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Case Study: Oil Refineries in Contra Costa County

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Title: Case Study: Oil Refineries in Contra Costa County


1
Case Study Oil Refineries in Contra Costa County
  • Carla Garcia
  • Race, Poverty, and the Urban Environment
  • Professor Raquel R. Pinderhughes
  • Urban Studies Program, San Francisco State
    University, Spring 2004
  • Public has permission to use the material herein,
    but only if author, course, and university are
    credited.

2
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3
Case Study Oil Refineries in Contra Costa County
  • This presentation focuses on the
    emissions of pollutants from oil refineries, with
    Contra Costa County as a case study, and how the
    noxious wastes affects the high level of
    childrens asthma.
  • Furthermore the presentation is designed
    to describe how toxins from oil refineries
    effects the public health of the surrounding
    community.
  • The presentation will analyze and describe
    the purpose, function, problems, and locations of
    oil refineries in Contra Costa County.
  • Moreover it pays particular attention to
    the social, environmental, and public health
    impacts of the process associated with the
    emissions of toxins from oil refineries.

4
General Description of Oil Refineries
  • Purpose
  • Oil refineries are complex process plants which
    turn crude oil into a range of products,
    including petroleum.

5
Crude Oil
  • Crude Oil is unprocessed oil.
  • It is derived from decaying animal and plants
    which lived millions of years ago.

6
Crude Oil Hydrocarbons
  • Crude oil contains hydrocarbons and form
    different classes including
  • - Paraffins
  • - Aromatics
  • - Napthenes or Cycloalkanes
  • - Alkenes Dienes and Alkynes

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8
Refineries Perform 3 Basic Steps
  • 1) distillation separates the complex mixture
    of hydrocarbons in crude oil into components.

9
Refineries Perform 3 Basic Steps
  • 2) conversion splits or re-forms the backbone
    of carbon atoms in a hydrocarbon molecule in
    order to make new components of higher value

10
Refineries Perform 3 Basic Steps
  • 3) Treating substitutes hydrogen atoms for
    sulphur atoms in the hydrocarbons, thereby
    reducing the pollution caused when the ultimate
    products are burned
  • - followed by blending together of the resulting
    components to make finished products.

11
Function of Oil Refineries
  • 1) use physical, thermal, and chemical separation
    techniques to separate crude oil into several
    components, including fuel
  • 2) non-fuel products such as solvents and asphalt
  • 3) chemical industry feed stocks such as benzene
    and propane

12
Problems of Oil Refineries
  • Toxic Pollutants of Oil Refineries and its effect
    on Air Pollution
  • Oil refineries are one of the largest sources of
    air pollution in the Unites States
  • Refineries are the fourth largest industrial
    source of toxic emissions and the single largest
    industrial source of benzene emissions, a known
    human carcinogen.

13
Problems of Oil Refineries
  • 2)Emissions of volatile organic compounds
    (VOCs).
  • a) Refineries are the single largest
    stationary source of volatile organic
    compounds (VOCs), the primary precursor of urban
    smog.
  • b) refineries release approximately 492
    million pounds
  • of VOCs each year.
  • c) oil refineries release more than twice
    as many VOCs as the next highest sector,
    organic chemical plants.

14
Problems of Oil Refineries
15
Problems of Oil Refineries
  • Oil refineries are responsible in allowing
    hazardous toxins, otherwise know as fugitive
    emissions to be emitted into the local and global
    community.
  • a) oil refineries vastly
    underreport leaks from valves to
  • federal and state regulators
  • b) these unreported fugitive
    emissions from oil refineries add
  • millions of pounds of
    harmful pollutants to the atmosphere
  • each year, including over 80
    million pounds of volatile
  • organic compounds (VOCs) and
    over 15 million pounds of
  • toxic pollutants (Waxman,
    1999).

16
Problems of Oil Refineries
  • Furthermore if these industries complied
    with Clean Air Act, much of the pollution would
    be eliminated.
  • c) Fugitive emissions come from a
    number of
  • sources, including leaking valves,
    pumps, seals,
  • connectors, pressure relief
    devices, and storage
  • tanks.
  • d) The majority of toxic pollutants
    from oil refineries
  • are released a fugitive emissions.
    According to
  • TRI data, rep oil refineries
    reported releasing 31
  • million pounds of toxic fugitive
    emissions in 1997,
  • more than half of the 58.7 million
    pounds of toxic
  • air pollutants released

17
Locations of Oil Refineries
  • United States oil refineries are located in
  • - Texas 27 refineries
  • - California 24 refineries
  • - Louisiana 20 refineries
  • - Pennsylvania 6 refineries
  • - New Jersey 6 refineries
  • - Illinois 6 refineries


  • (Waxman, 1999).

18
Public Health Issues
  • Air pollutants are considered toxic when they
    have the potential to cause serious adverse
    health effects, such as cancer, neurotoxicity, or
    reproductive toxicity.
  • Examples of these toxic air pollutants include
    benzene, a known human carcinogen, and xylenes,
    which depress the central nervous system, damage
    the kidneys, and irritate the respiratory system.
    (Waxman, 2000)

19
Public Health Issues
  • Refineries are the single largest stationary
    source of VOCs, the primary precursor of urban
    smog.
  • Ground level ozone, a toxic gas that is the
    primary ingredient of urban smog, is formed when
    emissions of VOCs react with nitrogen oxide
    (NOx) emissions in the presence of sunlight

20
Public Health Issues
  • High levels of smog have been linked to
    serious health problems, including irritation
    of the respiratory system. Smog also aggravates
    preexisting respiratory diseases such as asthma.

21
Public Health Issues
  • Children, the elderly, and people with
    respiratory conditions, including asthma are
    especially susceptible to ozone pollution.

22
Asthma
  • Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of
    the airways.

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Asthma
  • Asthma is a growing epidemic with the rate
    of Americans suffering from asthma being doubled
    in the last fifteen years, 1980-1996.
  • (Department of
    Health and Human Services, 2002).

25
Asthma
  • 9 million children are affected by asthma.
    (Pudget Sound Clean Air Agency, 2002)

26
Asthma
  • - Asthma sufferers feel their lungs constrict and
    experience, each new breath as if drawn through a
    narrow straw.
  • - Asthma is the most prevalent chronic disease
    among children in California

27
Asthma
  • According to a California study,
    researchers show that children who breathe
    heavily polluted air are more likely to develop
    asthma.
  • The study reports, the strongest evidence yet
    that smog can not only aggravate existing
    childhood asthma, which has reached epidemic
    proportions among American youth, but may
    actually be one cause of the life-threatening
    disease.

  • (Pudget Sound Clean Air Agency, 2002).

28
Asthma
  • Exacerbations can be triggered by exposures
    and conditions such as outdoor air pollutants.
    (Department of Health and Human Services, 2002).

29
Serious Health Impacts of Asthma
  • Asthma is a potentially fatal, chronic disease
    responsible for over 1.8 million emergency room
    visits per year, over 460 thousand
    hospitalizations per year and over five thousand
    deaths per year
  • (Department of Health
    and Human Services, 2002).

30
Social Impacts of Pediatric Asthma
  • Besides health impacts on children there are
    many social impacts that affect asthmatic
    children.
  • 1) School Absenteeism
  • a) Asthma accounts
  • for 14 million lost
  • school days
  • annually.

  • (American Lung Association)

31
Social Impacts of Pediatric Asthma
  • Millions of lost hours at work for parents who
    must nurse sick kids.
  • The estimated annual cost of treating asthma in
    those under 18 years of age is 3.2 billion. 
    (American Lung Association)

32
Social Impacts of Asthma
  • Disproportionate Burden of Asthma in Minority
    Populations and Those Living in Poverty.

33
Social Impacts of Asthma
  • Although asthma affects Americans of all ages,
    races and ethnic groups, recent data indicate
    that children, low-income and minority
    populations have been most severely affected
  • (Department of Health and Human Services,
    2000).

34
Social Impacts of Asthma
  • The reasons for the disparities are due to
    interaction of factors including lack of access
    to quality medical care, high levels of exposure
    to environmental allergens and irritants,
    language barriers, and lack of financial
    resources and social support to manage the
    disease effectively on a long-term basis

35
Environmental Injustices
  • Environmental racism and environmental
    inequity are, evidence that
  • environmental hazards are not distributed
    equally among various groups of people, either in
    the United States or throughout the world.
    Instead, communities of color and to lesser
    extent, poor people in general are exposed to
    hazardous and toxic wastes, dangerous working
    conditions, polluted air and water, and other
    environmental insults to a greater degree than
    are non-colored communities and people of higher
    incomes. (Newton,
    1996).

36
Environmental Injustices
DISTRIBUTION OF BURDENS BY RACE/ETHNICITY IN
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
1.92
2.00
DISTRIBUTION OF BURDENS BY INCOME/ IN CONTRA
COSTA COUNTY
37
A Case Study of Contra Costa County and Richmond,
CA

Ethnic Composition of Richmond, California
38
A Case Study of Contra Costa County and Richmond,
CA
  • Since 1989, there have been 35 major industrial
    accidents in Contra Costa County, California,
    making it one of the most dangerous places to
    live in the nation. (University of Michigan).
  • Between 1989 and 1995, there were over 1900
    different incidents reported in the county,
    making it the eleventh worst area in the entire
    United States with regards to toxic accidents
    (University of Michigan).
  • Chevron had 304 accidents between 1989 and
    1995 -- major fires, spills, leaks, explosions,
    toxic gas releases, flaring, and air
    contamination (University of Michigan).

39
History of Serious Accidents at
Chemical/Refinery Plants in Contra Costa County
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45
Conclusion
  • Emissions from oil refineries contribute to
    noxious pollution, which has detrimental and
    adverse health effects on the surrounding
    community, inflicting environmental racism and
    environmental inequity upon the people of Contra
    Costa County.

46
Bibliography
  • City of Richmond. (2002, May). Basic Fact Sheet.
    Retrieved on March 16, 2004
  • From http//www.ci.richmond.ca.us/Non-Flash/Infor
    mation/factsheet.pdf
  • Contra Costa Health Services (2002-2004).
    Hazardous Material Program. Retrieved on
  • April 16, 2004 from
  • http//www.cchealth.org/
  • Ecology Center (2003, February) The True Cost of
    Petroleum
  • Community News.
  • Retrieved March 17, 2004, from
  • Http//www.ecologycenter.org/erc/petroleum/commun
    ity.html

47
Bibliography
  • Department of Health and Human Services. )May
    2000) Action Against Asthma
  • A Strategic Plan for the Department of Health
    and Human Services.
  • Retrieved March 16, 2004 from
  • http//opac.sfsu.edu/search/dAsthmaairpollution/
    dasthmaairpollution25,0B/1856FFdasthmaunited
    statesprevention1,1,,1,0
  • Newton, Davis (1996). Environmental Justice.
    Santa Barbara ABC-
  • CLO
  • Pearce, N., Beasley, R., Burgess, C. Crane, J.
    (1998). Asthma Epidemiology
  • Principles and Methods. New York Oxford
    University Press
  • Pudget Sound Clean Air Agency. (2002, January),
    Study Air Pollution May Cause
  • Childhood Asthma. Retrieved on March 17,
    2004 from
  • www.pscleanair.org

48
Bibliography
  • Scorecard Organization. (2003) Air Quality
    Criteria. Retrieved on April 17, 20004
  • Fromwww.scorecard.org
  • University of Michigan, (n.d.) Environmental
    Justice Case Study West Contra
  • Costa County Toxics Coalition and the Chevron
    Refinery. Retrieved
  • March 17, 2004 from
  • http//www.umich.edu/snre492/sherman.html
  • Waxman, Rep. H.A. (1999 November). Minority Staff
    Special Investigations Division
  • Committee on Government Reform in the U.S. House
    of Representatives.
  • Retrieved on March 16, 2004 from
  • qcacheMfi4TsEW4MIJwww.house.gov/reform/min/pdfs
    /pdf_inves/pdf_enviro
  • _oil_refine_rep.pdfoilrefineriesfailtoreport
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