra Costa County's emergency warning system.
>>> The U.S. Chemical Safety Board, a federal agency, sent a seven-member team
>>> to look into possible exposure of workers after vapor ignited and caused
>>> the fire.
>>> Monday wasn't the first time Richmond residents had received
>>> shelter-in-place orders to stay in their homes and close the doors and
>>> windows after fires or accidents at nearby refineries.
>>> They were anxious about the latest fire, and reports of a minor,
>>> secondary fire at the refinery on Wednesday only magnified concerns.
>>> *"Events like this most recent fire are a trigger for a longstanding
>>> mistrust of Chevron," said Jason Corburn, a University of California,
>>> Berkeley public health and urban planning professor. "People feel these
>>> spikes in air pollutants, and feel these dangerous events in the context of
>>> the daily (air quality issues) that don't show up on county air monitors."
>>> *
>>> The Richmond facility is not the biggest violator of air quality laws
>>> among the region's five oil refineries, but it has been cited for violating
>>> air regulations numerous times. Some of the violations remain under
>>> investigation for determination of penalties.
>>> Chevron spokeswoman Melissa Ritchie said in an email that the refinery
>>> "places the highest priority on the health and safety of our work force,
>>> our neighbors and the protection of the environment."
>>> "We know our ability to do so is dependent on a proven capability to
>>> operate safely and in an environmentally sound way," she wrote.
>>> Some of the San Francisco Bay area's other refineries have more
>>> violations than Chevron. The most involved a Valero-owned refinery in
>>> nearby Benicia, which has 222 violations over the same five-year period. A
>>> Shell refinery in Martinez, a few miles east of the Chevron facility,
>>> posted the fewest violations with 83.
>>> Not all of the air violations were for exceeding legal limits on
>>> pollution emissions, said Brian Bateman, the district's health and science
>>> officer. Some, he said, can be for bad record-keeping or other
>>> administrative problems, as well as equipment problems.
>>> While the sprawling Chevron refinery has produced much of the West
>>> Coast's daily gasoline supply over the past dozen years, it has also
>>> emitted an average of 543,155 pounds of toxic chemicals into the air
>>> annually, according to EPA data.
>>> In 2010, all of the state's toxic emitters, including hazardous waste
>>> disposal sites combined, released more than 9 million pounds of toxic
>>> chemicals into the air.
>>> Still, most releases, when mixed with the cleaner air surrounding the
>>> refineries, fall below thresholds considered dangerous to human health,
>>> Bateman said.
>>> Chevron paid $170,000 to the air district for all of its violations
>>> between 2005 and 2009 after reaching a settlement. The total amount of
>>> fines for more recent violations has not been determined.
>>> The federal Clean Air Act sets limits on pollutants that refineries and
>>> other emitters can release and imposes penalties for violations. Local air
>>> districts enforce the law.
>>> While some of the region's 27 air monitoring station's detected an
>>> uptick in pollution during Monday's fire, further laboratory testing
>>> confirmed that the levels did not pose a significant health concern, the
>>> air district said.
>>> Fires and accidents over the years have inspired community protests and
>>> litigation.
>>> A court recently blocked Chevron's plans to expand the facility, after a
>>> lawsuit from community groups alleged Chevron had not properly determined
>>> the potential health impacts.
>>> "The fact that we've had two major fires in the last five years is
>>> unacceptable and symptomatic of Chevron's tenuous relationship with the
>>> community," said Roger Kim, executive director of the Asian Pacific
>>> Environmental Network.
>>> On Tuesday, August 7, 2012 11:59:35 AM UTC-4, Levi Simons wrote:
>>>> This is the sort of situation which we're trying to monitor with
>>>> Safecast. We've been doing large-scale radiation mapping, but now
>>>> we're developing a general sensing platform which will log
>>>> environmental data on a continual basis to an open database (site:
>>>> http://blog.safecast.org/2012/**07/safecast-office-opening-**event/<http://blog.safecast.org/2012/07/safecast-office-opening-event/>). I
>>>> was actually working with one of my colleagues on updating our API in
>>>> Oakland when this happened. We're hoping to go live with our first
>>>> air quality monitor in the next few weeks.
>>>> On Tue, Aug 7, 2012 at 8:19 AM, Shannon Dosemagen
>>>> <shannon....@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> > In this situation, the bucket sample tool would be more appropriate.
>>>> GCM
>>>> > (who started the bucket brigades) is located in California:
>>>> > http://www.gcmonitor.org/. The buckets are designed to take spot
>>>> grab
>>>> > samples by communities for monitoring around refineries. I emailed
>>>> GCM to
>>>> > see if any samples have been taken.
