BENICIA – Valero and Amports, the shipping company that operates the Port of Benicia, has agreed to pay $3.3 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the non-profit San Francisco Baykeeper.
Baykeeper alleged in a 2022 lawsuit that Valero and Amports were violating the Clean Water Actalong with other state pollution laws, by leaking a toxic petroleum product called petroleum coke, or petcoke, from the Benicia refinery into the Gulf.
“This is a very important solution. It really shows the power of people and nonprofits working together,” said Baykeeper executive director Sejal Choksi-Cugh. “Our scientists gathered evidence, our lawyers filed a lawsuit, and we were able to hold these two big companies accountable.”
Petcoke is a waste product that looks like coal and contains heavy metals such as arsenic, nickel and mercury. It is considered too polluting to burn in the US, so it is put on ships and often shipped to places like Asia and Africa, where it is used for fuel. Petcoke is dangerous to wildlife, and if the dust is released into the air it can cause serious health problems if inhaled, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. It also emits more greenhouse gases than coal.
After a resident reported to Baykeeper their petcoke contamination concerns, the team sent drones to photograph what appeared to be petcoke leaking into the water and air during loading times between November 2020 and October 2021. In 2022, Baykeeper filed a civil suit under provision of the Clean Water Act which allows a person to prosecute a suspected polluter after giving 60 days’ notice to the EPA.
The settlement agreement was signed by a federal judge on Monday.
Amports said in a statement that it “strives to be a good environmental partner in the communities where we operate.”
“We are fully committed to complying with our obligations under the consent decree and remain committed to continuing our efforts to protect the local environment while providing safe and reliable terminal operations. -ship,” said Amports.
Valero did not respond to requests for comment.
The agreement will remain in force for three years and includes the number of provisions that Amports and Valero are expected to follow. These include training workers on proper waste disposal, maintenance and repair of petcoke packaging and handling equipment, regular water testing at the treatment plant, cleaning of petcoke residues from collected and blown into the air, and agreed to pay fines for any other incidents of pollution.
“We chose three years on purpose because that’s enough time for them to change their behavior,” Choksi-Cugh said. It gives us the opportunity to go on site, walk around and talk to them about any problems they have.
San Francisco Baykeeper has released drone footage showing alleged petcoke pollution at the Port of Benicia.
About once a month, petcoke is transported by rail from the refinery to the shipyard, where it is stored in silos. The waste is then transferred to ships at the port using a conveyor system. The SF Baykeeper lawsuit said that petcoke was spilling into every part of the process, so Choksi-Cugh says they now have about 36 opportunities to see that the the company does it cleanly.
He said: “Our hope is that they will not have problems. After three years, they will clean up their entire operation, and they will not throw petcoke into the public.
Of the $3.3 million settlement, $2.38 million will be paid to the non-profit group Rose Foundation for Communities and Environment, which provides funding to local environmental groups. Companies have 30 days to send money to the Rose Foundation. The remainder will go to reimburse Baykeeper for costs related to the lawsuit and to monitor Valero and Amport’s compliance with the agreement.
“The settlement ensures that there will be funding for the nonprofit for several years to come,” said Jodene Isaacs, director of grantmaking at the Rose Foundation. “We’re looking forward to being able to pay environmental groups … we’re excited to be a part of this whole process.”
Isaacs said the repair money will go into their water quality fund, which provides grants twice a year to groups that do water projects. “Mother [those projects are] a lot of different things, like recycling, trash cleanup, water sampling, and community education,” Isaacs said.
Isaacs said they expect to open grant applications for the funding sometime in 2025.
Choksi-Cugh says this solution is a good example of how citizens and non-profits can work together to protect their communities. Because of a lack of time and resources, Choksi-Cugh says it’s rare for federal and state governments to step in for these types of pollution.
“Government agencies should be looking after public health, and it’s unfortunate that we have to step in like this,” Choksi-Cugh said. But I’ve talked to a lot of local agency workers who really appreciate the work we’re doing because they have other priorities they’re working on. So sometimes they’ll say, ‘Hey, good job bringing that case. We shouldn’t have brought it.’”
Benicia City Council Member Kari Birdseye said the community is “very grateful” to SF Baykeeper for protecting the waters where many Benicia residents live and board.
“It shouldn’t take a local whistleblower, a non-profit group with a boat and an airplane, and a case for our local industrial neighbors to do the right thing and manage their petcoke like defined by law,” said Birdseye.
Birdseye noted that Benicia is the only refinery town in the Bay Area that does not have one local industrial safety legislation. Efforts to pass such legislation are ongoing.
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