For video, see http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Richmond-Sues-Chevron-Over-Refinery-Fire-218010651.html.
Richmond Sues Chevron Over Refinery Fire
By Jodi Hernandez
|  Thursday, Aug 1, 2013  |  Updated 6:28 PM PDT

After months of trying to reach a settlement with Chevron, the city of Richmond says it will sue the company over last year's refinery fire. Jodi Hernandez reports.
The mayor of Richmond has confirmed the city will file a lawsuit against Chevron Friday morning.
Richmond city leaders say the fire has had a huge impact on the community.
Not only did it send 15,000 people to the hospital, city leaders say it cost Richmond millions of dollars in emergency response and caused property values to plummet.
The mayor says the city has an obligation to take legal action.
"We want to make it clear that we the people of Richmond and the city council as a whole community are making sure Chevron is held accountable for the harm they have done to us as a city and a community," Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin said.
The details of the lawsuit are not yet being released but the city will hold a press conference Friday morning.
Chevron says the city's decision to sue is a waste of the Richmond's resources.
"We believe the decision to pursue such a suit is a waste of the City’s resources and yet another example of its failed leadership," Chevron spokesperson Melissa Ritchie said in an e-mail statement.
City councilman Tom Butt says Richmond has seen property values plummet, costing the city and schools millions in property tax revenues, but he says the lawsuit is about more than just money.
"It's wanting to have some assurances that Chevron has taken the lessons learned to heart and that they have changed their culture of safety at the refinery, and the risk in the future is going to be lower than it was in the past," Butt said.
Community activists say they are glad the city is finally taking action. They say hundreds will march to the gates of the refinery this weekend to mark the one-year anniversary of what many consider one of the worst disasters Richmond has ever seen
"We believe Chevron not only owes Richmond an apology, but a significant amount of cash investment so we can help turn our community around," said Andres Soto, who represents Communities for a Better Environment.

Want to receive TOM BUTT E-FORUM and other action alerts on Richmond political and community issues delivered to your email address? Email your name and email address and/or the names and email addresses of others who would like to be placed on the mailing list and the message "subscribe" to tom.butt@intres.com. Comments, arguments and corrections are welcome.  Tom Butt is a member of the Richmond City Council   when opinions and views expressed, without other attribution, in TOM BUTT E-FORUM, they are those of Tom Butt and do not reflect official views or positions of the City of Richmond or the Richmond City Council unless otherwise noted. Visit the Tom Butt website for additional information about Tom Butt's activities on the Richmond City Council: http://www.tombutt.com.  Phone 510/236-7435 or 510/237-2084. Subscription to this service is at the personal discretion of the recipient and may be terminated by responding with “unsubscribe.” It may take a few days to remove addresses from the distribution list.

This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

To the extent that content is excerpted under the fair use doctrine from other media, I urge readers to subscribe to the print versions of these media to help support professional journalism and the businesses that publish news, and I urge readers to log in to the online versions to access additional content, related content and unrelated news. I especially appreciate local sources of news that include the Contra Costa Times , the San Francisco Chronicle, Richmond Confidential and the East Bay Express.