from West County Toxics Coalition and the Chevron Refinery (1999) [http://www.umich.edu/~snre492/sherman.html]:
Special thanks to Henry Clark and Lucille Allen of the West County
Toxics Coalition for their generous help in providing invaluable primary
and secondary source material. Thanks also to Anne Simon of the
Environmental Law Community Clinic in Berkeley, California. This page
was compiled by Scott Sherman at the University of Michigan. For
comments, questions, and other feedback, you may reach me at my e-mail
address: scotman@umich.edu
---
Background -
Since
1989, there have been 35 major industrial accidents in Contra Costa
County, California. This makes it one of the most dangerous places to
live in the nation. In fact, 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.
One
of the worst industrial offenders is Chevron. The oil company operates a
refinery and other industrial facilities in Richmond, California.
Chevron stores over 11 million pounds of toxic, explosive, and corrosive
chemicals at this refinery, often very close to large population
centers. When it accidentally releases these chemicals into the
environment, Chevron endangers the lives of the local community members.
In fact, Chevron had 304 accidents between 1989 and 1995 --
major fires, spills, leaks, explosions, toxic gas releases, flaring, and
air contamination. The people of Richmond are subject to severe
injuries and illnesses. As Henry Clark, leader of the West County Toxics
Coalition, reported after a toxic release in 1992, "There's stuff here
that's deadlier than (in) Bhopal." (Bhopal was the site of the Union
Carbide chemical leak in 1984 that killed 2,000 people and injured
20,000 more.) Richmond was an area waiting to explode.
Problem -
In
1993, Chevron made plans to increase its chemical storage and the
number of hazardous chemicals in the Richmond area. It claimed that it
was just trying to comply with the mandates of the Clean Air Act. In the
company's opinion, it was all part of the process of developing a
cleaner burning gas to stop the air pollution problem in the San
Francisco Bay Area. Unfortunately these changes were going to pose
increased risks to the local community. This community was mostly poor
and mostly African American. It was a clear case of environmental
injustice.
The stage was set for a confrontation. The local
citizens were going to battle for their lives -- for their health, for
their safety, and for the future of their town.
Key Actors -
The West County Toxics Coalition
Up
to 1000 members of the Richmond community have come together under the
banner of this community organization. Led by Henry Clark, the Executive
Director of the West County Toxics Coalition, these citizens have been
fighting toxics since 1986. The group is an outgrowth of the National
Toxics Campaign.
Communities for a Better Environment (CBE)
An
environmental group based in the San Francisco Bay Area, CBE has
provided much technical and scientific assistance to local community
groups. CBE helped provide scientific information and expertise about
the Chevron refineries and other industrial plants to the residents of
Richmond.
Golden Gate University Environmental Law and Justice Clinic
Golden
Gate University Law School in San Francisco helps provide legal
information and expertise to local community groups that cannot afford
expensive corporate attorneys. The school has established an
Environmental Law and Justice Clinic where students, under the direction
of a supervising lawyer and faculty member, can assist in resolving
local environmental disputes through legal means. The clinic was
instrumental in providing legal information to the citizens of Richmond
in their fight against Chevron. Other public interest law organizations
also provided pro bono legal services to the Richmond community. These
included California Rural Legal Assistance in San Francisco and the
Environmental Law Community Clinic in Berkeley.
Chevron
One
of the largest oil companies in the world, Chevron operates refineries
and industrial plants in Richmond, California, in close proximity to a
poor, African-American community. Chevron is a large multinational
corporation, with profits in the billions of dollars. Chevron is also
one of the wealthiest companies in the world -- a member of the Fortune
500. The company has spent millions of its dollars on a populist
advertising campaign to promote its concern for environmental issues.
"Do people care about the environment?" Chevron asks in its ads. Then it
answers its own rhetorical question: "People do." (Community groups
have responded with protest signs that say "Do people destroy the
environment? People do.")
Demographics
Richmond,
California is located on the San Francisco Bay, just across the
Richmond-San Rafael Bridge from wealthy Marin County. However, Richmond
itself is anything but wealthy. The community that lives within the zip
code 94801 is one of the poorest in the state. According to the 1990
United States census, 44.2 percent of all Richmond children under 18
years of age live in poverty. Not coincidentally, this is the same zip
code in which Chevron owns and operates its refinery. The red pin below
shows the location both of this community and of the Chevron facilities.
The
Richmond community (zip code 94801) is mostly made up of African
Americans and other ethnic groups, as the following table indicates:
Ethnic Composition of Richmond, California [Source: 1990 U.S. Census data]
- Ethnic Group
- Total Population in Richmond Zip Code 94801
- Percentage of Total Population
White 6435 26.9%
African American 11672 48.8%
Native American, Eskimo, or Aleut 182 0.8%
Asian or Pacific Islander 1956 8.2%
Other 3659 15.3%
The
education level of the Richmond community (zip code 94801) is also very
low, as the following chart demonstrates [Source: 1990 U.S. Census
data]:
Educational Attainment of Richmond Adults (age 25 and above) in zip code 94801
- Education level attained
- Total number of Richmond adults over 25 years of age who have attained this level of education (All races)
- Percentage of total adult population over 25 years of age in Richmond
Less than 9th grade 2481 18.0%
9-12th grade, no diploma 2819 20.4%
High school degree (or equivalent) 3170 22.9%
Some college, no degree 2751 19.9%
Associate degree 783 5.7%
Bachelor's degree 1158 8.4%
Graduate or professional school 657 4.8%
Strategies -
The West County Toxics Coalition used several strategies in its successful fight against Chevron:
1. Try To Work It Out with the Polluter:
The
first strategy was to sit down at the table with Chevron. The citizens
of Richmond wanted to express their concerns for their health and
safety. Rather than choosing an antagonistic strategy, the citizens
hoped to cooperate with the corporation for an agreeable solution for
all parties involved. Thus, Henry Clark and his cohorts sat down with
Mike Hannan, plant manager of the Chevron facilities in Richmond.
Essentially,
the members of the West County Toxics Coalition asked for a policy of
zero net emissions. The citizens were completely supportive of Chevron's
cleaner burning fuel programs, so long as the development of these
programs did not endanger their health. They did not want any increased
risks to the Richmond community. Therefore, they requested some
mitigations from Chevron: the repair of leaking pumps and valves, the
shutdown of older parts of the Chevron plant, etc.
Chevron refused to cooperate. This strategy was unsuccessful.
2. Lobby the public officials:
What
could the citizens of Richmond do next? Chevron refused to listen to
their concerns. The local residents thought of an alternative strategy:
They would lobby the Planning Commission for the City of Richmond. After
all, Chevron needed a land use permit from the city in order to carry
out its operations. The residents believed that they had a strong case
to present to this Planning Commission with hard scientific data to
document the risks to their health and safety from Chevron's operations.
Because of this detrimental impact of Chevron's presence in Richmond,
the West County Toxics Coalition urged that Chevron must put up 10
percent of the cost of its Clean Fuels Program into a community
development fund. This would give citizens of Richmond over $50 million!
The
Planning Commission agreed with the citizens. They ordered Chevron to
pour $50 million into community development in order to be granted the
new land use permit. This strategy was successful because of the power
and influence of the community organizing, as well as the hard
scientific and legal expertise behind the citizens' efforts. The West
County Toxics Coalition had the power of numbers behind them --
mobilizing hundreds of citizens to these Planning Commission boards, and
working with the local environmental groups like CBE and the Golden
Gate Law Clinic. These were the two other successful parts of the
citizens' strategy:
3. Mobilize hundreds of concerned citizens:
The
West County Toxics Coaltion was able to successfully lobby the Planning
Commission in Richmond because it could rally hundreds of committed,
impassioned citizens. This is the foundation of any good community
organizing effort. The WCTC urged citizens to make phone calls to public
officials and make their voices heard. They started letter writing
campaigns, demonstrations, and protests, all of which attracted media
and turned the tide of public opinion away from Chevron.
4. Find allies with legal and scientific expertise:
Too
often community groups do not have access to legal power or scientific
data that will support their cause. By making allies with so many groups
in the San Francisco Bay Area, WCTC was able to overcome these
traditional barriers to power. For example, the Golden Gate Law Clinic
helped interpret laws like CEQA (the California Environmental Quality
Act) to the community's advantage. Scientists at CBE were able to
provide the Planning Commission with powerful evidence that the
reformulated fuel plan would have detrimental impacts on children and
other vulnerable local residents close to the refinery.
Strengths and Weaknesses of these Strategies -
The
West County Toxics Coalition did an outstanding job of mobilizing the
community. It quickly attracted the attention of local media and
activists to the nature of the problem. It put pressure on public
officials to rule in its favor. Moreover, it scored a great coup in
recruiting important allies from the legal and scientific community. All
of these were important in the success of the Richmond citizens'
efforts.
However, the victory would prove to be short-lived. The
citizens of Richmond may have been excellent in resource mobilization
with regards to people power, but Chevron had the power of money.
Chevron appealed the Planning Commission decision at the City Council,
and had the decision overturned. The wealthy corporation argued that the
citizens were trying to "extort $50 million" and denied that it had any
responsibility to mitigate the problem.
The citizens still won a
historic battle (see Solutions below), but it was not as large as
anticipated. Chevron did not respect the West County Toxics Coalition
and it tried to discredit their efforts altogether. Chevron had a
history of giving local politicians large campaign contributions, and it
always threatened to leave town if the citizens became too disruptive.
So the strategy was weak in its ability to deal with the larger problem
of corporate control of City Hall. Perhaps a future strategy for the
West County Toxics Coalition would be to mobilize their resources to
elect their own local candidates to City Hall. They could take power
into their own hands, rather than being dependent on public officials
who are beholden to Chevron.
Solutions -
In a
historic agreement, Chevron agreed to pay up to $5 million to community
development projects in Richmond. This money would help fund such
important local projects as:
- the Martin Luther King, Jr. Health Center
- more jobs and job training for local community members
- reduced toxic emissions in the area
- pollution prevention measures
- safety improvements at the Chevron plant,
- community beautification projects around the Chevron facilities, and
- police and youth athletic leagues.
The
West County Toxics Coalition had succeeded in getting millions of
dollars for the local community. Chevron did not pay the full $50
million that the citizens had initially demanded, but they still had
achieved a major breakthrough. Chevron had promised comprehensive
economic benefits for members of the fence-line communities. The full
details of the project are ennumerated in a Memorandum of Understanding
reached on June 2, 1994.
In the aftermath of this agreement, the
West County Toxics Coalition has continued to work with local citizens,
scientific experts, and legal advocacy organizations to win further
concessions from Chevron. In 1996, the citizens managed to shut down a
dangerous Chevron incinerator that had been jeopardizing the health and
safety of local residents for almost three decades. Working with
Greenpeace and local community organizations, the residents of Richmond
were able to mobilize enough support to close down the hazardous
facility. They sent more than 1500 letters to the California EPA, urging
an Environmental Impact Report, plans for immediate closure of the
incinerator, and community participation in the project. Two weeks
later, Chevron announced it would shut down the incinerator by 1997. The
residents of Richmond are currently working in close collaboration with
the California EPA to finalize plans for the closure.
Recommendations -
Other
communities involved in environmental justice struggles could learn a
lot from the successes in Richmond, California. The West County Toxics
Coalition has been successful for a number of reasons:
- its emphasis on forging alliances with scientific and legal experts
- its mobilization of up to a thousand community members around an issue
- its organizing efforts to influence the opinion of public officials
- its attempts to attract media attention to its cause.
In
the future, Richmond residents may find that another good strategy is
to take power into their own hands. They may wish to work towards
electing a local candidate for City Council, as well as other candidates
sympathetic to their cause.They may also choose to increase media
attention to their cause. In the progressive circles of the San
Francisco Bay Area, they may find many more allies willing to support
them, if only people are made aware of the injustices being
perpetrated.Finally, they should persist in trying to work in
cooperation with Chevron in constructing a common vision for the future
of Richmond. It is in the best interests of both Chevron corporation and
the residents of Richmond to prevent pollution, reduce toxic emissions,
and provide jobs. Citizens of Richmond should continue to sit down at
the table with employees of Chevron in order to construct a positive,
proactive vision of the future. Rather than fighting each other --
pouring time and resources into costly, energy-draining battles -- they
should work together to fight the common problems they share. As
Richmond residents have discovered with their victory in the "Clean
Fuels" case, Chevron has a lot of power and money that could be used for
the good of the community. It's better to have a relationship of
goodwill and unity than one of antagonism and division.
Glossary -
*
Clean Air Act -- A federal law, passed by the United States Congress
in 1970, that sets national standards for healthy air. Large
metropolitan areas (like the San Francisco Bay Area, where Richmond is
located) must make their own plans to comply with these environmental
regulations.
* Zero net emissions -- A policy where a company
does not increase its release of pollutants into the atmosphere. For
instance, Chevron could develop a new form of cleaner burning gas, so
long as there are no overall increases in pollution during the process.
There should be no increased risk to the community. Hopefully, the
corporations can even halt the emissions of hazardous chemicals coming
out of the plants!
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