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| Yesterday, there was a lot of back slapping, chest thumping and high-fiving by RPA City Council members and the Sierra Club (Richmond City Council and Levin Terminal Reach Monumental Settlement to Phase Out Handling of Coal and Petcoke in the City By 2026) as a settlement agreement with Levin Terminals regarding coal shipment was announced (Settlement Agreement and Press Release).
The backstory, however, is one of significant waste of money and time by the City of Richmond to achieve an outcome that could have been achieved three years ago. The gist of the settlement is that Levin Terminals agreed to cease shipping coal and petcoke by December 31, 2026 and to incrementally implement dust control measures in the interim. While this would appear to be a positive outcome for Richmond, it cost a lot of money in attorney fees for an outcome that was readily available three years ago.
In 2019, I had been urging Levin to voluntarily adopt a commitment to get out of the coal shipping business in 7 years, which would have been 2026, and they had agreed.
For the Sierra Club and the RPA City Council members, 2026 wasn’t good enough. So they pushed for and passed an ordinance that required Levin to get out of the coal shipping business in three years, which would have been 2023. The ordinance was written by the Sierra Club, which then goaded the Richmond City Council into both passing and defending it at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorneys’ fees with no financial help from the Sierra Club.
The other part of the settlement involved dust control measures. Back in 2018, I introduced an ordinance that essentially copied a rule from the South Coast Air District dating from the 1980s that required complete covering of materials such a coal and petcoke. After initial unanimous support by the City Council, it ultimately died from lack of support by the RPA City Council members because the Sierra Club was afraid it would steal their thunder. They told the RPA City Council members to back off. It was also challenged by those who claimed there was insufficient information about the extent and source of coal and petcoke dust. The BAAQMD and Supervisor Gioia urged us to wait for the results of AB 617 testing, which they represented would provide that information. it never did.
AGENDA: May 22, 2018 L. ORDINANCES L-1. INTRODUCE an ordinance (first reading) amending Chapter 9.22 Public Nuisances of the Richmond Municipal Code to require enclosure of coal and petroleum coke storage and transfer facilities - Office of the Mayor (Mayor Tom Butt 620-6503).
MINUTES: L-1. The matter to introduce an ordinance amending Chapter 9.22 Public Nuisances of the Richmond Municipal Code to require enclosure of coal and petroleum coke storage and transfer facilities was presented by Mayor Butt. The following individuals gave comments: Chris Dupin, Janis Hashe, Melissa Yu, Cesar Zepeda, Elsa Monroe, Jim Holland, Lisa Park, Lauren Schiffman, Dave Schoenthal, Sylvia Hopkins, Julie Walsh, Claire Broome, Silvia Ledezma, Diane Livia, Nick Despota, Ann Kroeber, Nancy Arnold, Janet Johnson, David McCoard, Richard Katz, and John Gioia. Discussion ensued. A motion by Vice Mayor Willis, seconded by Councilmember Recinos, introduced first reading of the ordinance by the unanimous vote of the City Council.
AGENDA: June 19, 2018 M-1. INTRODUCE an ordinance (new first reading) amending Chapter 9.22 Public Nuisances of the Richmond Municipal Code to require enclosure of coal and petroleum coke storage and transfer facilities and defining excessive and glaring lighting as a nuisance - Office of the Mayor (Mayor Tom Butt 620-6503).
MINUTES: M-1. The matter to introduce an ordinance (new first reading) amending Chapter 9.22 Public Nuisances of the Richmond Municipal Code (RMC) to require enclosure of coal and petroleum coke storage and transfer facilities and defining excessive and glaring lighting as a nuisance, was introduced by Mayor Butt. Mayor Butt stated that the new first reading of said ordinance included an amendment adding text for a variance procedure. The following speakers gave comments: Sally Tobin, Sarah Bell, Garv Levin, Lisa Hire, Erica Maharg, Bill Pinkham, June Hight, Jordan DeStaebler, and David McCoard. Discussion ensued. The Council requested that an air quality monitoring study be conducted within two months. (Mayor Butt requested that the Council vote separately on the two nuisances described in said ordinance). On motion of Councilmember Myrick, seconded by Vice Mayor Willis, said ordinance amending RMC Sections 9.22.040 and 9.22.090 regarding transfer of coal and petroleum coke received first reading, and was laid over for two weeks for the second reading by the unanimous vote of the City Council. On another motion of Councilmember Myrick, seconded by Councilmember Choi, said ordinance amending RMC Section 9.22.090 regarding excessive and glaring lights received first reading and was laid over for two weeks for the second reading by the unanimous vote of the City Council.
By December of 2018, the Sierra Club, with Eduardo Martinez as their front man, was in full charge of the Richmond effort to use a Zoning Ordinance amendment written by the Sierra Club, to achieve its coal-related goals.
AGENDA: December 18, 2018 L-7 DIRECT staff to review a draft ordinance for legality and language and craft an ordinance for a first reading that is as strong or stronger in its ability to protect our community from coal and petroleum coke - Councilmember Eduardo Martinez (620-6593).
Richmond Approves Measure to Rein In Coal Dust EmissionsDan Brekke
May 23, 2018
A 2015 aerial image of coal piles at the Levin-Richmond Terminal. (Sierra Club)
Update, Wednesday, May 23: The Richmond City Council has approved an ordinance that will require enclosed storage and handling of coal moving through a bulk-cargo terminal on the city's waterfront.
The action comes in the wake of a spike in coal exports through the Richmond-Levin Terminal and associated concerns that dust from the shipments -- which arrive in the city on uncovered rail cars --poses major health and environmental hazards.
Several Richmond residents who commented before the unanimous council vote complained about heavy deposits of black, sooty material they attribute to the expanded coal shipments.
Jim Holland, an executive and longtime Levin-Richmond employee, warned that the new law could have a "catastrophic impact" on the business and its 62 employees. He called on the city and regional air regulators to work with the company to study conditions around the terminal.
The measure "presumes there is a dust issue," Holland said. "... There's only speculation that it's coal dust. 'If it's black, it's coal' -- that's not true."
Holland's statement prompted a critical response from Council members Ada Recinos and Melvin Willis.
"It's a lot of corporate tradition to threaten jobs and lost livelihood to bully communities to not take action," Recinos said. "We will not be intimidated."
"You as a company need to understand that it's our job to keep our community members from being exploited, harm to their health or anything physical that happens to you," Willis said. "... You basically threatened your employees, saying, 'If the city passes this policy be prepared for layoffs,' and that's disrespectful to the employees."
Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia, who serves on the Bay Area Air Quality Management District board, appeared as a public commenter at the meeting. He said the air agency is prepared to start working with the city immediately to begin monitoring for coal dust emissions.
Original post: The Richmond City Council will consider a proposal Tuesday night that aims to limit the release of coal dust from a private terminal at the city's port.
Amid a spike in shipments of the fuel through the Levin-Richmond Terminal, Mayor Tom Butt is asking for approval of an ordinance that would mark a beginning in dealing with local concern over the potential health hazards posed by dust from coal and another sooty material, petroleum coke.
Tiny particles in the dust can be inhaled and drawn deep into the lungs and have been implicated in a wide range of health impacts, including respiratory and heart disease.
The proposal "essentially requires closed storage and closed transfer for coal and petroleum coke," Butt said in an interview last week. If adopted, the measure would take effect in 2020. Levin-Richmond representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
Butt said the draft ordinance is patterned after a regulation adopted in the early 1980s by the Los Angeles area's South Coast Air Quality Management -- home to the port of Long Beach, which handles millions of tons of coal and petcoke every year.
The proposal was prompted in part by the recent disclosure that coal exports through the Levin-Richmond facility spiked last year.
Export statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau show that shipments through the facility have varied widely since they began in 2013. The Levin terminal handled about 453,000 metric tons of coal in 2015, 120,000 metric tons in 2016 and nearly 1.1 million tons last year.
Coal tonnage also surged last year at the state's two other major export facilities, in Stockton and Long Beach. The major destination for coal shipped from all three ports: Japan, which has been beefing up conventional power generation capacity in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Butt also noted the draft ordinance comes after a 2015 City Council resolution asking the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to require improved storage, handling and transfer of coal and petcoke.
"Three years have gone by now and they haven't taken any action on it," Butt said. "So we're kind of getting tired of waiting."
The air district says it's close to the end of a marathon process to amend its rules regarding how to reduce particulate emissions from commercial and industrial operations.
The precise extent of coal and petcoke dust emissions in Richmond -- including the dispersal of "fugitive" dust from rail cars and trucks -- has not been formally quantified. But the dramatic increase in exports and anecdotal evidence, like a black residue that some residents say they've observed on their homes and yards, has helped fuel the No Coal in Richmond campaign to end shipments through the city. |
