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Chevron Richmond Refinery: Accountability on the Road to Compliance

Judith BalminPP224A GIS Final ProjectWinter 2011

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Why Richmond? Why Chevron? Why asthma?

• “Richmond’s children with asthma are hospitalized at twice the rate of children from other parts of Contra Costa County”-Mayor Gayle Maclaughlin

• Residents give testimony about impact from refinery emissions: Burning eyes, shortness of breath, bad smells, and residues on windows

• There is an elementary school, 2 housing projects and 25,000 people living within 3 miles of the Chevron Richmond Refinery

• The refinery has been in high priority violation of the Clean Air Act since at least 2006.

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Recap

Source: Californiabreathing.org. Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, 2008.Produced by Judith Balmin

Percent Total Lifetime Prevalence for Asthma in California

Rate of ED Visits for Asthma in 2008 in California

CCC has among worst rates of asthma related ER visits in CA

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RecapAsthma and Pollution concentrated on north side – wealth on south side

Self Reported Asthma Symptoms and TRIs Released 2008-2009 in CCC

CCC Household Income 2008

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RecapThe Chevron Refinery in Richmond is amongst the worst polluters in CCC

Worst Polluters in CCC in 2009

Nearly all are refineries - The CA Dept Of Heath sites pollution from petrochemicals sources as a major cause of asthma

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RecapCreated index to isolate Toxic Air Contaminants from the other 45 TRI substances•Lead •Nickel•Ethylene•Carbon Tetrachloride•Benzene•Chloroform Contrast Between TRI and TAC Releases in CCC

TAC info from CA EPA Air Resources Board

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Recap Worst TAC Polluters in CCC in 2009

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Variables to consider in finding the most suitable locations

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Locations most suitable for a new health clinic

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Locations most suitable for a new health clinic

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Locations most suitable for a new health clinicNeighborhoods in Richmond: Sheilds Reid and City Central

City Central

Sheilds Reid

12Roads from Census Tiger 2000

Street boundaries around areas with most need for a new clinic in Richmond, CA

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My Models

Used model to create rasters for asthma percentage and average income by census tract variables

Used model to reclassify my rasters that resulted from both Euclidian Distance and Features to Raster processes

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Metadata for the layers I created

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Skills Used• Inset Map – slide 4• Point Graduated Symbol – slide 3 and 4• Geocoding – slide 4 and 7 (clinics and TRI sites)• Creating Indices – slide 5 and 6, Toxic Air Contaminants index created

from individual qualifying substances• Measurement/Buffer – 6 and 10• Geoprocessing – Clipping all throughout• Hotspot Analysis – Slide 7-10• Modeling – 7 (used to create rasters and reclassify)• Original data – Created and imported spreadsheets for geocoding

clinics and TRI sites which I then used to make shapefiles• Metadata – Created metadata for clinics and TRI sites shapefiles