Common Ground: Taking the Toxic Tour

February 2005

Taking the Toxic Tour

For 20 years, Denny Larson has been defending poor communities against industrial pollution. His greatest weapon: a cheap plastic bucket adapted to trap dirty air — and the dirty corporations behind the smoke.

by Gar Smith

Contra Costa is a potential Bhopal,” Denny Larson proclaims as his red Subaru roars north on Hwy 580. “We are now entering Richmond and we may not return alive.” His tone is melodramatic, but he’s not entirely joking.

Between 1989 and 1997, 55 major industrial accidents rocked the county — on average, one every two months. For years, residents have complained bitterly — and hoarsely — about the seemingly endless outbursts of flares, flames, eruptions and blasts that sting their eyes and shower their rooftops with chemical dust. Refinery smoke has killed trees, burned the fur off squirrels, and sent hundreds of sickened residents to hospitals.

Larson is the force behind Richmond’s famed refinery-busting Bucket Brigades. Despite the grim nature of his work, he’s a genial guide with a ready smile framed between a goatee and a tan baseball cap.

“North Richmond is on the frontline of chemical assaults,” Larson barks, swerving off 580 at the Garrard exit. Larson began canvassing Contra Costa’s “cancer belt” with Citizens for a Better Environment back in 1984. In 2001, he founded the nonprofit Global Community Monitor (and a GCM project called the Refinery Reform Campaign) to lead a global crusade against polluting refineries.

California is right behind Texas as the state with the greatest concentration of refineries— five in the Bay Area alone. More than 67 million residents in 36 states are routinely exposed to the effluvia of refineries and most of these citizens tend to inhabit low-income, minority communities. There are currently around 400 industrial pollution sites in Richmond.

“Surprisingly, most toxic air pollution is not from refinery smokestacks but from product leaks in equipment,” Larson says. Apparently companies would rather spend millions churning out press releases than buying better valves to turn off gas releases.

The Power of an Empty Bucket

In the David-and-Goliath battle between Big Industry and the Little Guy, who could have guessed that David’s slingshot would someday be replaced by grandmothers armed with plastic buckets.

The Bucket Brigades began in 1995 after attorney Ed Masry and the now-legendary Erin Brockovich were sickened by fumes from a Unocal refinery near Rodeo. When federal officials insisted their air samples showed no problem, an angry Masry hired an engineer to build a cheap air-testing device that any ordinary citizen could use. Larson (with the help of a $260,000 EPA grant) helped Masry put those buckets into the hands of Contra Costa residents.

Larson went on to introduce the buckets to 24 industrial communities across the US. As head of the Global Community Monitor, he has become a global Johnny Bucketseed, crossing time-zones to introduce the idea of “community environmental policing” on four continents.

Larson snaps open a map dotted with black skulls. “Every site represents a toxic waste, air pollution site, or chemical spill,” he explains. “There are probably ten or fifty more that could be visited.” A full Toxic Tour can take seven hours. Our quick-course will take four.

Downtown, Downwind

Downwind from Chevron’s refinery, blocks of empty downtown buildings mark Richmond as the Bay Area’s “most depressed, lowest income, highest unemployment community,” according to Larson.

“I do these tours about once a month,” says Larson, “and every time, I find something new.” Sure enough, when Larson pulls up at Drew Scrap Metals Superfund site at the Seventh and Castro, there’s a surprise: a brand-new For Sale sign.

Approaching the fenced-off yard, Larson explains how the previous owners dumped chemicals and batteries directly on the ground. After the neighbors began complaining — and dying — the county tested the vegetables in a nearby family garden and found dangerous concentrations of lead, cadmium and other heavy metals. The lot was declared a Superfund site and the poisoned soil was covered with “clean dirt” and capped with asphalt. Unfortunately, a stream runs alongside the property so the capped chemicals simply drain into the creek.

“Whether that’s a clean-up or a cover-up is debatable,” Larson snorts.

At Second and Nevin, a small boy watches from the stoop of a house with a broken window as Larson parks. The Electro-Formatting building sits across the street from a row of homes. Here, on August 22, 1992, a tank ruptured and released a cloud of nitric acid that blanketed 20 neighborhood blocks and sent more than 100 people to the hospital. Larson indicates the Prop 65 signs on the building, warning of the presence of toxic compounds. “You notice the signs don’t have an 800 number,” he adds.

The next stop is the General Chemical railyard where, on July 26, 1993, an oleum leak caused “our closest Bhopal.” Ten steps from where Larson has parked, workers behind a metal gate are unloading a chemical tank car. Back in 1993, workers were having trouble with a shipment of oleum. They were told to heat the oleum to 120F to get it to flow. Unfortunately, Larson relates, they had to use a gauge that only went to 50F and “it went around six times while the workers weren’t looking.” The resulting explosion unleashed a choking cloud that spread more than 17 miles, sending 25,000 residents to local hospitals.

ChevronTexaco’s Output

ChevronTexaco processes more than 300,000 barrels of oil a day on its sprawling 2,900-acre petroleum ranch. In an average year, the refinery pours a million pounds of toxics into the air and 500,000 pounds into the bay, making it one of the state’s top five chemical polluters.

Between 1991 and 1999, the refinery racked up 10 serious chemical releases. On December 5, 1991, an explosion rained 40 tons of toxic dust over 10 square miles of Richmond. On March 25, 1999, a massive explosion and fire released potentially deadly hydrogen sulfide over the neighborhood.

Of the 22 public housing projects in Contra Costa’s “Gasoline Alley,” six are at high risk from exposure to chemical pollutants. The minority communities of Triangle Court and Las Deltas sit directly downwind from the refinery. None of the predominantly white housing projects are located within a mile of a chemical site.

“It’s no accident that dangerous fires, explosions and toxic spills continue to increase when refineries are calling the shots and monitoring themselves,” Larson says. “The city won’t even approve liability insurance,” he fumes, even though “a gazillion toxic industries are driving a death wagon right through these neighborhoods every day.”

Despite 32 active local neighborhood councils and “a church on every corner,” North Richmond remains a “jurisdictional nightmare,” Larson says. “It’s a community divided, literally, in half. The people have no redress with the local mayor or city council. Instead, they have to travel all the way to Martinez to the Board of Supervisors where they are just one of 75 or 100 other unincorporated areas all pleading for help.”

The View from Richmond

With the smokestacks of Chevron’s refinery visible, Larson crosses Wildcat Creek, en route to Meyers Drum, a rehabilitation station for 55-gallon drums. Meyers flushes chemical wastes from used drums and burns the residues in an aging incinerator that constitutes a major source of dioxins and other toxic emissions.

“There are 10,000 55-gallon drums at this site. On a warm day, you can hear these drum tops popping like popcorn. It almost sounds like a steel drum concert — of a very toxic variety.” Larson is about to explain that most of these drums come from Chevron when he catches his breath and gasps: “Boy! Something smells bad!”

The construction of the Richmond Parkway blocked the sight of the refinery, giving developers a chance to build new, upscale communities. A towering cement wall rings one brand-new housing development. “I call this Flareview,” Larsen cracks. “These homes rent for $200,000, can you believe it? I don’t know what that wall’s supposed to keep out — surely not the pollution.”

It’s a short drive from Flareview’s fortifications to Chevron’s perimeter fence. Beyond the chain-link fence topped with razorwire sits the remains of a vast open-air waste-pond. Henry Clark of the West Contra Costa Toxics Coalition remembers how, on some mornings after a dumping, the leaves on the trees “would be burned crisp.” The community rallied and the toxic lake was drained and closed.

Testing the Winds

Lifting a 5-gallon bucket from his car, Larson describes it as “the poor man’s Summa container. It costs $75.” (The EPA version costs $2,000.) Larson removes the lid and opens an intake valve attached to a plastic Tedlar bag. Resealing the airtight lid, Larson fits a second tube with a battery-powered hand-pump and begins drawing air from the inside of the bucket causing outside air to slowly fill the Tedlar bag. After about three minutes, Larson shuts the valve. The bag now is ready to be FedExed to Columbia Analytical, where a $500 test can detect 81 chemical compounds.

Larson pops the hatch on his car to display a copy of the Chain of Custody form used to authenticate air samples. He also uncovers a Contra Costa Times front-page story with a chart showing industrial danger-zones. The killing zone for an accident at the General Chemical and Dow Chemical plants extends 25 miles in all directions — putting at risk everyone from San Leandro to Livermore to Davis.

According to the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project, 29 states have loopholes that allow “accidental” releases of pollution to exceed Clean Air Act limits. Although these “accidental” releases generate more pollution than the “routine” emissions released by the plants, they are not recorded by the Toxics Release Inventory. “The first time it happens it’s an accident; the second time it’s a crime,” Larson says.

“Sometimes the upsets or explosions go on for over a week,” says Richmond environmental activist Henry Clark. “The daily emissions that my community is bombarded with — the dioxins, benzene and xylene emissions — are dangerous and deadly…. We need data made independently available to the pubic in real time” via a centralized, public electronic reporting system.

Some Healthy Signs

Larson passes Peres Elementary, a school that was repeatedly evacuated because of a Chevron incinerator that blew toxic smoke over the schoolyard for 30 years. “One of the good things about the Tour,” Larson says with a smile, “is that some of the problems no longer exist: We shut down that incinerator!”

It mystifies Larson that polluters will spend millions on lawyers and public relations instead of dealing directly with the citizens they put at risk. Larson laughs ruefully as he recalls the Chevron executive who vowed to create a refinery that “you can’t see, hear, or smell.” He spent $1 million on a reddish-brown color scheme that masked the massive metal holding tanks squatting on Richmond’s hillsides. Unfortunately, the dark paint caused the tanks to absorb more heat, which caused more evaporation, which caused more pollution. His plan to paint the smokestacks sky-blue was abandoned because the air over the plant was seldom blue. He never got to the problems of noise and stench.

“They don’t want to deal on a human, personal level,” Larson observes. “That’s why someone like Margie Richard is so effective.” Richard, the first African-American to win the Goldman Environmental Award, used one of Larson’s buckets to prove that Shell had poisoned her Louisiana community.

“Margie insists on dealing with these industry people on a personal level,” Larson recalls with a grin. “She’ll look these guys right in the eye and say: ‘Don’t talk to me as a company CEO: Talk to me as a neighbor,’ and that really gets to them.”

That, and the sight of a 5-gallon plastic bucket.

Gar Smith is associate editor of Common Ground. A longer version of this story is available at www.the-edge.org

Contact Global Community Monitor at 222 Richland Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94110, (415) 643-1870 or [click to e-mail], www.gcmonitor.org, www.refineryreform.org, www.bucketbrigade.net, www.cbecal.org

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