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The toxic effects of petrochemicals on Bay Area neighborhoods, waterways, and air quality are examples of the tragic consequences of our petroleum dependence. Refineries and petrochemical plants, military sites, and garbage incinerators have created toxic hotspots around the Bay Area. Urban development based on “car culture” and a food system that requires large petroleum inputs in the form of pesticides, fertilizers, and transportation fuel add to the true costs of petroleum.

Around the Bay, people are taking action and demanding that corporations and governments take responsibility for the harm that they create, and advocating for smarter city and regional planning, sustainable transportation, and sustainable agriculture. Some important actions that individuals can take to mitigate the effects of petroleum dependence include living near the workplace and/or commuting via public transit, consuming food that was produced locally, cutting out meats, which require large amounts of petroleum inputs, and cutting back on purchases of consumer goods that are transported long distances.

San Francisco Bay Area

Refineries, Petrochemical Plants, and Other Toxic Hotspots

Contra Costa and Solano Counties have the highest concentration of industrial facilities in the state, and the second-highest number of major oil and chemical refineries. The communities living there are exposed to releases from all 5 refineries in the region, which together produce 98 tons of emissions daily. Not surprisingly, these counties also have asthma rates which are among the highest in the state. Residents are subjected to sirens, shelter-in-place orders, and the constant threat of serious incidents. Groups such as the West County Toxics Coalition, Communities for a Better Environment, and the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, along with residents near these refineries, have organized to monitor local air quality, to prevent expansions, to demand that companies contribute to local health services programs, and to hold oil companies accountable for the pollution they create.

1. ChevronTexaco Refinery — Chevron’s Richmond facility is one of the top polluters in the state, releasing cancer-causing chromium and mercury into the air, and dioxins into the bay. Fires at the plant, as well as chemical releases of sulfur dioxide, have subjected the largely African American, Latino, and Southeast Asian neighbors to multiple shelter-in-place orders. Exposure to high levels of sulfur dioxide (SO2) leads to asthma, respiratory illness, and cardiovascular disease, while aggravating existing ailments. SO2 also damages trees and crops. Along with nitrogen oxides, it is the main precursor of acid rain and contributes to the acidification of lakes and streams. SO2 also causes the formation of microscopic acid aerosols, which have serious health implications and contribute to climate change.

2. Tosco Oil Refinery — In 1997, a fire at the Tosco oil refinery in Martinez killed one worker and injured 46. In 1999, four workers were killed in a fire. State workplace safety regulators levied a record fine, saying that Tosco had knowingly exposed workers to extreme danger. Tosco pleaded no contest to five misdemeanor criminal counts and agreed to a $2 million penalty. The refinery has since changed hands and is currently owned by Tesoro Petroleum Corporation. Source: US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, SF Chronicle.

3. General Chemical — In 1993, a release of sulfur trioxide from the General Chemical plant in Richmond created a cloud of sulfuric acid that caused over 22,000 people to seek medical attention. General Chemical produces sulfuric acid using inputs from a neighboring refinery. About two-thirds of the plant's output is returned to the refinery by pipeline to be used as a catalyst in gasoline. Two more releases of sulfur dioxide and sulfur trioxide occurred in 2001, resulting in shelter-in-place orders. Source: Contra Costa Health Services.

4. Dow Chemical — Dow’s plant in Pittsburg manufactures pesticides, herbicides, plastics, and other petrochemical products. It is one of the top polluters in the Bay Area. The plant’s emissions include carbon tetrachloride, a recognized carcinogen. In 1995, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District listed the Dow plant as one of two facilities in the Bay Area creating health risks requiring public notification under California’s Air Toxics “Hot Spots” Act. (The other was the Shell Oil Refinery in Martinez.)

5. IES Medical Waste Incinerator shut down — After years of community struggle, including letter writing, protests, blockades of trucks carrying medical waste, legal action, and negotiations, the controversial Integrated Environmental Systems medical waste and solid waste incinerator in Oakland closed in December, 2001. The facility had burned plastic medical waste, which includes large amounts of PVC. Incinerating PVC produces emissions of dioxin, mercury, particulates, and more — some of the most toxic substances known. IES was located in a low-income community of color in East Oakland, and government agencies participated in environmental racism by ignoring toxic emissions and ongoing violations for years. While the problem of incineration and other forms of toxic disposal can’t be laid to rest as long as plastic waste is still produced, community activists consider the closure a great victory. Sources: Green Action, Healthcare without Harm.

6. Waters in the Bay — The 11 million people who live in the counties bordering San Francisco Bay (or the rivers that flow into it) collectively dump, via emissions and runoff, about 2.97 million gallons of oil per year into the watersheds that feed the Bay-Delta system. That's the equivalent of an Exxon Valdez oil spill every four years, decade after decade. Oil spilling from tankers, pumping stations, and storage tanks adds to the problem. San Francisco Bay, with it six major ocean shipping ports, its oil refineries, and its petroleum-blending facilities, is the fifth largest U.S. port in crude oil handling. Petrochemicals used in agriculture in the Central Valley also make their way downstream, polluting the Bay and estuaries with a toxic brew of pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, and PCBs. When petrochemicals from any of these sources get into the Bay, residues can remain for as long as a century. Even minute quantities can devastate fish eggs and larvae, which also poses health threats to people who eat those fish. Source: SF Chronicle.

The US Military’s Toxic Legacy

7. Bayview-Hunters Point — In Hunters Point, an area heavily polluted by petrochemicals and fossil fuels used at the naval shipyard and by power plants sited there, youth are often leading the effort to defend thier communities from toxics. This year, ten youth organizers joined together to take on issues related to war and the environment. Their “Bomb Tracks: Toxic Legacies of War Youth Conference” included both a teach-in and an accountability session with local and state officials. Also, the “Living Classroom,” a project of Literacy for Environmental Justice, is an off-the-grid greenhouse and classroom at Heron's Head Park in Hunters Point, and an educational model for alternative energy systems and sustainable design.

8. Alameda Naval Weapons Station — Before becoming a military installation, this Superfund site had been an oil refinery and an airport. The site is contaminated with PCBs, which are chlorinated compounds commonly derived from the petrochemical naphthalene used to make electrical transformers, hydraulic fluids and lubricants. Highly toxic, PCBs are carcinogenic, act as endocrine disruptors, and are persistent in the environment. PCBs enter the bay aquatic system from this site and accumulate in the food chain. The Golden Gate Audubon Society has plans to turn the site into a wildlife refuge that will protect the California Least Tern, an endangered bird that nests there. As with many Superfund sites, cleanup has been delayed due to inadequate funding, poor site assessments, and arguments about who will take responsibility.

9. Oakland Military Recruiting Station — Wars and military actions to protect US petroleum consumption patterns impact some more than others. Spread throughout our communities and in our schools, military recruiters disproportionately target poor and working class youth, and youth of color. Those who can afford the high-consumption lifestyles that benefit oil companies aren’t the ones dying to maintain that privilege. For more information on how petroleum affects military policy, see the True Costs of Petroleum World Map.

Transportation

10. Port of Oakland / I-880 corridor — Bay Area residents who live in the low-income neighborhoods bordering the Port of Oakland are exposed to elevated levels of diesel exhaust from over ten thousand trucks that travel through the area each day, and thus face a higher risk of cancer, asthma, and heart disease. In contrast, the 580 freeway, which travels through higher-income neighborhoods, doesn’t allow trucking. In response to high pollution levels from trucking and other industries, local residents have organized the West Oakland Clean Air Festival, and are working to educate the community and demand protection by air quality monitoring agencies.

11. The Commute — Are you forced to drive because public transportation is slow, expensive, or just plain unavailable on the routes you need to travel? That's largely because government spends almost 7 times as much on highways as on mass transit. In 1999, federal, state, and local government expenditures on highways totaled $88.7 billion, compared to a combined total of $13.2 billion on transit. That spending gap, repeated year after year for more than half a century, has yielded a public transportation system with limited range, high prices, and erratic service, while the well-funded highway network promotes suburban sprawl and its negative effects. It’s no wonder that more than three quarters of San Francisco and Oakland residents drive to work, while fewer than 15 percent take transit.

12. Gas Stations — Consumers pay higher and higher fuel prices as the pressure on limited oil reserves increases, but these prices fall far short of reflecting the “true cost” of gasoline. The government currently charges taxpayers for gasoline indirectly by offering corporate tax-breaks, subsidies that support extraction and transportation of oil, and funds for research and development, environmental clean-up, and military protection of oil extraction. Without these subsidies, the price of gasoline would be as high as $15.14 per gallon, according to a report released by the International Centre for Technology Assessment. The underground storage tanks at gas stations that hold this subsidized fuel are notorious for leaking chemicals into the groundwater, including the cancer-causing MTBE. California’s attempt to ban MTBE was overruled by the regulations of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) because it interfered with “free trade.” Trade agreements like NAFTA and the WTO often impede local government’s ability to regulate business operations that pollute. Source: The Progress Report, International Forum on Globalization.

13. Airport — Air travel produces about as much of the greenhouse gas CO2 per mile as if each passenger traveled the same distance by car, but with a slightly greater effect on climate change because of its release directly into the stratosphere. Residents near airports suffer serious health consequences. Data from the Washington Health Department Census showed that the infant mortality rate near the Seattle airport was 50 percent higher, the rate of heart disease was 57 percent higher, and there were 36 percent more cancer deaths than in the city overall. Average life expectancy for airport neighbors was 70.4 years, compared to Seattle’s average of 76 years. Source: Earth Island Institute, ...Increasing Airplane Traffic, Effects On the Environment, Katta G. Murty.

Transportation Alternatives

14. Biodiesel — In Berkeley, the City’s fleet of trucks is fueled by a clean-burning and sustainable petroleum alternative: biodiesel. Biodiesel is derived from vegetable oil, rather than petroleum, resulting in emissions volume reductions of: 70% for greenhouse gasses, 55% for particulates, 55% for hydrocarbons/VOCs, 80-90% for cancer-causing agents, and 100% for acid-rain-causing sulfur. Around the world and in the Bay Area, collectives have formed to produce and share biodiesel. For more information about biodiesel and other alternative fuels, check out berkeleybiodiesel.org and journeytoforever.org.

15. Bike Lanes — Bay Area bicycle advocacy organizations are working to expand and refine citywide bicycle networks (bike lanes) that are designed to be safe, comfortable, and convenient for all levels of cyclists. When people feel safe biking in the streets, they can begin to consider bicycling as a viable commuting alternative. It is an efficient, economical, and healthful option, and decreases petroleum consumption. Source: SF Bike Coalition.

16. City Car Share — Much of the energy consumption related to cars occurs in their manufacture. Car sharing benefits include natural resource conservation, from both reduced driving and reduced auto production, and more equitable transportation access—people are able to make car trips without becoming car owners. Contact: www.citycarshare.org.

Suburban Sprawl or Smarter Growth

As the population of the Bay Area has grown, outlying areas that were once open space and habitat for wildlife have been developed in a sprawling pattern that requires long commutes from home to work. “Car culture,” both in the cities and suburbs, causes the smog that helps make many California cities unhealthful. Reducing consumption of petroleum in a meaningful way will require the restructuring of our cities, and smarter regional planning.

17. The Bay Area Greenbelt — The greenbelt is a broad band of open land that surrounds the cities and towns of the 9-county San Francisco Bay Area. It is home to farms, wildlands, and 74 endangered species. Groups like Greenbelt Alliance work to prevent sprawl developments, such as the 2,700-acre proposal by the City of Antioch. The plans call for 5,000 units of primarily luxury housing, a golf course, and a business park. The site is directly east of a wildlife preserve and is home to a variety of rare species, including the endangered San Joaquin Kit Fox and the threatened California Red-Legged Frog. Development would devastate their habitat. If built, the City of Antioch predicts that the development would add more than 143,000 new daily car trips, lengthening commute times, increasing air pollution, and adding to the region's traffic woes.

18. Blueprint for a Sustainable Bay Area — Local organizations like Urban Ecology work to plan and design cities in a smarter way. Some of the ideas that challenge the model of petroleum dependence and car culture in urban development include:

• Urban infill development - making more livable, sustainable homes within cities rather than building sprawling houses in increasingly distant suburbs
• Compactness and mixed-use zoning - developing neighborhoods to include a variety of housing and commercial opportunities, so people can walk to meet may of their daily needs within the neighborhood
• Transit-oriented development - building housing along existing routes of public transportation
• Affordable housing instead of gentrification - lets people live near their place of work and contributes to the long term stability and sustainability of cities
• Brownfields - cleaning up and building housing on former industrial sites
• Pedestrian design - traffic calming, better lighting and traffic signals, and other strategies to make cities more walkable and bikable
• Creating public space- makes urban communities more livable while challenging the isolation of car culture.

Sustainable Agriculture

19. Farmers’ Markets — Since most of the food at farmers’ markets comes from local farmers, much less petroleum is required for transportation. While produce at the farmers’ market usually travels less than 200 miles from the farm, typical food products in a US supermarket travel about 1,500 miles — or more. A typical meal bought from a conventional supermarket chain — including some meat, grains, fruits, and vegetables — consumes 4 to 17 times more petroleum for transport than the same meal using local ingredients. Also, much of the food available in local farmers’ markets is organic or spray-free, meaning that it’s spared the usual dose of petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides.

20. Community Gardens and Food Projects — City Slicker Farm and Oakland Butterfly Urban Garden in West Oakland offer gardening workshops, community gatherings, and locally-grown fresh produce. Also in West Oakland, the People’s Grocery operates a mobile, biodiesel-powered produce stand that provides food that wasn’t sprayed with petrochemicals or trucked over miles of highway to neighborhoods where such healthy and sustainable food choices are often hard to come by. For information on how to get involved with a community garden in your neighborhood, contact the Ecology Center at 510-548-2220 ext.233.

Sources / Resources

Literacy for Environmental Justice, www.lejyouth.org
Bay Area Air Quality Mangement District, www.baaqmd.gov
Urban Ecology, www.urbanecology.org
Communities for a Better Environment, www.cbe.org
Greenaction, www.greenaction.org
Pacific Institute, www.pacinst.org
People’s Grocery, www.peoplesgrocery.org
Pesticide Action Network, www.panna.org
California Certified Organic Farmers, www.ccof.org
Greenbelt Alliance, www.greenbelt.org
West County Toxics Coalition: 510-232-3427
Environmental Defense Scorecard, www.scorecard.org
Golden Gate Audubon, www.goldengateaudubon.org
Coalition for West Oakland Revitalization 510-451-2967