Global Courant
Bay Area public health authorities announced Thursday that heavy metals released by a refinery in November pose no significant risk to gardeners or residents of the city of Martinez, according to new lab tests.
On Nov. 24 and 25, Martinez Refining Co., an 880-acre refinery on the northern edge of town, released up to 24 tons of spent catalyst, powdery white dust filled with chemicals used to break crude oil into finished petroleum products. The dust covered cars and houses in the center of the city.
Last month, Contra Costa County hired TRI Companies Inc. in, a Connecticut engineering firm, to collect soil samples from 14 sites in Contra Costa and Solano counties. Jenny Phillips, a TRI toxicologist, concluded that none of the samples contained metals above background levels, although testing did find some sites with elevated lead and arsenic.
Based on the soil analysis, Contra Costa health officer Dr Ori Tzvieli has lifted a public health advisory recommending Martinez residents not to eat food grown in soil that may have been contaminated by the release.
“Now that we have these results, I personally would have no problem eating fruits and vegetables grown in the ground from one of the affected areas,” Tzvieli said in a statement Thursday.
For many residents, the soil tests, released six months after the incident, helped address some of the long-standing concerns about the health risks of the spent catalyst. Others, however, argued that the province’s difficult response to a release of hazardous materials revealed glaring flaws in government procedures and warranted reform.
“One hundred and ninety-four days after release, we’re now at the point where we’re telling people it’s OK to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables,” said Tony Semenza, a resident and member of the county oversight committee. “The process is flawed. This should have happened much sooner.”
County officials, for their part, promised there would be repercussions for Martinez Refining, which failed to notify proper authorities immediately after releasing hazardous materials, prompting regulators to find out through complaints from residents.
“These results do not excuse Martinez Refining Co. for the lack of notice at the outset of this incident,” said Matt Kaufmann, deputy health director. “While this brings some relief in terms of long-term health impacts on our community… the lack of timely notice has negated our ability as health officials to protect our community, including the most vulnerable, namely the medically compromised, the elderly and the children in our community.”
The county health department has referred two violations to the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office — one for failing to notify proper authorities of the release of hazardous materials and one for unauthorized discharges into the county’s stormwater system.
The FBI and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have also launched a joint investigation into the release of Martinez Refining, talking to residents who may have been exposed to the toxic fallout.
“They didn’t tell us the details of that investigation,” Kaufmann said. “We really don’t know what they’re looking at or who they’re talking to.”
An FBI spokesperson confirmed that the investigation is ongoing, but declined to comment further.
