Turnover Rate Concerns Supervisors As Martinez Refinery Put On Notice

MARTINEZ, CA — Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors Chair John Gioia and Vice-Chair Federal Glover met Thursday afternoon with management representatives from PBF Energy’s Martinez Refining Company to discuss concerns about the frequency of chemical releases, fires, flaring and other incidents impacting the health and safety of the community.

The supervisors hand-delivered an open letter to the facility’s manager outlining Contra Costa Health’s documentation of incidents and ordering PBF to provide its regulators full access to the facility, documentation relating to deferred maintenance of equipment, access to employees and data relating to maintenance and safety practices.

On Tuesday, hazardous materials staff with Contra Costa Health, accompanied by personnel with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, paid a surprise visit to the Pacheco Boulevard refinery. The purpose: to conduct an unannounced inspection following at least 21 chemical releases, fires and other incidents over the last 12 months at the facility on Pacheo Boulevard. The county's industrial safety ordinance requires the refinery to allow inspectors onsite and to give them full access to both the site and company records.

Following Thursday's site visit, the two supervisors held a news conference outside the refinery. Gioia told reporters they met with top management who flew out from the East Coast.

"We met ... to express the concern of the community, the county and the air district over their unprecedented number of incidents and releases over the last year," Gioia said. "I've been involved with regulating refineries for about 25 years and have never seen this number of incidents over this period of time which tells us there's something deeper going on at the facility in the safety culture and training."

Gioia said PBF management agreed to nine demands laid out in the letter but asked for a bit more time to be more thorough.

"One thing they said that was concerning to us was since they purchased the facility in early 2020, there's been a 50 percent turnover rate in operators," Gioia said. "That is a high turnover rate. Yes, COVID contributed to that but when you have such a high turnover rate you must have very intense training of the new employees to make sure they can operate the equipment and respond to emergencies."

Glover agreed.

"We need to ensure that proper training is in place for safe operations," said Glover, whose district includes the refinery that is situated just outside Martinez city limits. "We've heard those commitments before but the truth is in the pudding. We are going to make sure we are monitoring... We are committed to holding them accountable and responsible for stopping these releases that are harming the community."

Gioia said the goal is to see improvements sooner rather than later.

"Clearly whatever they have done has not improved safety or reduced incidents," he said. "We don't want them to wait to make those changes, we want them done now. And we fully expect to follow up and be looking over their shoulders. The reason our health department is there is to not trust what they say but to independently verify."

The refinery has not responded to Patch's request for comment about the county's surprise visit this week.

Here is the text of the letter which was hand-delivered Thursday by the supervisors:

Dec. 28, 2023

Mr. Daniel Ingram, Refinery Manager
Martinez Refining Company, LLC
1801 Marina Vista Avenue
Martinez, CA 94553

Dear Mr. Ingram,

Contra Costa Health (CCH) writes to you today regarding the unacceptable number of hazardous materials releases and other incidents that have occurred at the Martinez Refining Company’s refinery during the past year, incidents that have compromised health and safety at your facility, and in our community.

In the past year, CCH has documented 21 releases or spills of hazardous materials at the Martinez refinery (see attached list). According to the County’s Community Warning System records, PBF also reported using flares — devices that should only be used as an emergency safety measure to prevent more serious incidents — at a rate of nearly once per week. CCH has documented 46 flaring incidents at the refinery since November 2022.

As the owner of the Martinez refinery and parent company of Martinez Refining Company LLC, PBF Energy (“PBF”) is responsible for ensuring the reliability of its systems and establishing and maintaining a culture of safety at the refinery. The number of incidents at the refinery over the past year is unacceptable for a facility operating in Contra Costa County and points to an apparent fundamental lack of investment on the part of PBF in ensuring the reliability of its systems and maintaining a facility that is safe for its workers and the neighboring community.

As you are aware, CCH has been working closely with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) surrounding the refinery’s numerous releases, spills and flaring incidents. On December 26, 2023, Dr. Philip Fine, Executive Director of the BAAQMD issued the following statement:

“The recent air quality violations at MRC are troubling and unacceptable. The Air District shares the community’s concern and outrage about these events. We are actively investigating and pursuing all legal avenues to ensure MRC is compliant with our regulations and that future violations and community disruptions are minimized. The Air District recently announced a joint civil enforcement action against MRC in conjunction with the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office to combine our prosecutorial resources to vigorously pursue accountability and justice for the Martinez community. The Air District stands in solidarity with our partners and the residents of Martinez to hold MRC accountable.”

As the owner of the Martinez refinery and parent company of Martinez Refining Company LLC, PBF Energy (“PBF”) is responsible for ensuring the reliability of systems and establishing and maintaining a culture of safety at the refinery. The number of incidents at the refinery over the past year is unacceptable for a facility operating in Contra Costa County.

As the County department responsible for enforcing state hazardous materials laws and regulations, and the County’s Industrial Safety Ordinance (Chapter 450-8 of the County Ordinance Code), CCH will not tolerate unsafe business practices at the refinery and hereby places PBF on notice of the following:

1. Beginning immediately, PBF shall allow CCH employees and agents onsite at all times and permit them access to any part of the facility upon request.

2. PBF shall provide to CCH all documentation relating to deferred maintenance of equipment at PBF no later than 10:00 AM on January 2, 2024. CCH will review these materials to determine the facility’s work plan for addressing deferred maintenance moving forward.

3. PBF shall provide to CCH a list of every employee and resident contractor working at PBF, including job titles and description of responsibilities, no later than 10:00 AM on January 2, 2024.

4. To assist in proper development of the facility’s culture of workplace safety, PBF shall make available for interviews any refinery employee requested by CCH. PBF management may not be present for interviews conducted by CCH. CCH welcomes labor representation and participation.

5. PBF shall provide to CCH a record of each Stop Work Authority that was utilized at the facility (California Code of Regulations, Title 19, Division 2, Chapter 4.5, Section 2762.16(f)) from 2021 to present, and a record of each near-miss incident (California Code of Regulations, Title 19, Division 2, Chapter 4.5, Section 2762.9(a)) documented in the past 12 months, no later than 10:00 AM on January 2, 2024. PBF will include a description of its criteria for near-miss events.

6. Upon each occurrence of a process upset or any other incident requiring PBF to provide notification under the County’s Hazardous Materials Notification Policy, PBF management shall make immediate contact with a CCH representative of the occurrence, in addition to providing all required notice under the policy. CCH will provide instructions about this notification in a subsequent communication.

7. CCH reserves the right to come onsite during any incident that has the potential to impact public health or the environment in accordance with all applicable laws. CCH reserves the right to modify the Community Warning System level of any incident impacting public health without consulting PBF. All costs associated with incident response will be borne by PBF.

8. At least two weeks before PBF’s planned turnaround in early 2024, PBF shall provide to CCH a comprehensive plan outlining when planned flaring will occur during the turnaround and what steps the facility will take to minimize the amount of flaring.

9. PBF shall allow an additional observer or observers from CCH onsite at all times during the turnaround and shall provide the observer or observers with access to any part of the facility upon request.

CCH will provide more information about future steps to ensure workplace and community safety at the Martinez refinery after reviewing the documents referenced above.

We look forward to collaborating with PBF on our mutual goal of making this facility the good neighbor it aspires to become.

Sincerely,

Anna Roth, RN, MS, MPH
Chief Executive Officer, Contra Costa Health
Health Director, Contra Costa County

The letter is also embedded here:

RELATED COVERAGE:

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