Citizen Science campaign in San Francisco peninsula

"Teams tally biological oddities on Bay Area's federal land"
2014-03-29 by Peter Fimrite [www.sfgate.com/science/article/Teams-tally-biological-oddities-on-Bay-Area-s-5359003.php]:
Scientists were swinging in the trees at Muir Woods on Friday as botanists, lepidopterists, entomologists and other lab-coat-wearing types poked around the Presidio and other sites in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in a frenzy of research.
The professorial convergence is part of a two-day celebration of biodiversity called BioBlitz, in which 300 volunteer scientists document the bats, bugs, plants, mosses, worms and other oddities living on federal lands in the Bay Area.
The event, sponsored by the National Park Service and National Geographic, is expected to attract 5,000 people, including 2,700 youths, who will take part in field science and attend a Biodiversity Festival at Crissy Field on Saturday.
The idea is to increase scientific knowledge about national parks in the Bay Area and inspire future generations of citizen scientists to become park stewards, according to the organizers, who have held yearly BioBlitzes at parks around the nation for a decade.
The redwood research at Muir Woods was serious business for Stephen Sillett, a professor of forest ecology at Humboldt State University and the head tree-swinger on a team of scientists conducting measurements, taking core samples and documenting life in the canopy of the giant trees.

Charting health of trees -
Sillett and his colleagues were climbing 250 feet up to the top of a clump of coast redwoods at Cathedral Grove. Their work, the first significant scientific study of the tree canopy at Muir Woods, is part of the Redwoods and Climate Change Initiative, a statewide project started by the Save the Redwoods League, a San Francisco advocacy group working with scientists from Humboldt State and UC Berkeley. They are documenting the age, size, health and tree-ring history of California's last remaining old-growth redwood groves.
"The goal is to measure this tree all the way from the base to the top," Sillett, a pioneer in research conducted in the redwood canopy, said as he prepared to climb one of the trees. "We are trying to figure out the biomass of the redwood forest, what is its capacity to sequester carbon ... and relate its performance over the last century to previous periods."
The plan is to chart the health of the trees over time and use laboratory analysis of carbon and oxygen isotopes to figure out how the trees have reacted to climate and weather conditions. By studying the rings, scientists hope to be able to plot biological changes dating 1,000 to 2,000 years and forecast how the redwoods will change as the Earth warms up.
The redwood tree-ring record can reliably be traced back to the year 328, revealing drought years and other major weather events, according to dendrochronologist Allyson Carroll, who analyzes and documents tree-ring patterns for Humboldt State and the Save the Redwoods League. Researchers have documented a significant growth spurt among redwoods in the past century.

Remnant of Spanish fort -
The research at Muir Woods also has a more immediate purpose: to determine the age of the old adobe found at the historic Presidio Officers' Club. The adobe, hidden for years under a covering of wood plank and plaster, is believed to be the last remnant of the original Spanish fort El Presidio de San Francisco.
The problem: No one can figure out when the 3-foot-thick adobe walls were built. The hope is that core samples from Muir Woods can be compared with the tree rings in the timber beams propping up the adobe to determine when the wood was cut to build the garrison.
"We have long-term redwood-monitoring plots from throughout the range, but we don't have any here in Muir Woods," Carroll said. "This site here is going to be the closest of all our redwood plots to where the (old military) journals indicated the wood came from."
Trees are not the only subject of the brainiac blitz. A team of UC Berkeley microbiologists is counting bacteria and acoustic-monitoring devices will detect bats in the Presidio.
Meanwhile, forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey is leading a team of 30 UC Davis undergraduates identifying Presidio bugs.
"There are over 500 families of insects in California and somewhere in the order of 25,000 individual species of beetles alone. ... So when it comes to diversity, arthropods have it all over everything else by orders of magnitude," Kimsey said, explaining why the insect count is important. "There is a hell of a lot out there right now that we just don't know about yet."
It is "very much within the realm of possibility" a new insect species will be discovered, Kimsey said.

Citizen scientists encouraged to help -
Public events at Crissy Field on Saturday include dung beetle races, science demonstrations, photography workshops and live raptor and animal exhibits. The final species count, including bugs and bacteria, is to be announced at 3:45 p.m. Saturday.

Restoration of Mountain Lake in San Francisco

"Restoration under way at Presidio's Mountain Lake"
2014-03-29 by David Perlman from "San Francisco Chronicle" [http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Restoration-under-way-at-Presidio-s-Mountain-Lake-5360254.php]:
Mountain Lake, the Presidio's watery gem, has finally been cleansed of the sediments and toxic chemicals that poisoned it for a century, and scientists have begun restoring its natural vegetation to create a new wildlife habitat.
Working by boat along the lake's shoreline, botanists last week planted seeds and buds of long-vanished flora into the bottom - each batch encased in hand-made balls of protective mud.
"These are pioneer species," said plant ecologist Michele Laskowsky, whose team collected them from Bay Area lakes and lagoons and propagated them in the Presidio's Native Plant Nursery.
"They're wonderful habitat plants," she said, "because they're great food for ducks and other animals in the water, they help keep the water clear, they help prevent the algae blooms that reduce oxygen in the water, and they'll provide shelter for all the small native fish that will soon be living here."
From their boat, Presidio interns Finn Black and Marion Anthonisen gingerly lowered the mud balls into the lake. The mud balls had been placed inside wire cages to protect the fragile plants from the countless invasive fish that have flourished there for decades.
In stages that will take months or even years, Presidio scientists are working to restore the lake and its surrounding area to their natural condition, and those invasive fish must go.

Unwelcome guests -
They are being hunted relentlessly by biologist Jonnathan Young, a graduate student at San Francisco State University who has spread nets into the water along the shoreline in the effort to rid the lake of the creatures.
For decades San Francisco residents have used Mountain Lake as a convenient place to dump unwanted pets from their home aquariums - often ordinary goldfish and colorful koi. All are varieties of carp, however, and all can grow to huge sizes with big appetites for smaller prey.
"There's one big orange koi that patrols the south shore," Young said. "It must be 2 1/2 feet long, but I've put a net there, and I know we'll get it."
Young sends the invasive fish he catches to a reptile rescue center in Sebastopol, where they are adopted by owners of isolated artificial vineyard ponds - "where they won't create the same issues in those nature systems as they are here," Young said.

The first plants in -
The first species of native plants that Black and Anthonisen lowered to the lake bottom last week are called sago pondweed. They will be followed by coontails and water nymphs - what botanists call SAV, for "submerged aquatic vegetation." All were selected for their many benefits to the lake's restoration, Laskowsky said, and were originally collected from Marin County lakes, lagoons and oceanside coves.
The vegetation once grew naturally in Mountain Lake Park, and Laskowsky said she identified the species in the plant collections and records of the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. They go back to the 189os, when Alice Eastwood was the museum's first paid curator of botany, Laskowsky said.
Native fish species will be introduced to the lake once it is free of all its alien fish. The first, Young said, will be the three-spined sticklebacks, a species that thrives in the Presidio's Lobos Creek. Eventually the area will see the return of still more native fish, turtles, reptiles and other wildlife, he said.
"It has to be a long process," Young said, "but then, restoring the ecology and the wildlife of a 4-acre lake to the way it was hundreds of years ago is a complex process, and it has to go step-by-step."

Cleaning complete -
The state's Environmental Protection Agency gave its approval for the project this week when its Department of Toxic Substances Control noted that during 11 years of testing and two years of dredging, the Presidio had successfully removed nearly 17 tons of potentially toxic sediments from the lake.
As a result, the agency certified, Mountain Lake is now free of toxic chemicals like lead and petroleum hydrocarbons, and that its surface water meets "drinking water levels."
In a campaign to protect the lake restoration effort, the Presidio is distributing stickers to the public bearing the message "Love Mountain Lake" and a colored image of the endangered Western Pond Turtle. The sticker urges San Franciscans and park visitors to pledge not to feed the area's wildlife, not to abandon unwanted plants or animals there, and to help keep the lake healthy.

Lawsuit filed to save Richmond's people from dangerous and fatal petroleum rail-shipments

"Groups Challenge Crude-by-Rail Shipments to Bay Area City; Highly volatile and explosive crude on rails puts residential community at risk"
2014-03-28 from "Earth Justice" [http://www.earthjustice.org/]:
Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. We bring about far-reaching change by enforcing and strengthening environmental laws on behalf of hundreds of organizations, coalitions and communities.
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WASHINGTON - March 28 - Environmental justice and conservation groups today filed a lawsuit against Kinder Morgan and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) to halt the shipment of highly explosive and toxic crude oil into the City of Richmond, a community already burdened by intense pollution caused by the fossil fuel industry.
Earthjustice filed the complaint and injunction request [http://earthjustice.org/documents/legal-document/pdf/richmond-crude-by-rail-injunction] on behalf of Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, the Sierra Club, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in the San Francisco Superior Court on Thursday.
The Air District (BAAQMD) issued Kinder Morgan a permit to operate its crude-by-rail project in early February, without any notice to the public or environmental and health review.  The case asks the court to halt operations immediately while the project undergoes a full and transparent review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
Members of the Richmond community, perhaps even members of the BAAQMD’s Board of Directors, did not know that a permit to transport crude oil had been issued for over a month.  According to longtime resident of Richmond and CBE organizer Andres Soto, the community is tired of being blind-sided and ignored.
“If the BAAQMD Board knew nothing about the permit, it should be embarrassed, and it should actually exercise its authority and hold its staff accountable to the community,”   CBE organizer Andres Soto said.  “The BAAQMD’s hush-hush permitting process for the Kinder Morgan permit reinforces the high level of distrust that the community has towards the BAAQMD staff.  They lied to us during the Chevron fire, and now we are seeing them make backroom deals with industry in their permitting.”
“Richmond residents are already over-burdened when it comes to pollution in our community and toxins in our bodies,” said Sandy Saeteurn, an APEN Richmond Organizer.  “The idea of trains carrying explosive Bakken crude oil in and out of our neighborhoods is outrageous. It's like BAAQMD just pulled the pin off of a bomb, allowing it to roll all around town, knowing it's only a matter of time before it stops ticking, and explodes on all of us.”  
“There are environmental and health laws on the books to protect people from the harmful effects of industrial activities, but those laws can’t work if agencies ignore them, or worse, deliberately skirt them,” said Suma Peesapati, the Earthjustice attorney handling the case. “The air district has violated the rights of the people of Richmond - and beyond - by failing to examine the harms and hazards of crude-by-rail.”
Earlier this week, the Berkeley and Richmond city councils voted to oppose crude-by-rail plans that involved trains running through their cities. The number of trains carrying crude oil around the country has risen dramatically in the last two to three years, due to the increased drilling in both the Alberta tar sands in Canada and the Bakken shale oil area of North Dakota.
The California Public Utilities Commission, office of Rail Safety, released a report in November 2013 [http://earthjustice.org/documents/report/pdf/richmond-crude-by-rail-safety-report] listing a number of alarming railway safety concerns associated with the increased movement of crude oil by rail through California. The report specifically identifies California’s railroad bridges as a significant rail safety risk.
"Even the National Transportation Safety Board says that crude oil trains should stay out of urban areas," said Diane Bailey, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "This dirty and dangerous project does not belong in Richmond."
Bakken crude is extremely explosive and toxic. In January, the U.S. federal agency that regulates hazardous materials on the rails issued an alert, stating that Bakken crude may be more flammable than other types of crude.  In both the U.S. and Canada, as the number of train cars carrying crude oil has quadrupled over the past six years, accidents, explosions and derailments have dramatically increased.  Last July, a train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded in a town in Quebec, Canada, killing 47 local residents and destroying most of the downtown area.

We are targets of marketplace chemical experimentation

Preserving the Human Ecology [link]

"The Great American Experiment: Lax regulation of toxic chemicals turns us all into human guinea pigs"
2014-03-18 by Jill Richardson [otherwords.org/great-american-experiment-with-toxic-chemicals]:
Jill Richardson is the founder of the blog La Vida Locavore [LaVidaLocavore.org] and a member of the Organic Consumers Association policy advisory board [OrganicConsumers.org].
---
There are more than 1,000 chemicals known to be toxic to the brains of animals in lab experiments. Yet we only know of 214 for humans, and just 12 for developing fetuses and infants, a recent study revealed.
Why are these numbers so far apart? Is it because lab animals’ brains are more feeble and susceptible to chemicals than ours?
No. It’s because we can conduct experiments by feeding mercury, lead, and arsenic to rats to find out what happens to their brains. It’s unethical to do so in humans.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what we’re doing — just not in a lab.
Without the capability to conduct a lab experiment on humans, we’ve got a few ways to find out exactly which chemicals are bad for our brains.
Typically, most of us are exposed to low levels of a wide variety of the chemicals in our lives — from paint, carpet, food, food containers, air, water, and more. If, after 60 years, you get sick, it’s hard to say what caused it.
Sometimes the harm can be much more subtle, like the loss of a few IQ points in a child who was exposed to a chemical before birth.
The exception is usually when a group of people is exposed day after day to high doses of a chemical on the job. When they all become acutely ill, it’s obvious there’s a problem. The cause is fairly easy to track down.
This method works for adults — resulting in the discovery of 214 neurotoxicants in humans — but not in developing fetuses and infants.
To find the dozen chemicals that harm the youngest brains, scientists compare exposure levels among a group of babies while still in the womb and then track their growth in their early years. Only by comparing them to one another, scientists can detect which chemicals cause problems.
For example, one study tested pregnant mothers for levels of a pesticide, chlorpyrifos, and then followed their children for many years (2011-04-21 "Exposure to Pesticides in Pregnancy Can Lower Children’s IQ" by Alice Park from "Time" weekly newsmagazine [link]. They linked chlorpyrifos exposure to reduced head circumference at birth and neurobehavioral problems that lasted at least seven years.
These studies recognize that we’re all being used as human guinea pigs.
Back to my first point: We know darn well that over 1,000 chemicals harm the brains of animals — and animals’ bodies are not all that different from ours. About half of the chemicals on this list are chemicals that are in our industrial solvents, pesticides, flame retardants, and other common products.
What’s our current approach? Just keep using them. Move along, everyone, until scientists can prove beyond a doubt that a specific chemical made a specific person sick.
Trying to steer clear of dangerous chemicals can drive you crazy. Just try to discover which products in your life contain chemicals that are toxic to you or your kids, and how you can find non-toxic replacements for them. It’s hard not to grow exasperated and give up.
And as a society, we should theoretically have more control over the process of identifying and banning toxic chemicals. But the federal law that regulates them, the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, has no teeth.
Corporations don’t even have to test their products for toxicity before putting them on the market. And the government has a very limited ability to prevent toxic chemicals from being sold. Why?
Why do we prioritize a corporation’s right to make money over the right of our citizens to be healthy?
People, particularly children and the unborn, shouldn’t be guinea pigs.
Corporations should be required to prove their products’ safety before they are allowed to sell them.

UC Santa Cruz reintroduces nearly extinct Marsh sandwort (Arenaria paludicola) at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area

"Reintroduction experiments give new hope for a plant on the brink of extinction; Research findings guide experimental reintroductions to establish new populations of a critically endangered wetland plant"
2014-03-17 by Tim Stephens from "UC Santa Cruz" [http://news.ucsc.edu/2014/03/endangered-plant.html]:
Greenhouses director Jim Velzy worked with plant ecologist Ingrid Parker to propagate cuttings of the endangered marsh sandwort in the UCSC greenhouses. (Photo by T. Stephens)

UCSC undergraduates (Megan Bontrager with clipboard, Krystal Acierto in blue sweatshirt) worked with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists to plant marsh sandwort at a site in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. (Photo by Ingrid Parker)

Marsh sandwort (Arenaria paludicola) in bloom at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. (Photo by Alison Forrestel, NPS)

A critically endangered plant known as marsh sandwort (Arenaria paludicola) is inching back from the brink of extinction thanks to the efforts of a UC Santa Cruz plant ecologist and her team of undergraduate students.
Ingrid Parker, the Langenheim professor of plant ecology and evolution at UC Santa Cruz, got involved in the marsh sandwort recovery effort at the request of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Although it used to occur all along the west coast, from San Diego to Washington state, this wetland plant with delicate white flowers had dwindled to one population in a boggy wetland in San Luis Obispo County. Federal biologists wanted to reintroduce the plant to other locations, but they weren't sure where it would be likely to thrive.
"When you have a species that's only known from one place, how do you figure out where it could live? We had very little information about its biology that would allow us to predict where it might be successful," Parker said.
Her team, which included undergraduate students and greenhouse staff at UCSC as well as USFWS biologists, propagated cuttings from the last remaining wild population, studied the plant's tolerance for different soil conditions in greenhouse experiments, and conducted field experiments to identify habitats where the plant could thrive. They published their findings in the April issue of Plant Ecology (available in advance online).
Surprisingly, the plants tolerated a much wider range of soil moisture and salinity than biologists had expected. "This really brought home to me the importance of experiments to help guide conservation," Parker said. "The one place where this species is found in San Luis Obispo County is a freshwater bog where the plants are in standing water. There are so few places like that left in California, we wondered if that's the only kind of place where it can grow. Instead we found that it actually does better without standing water."
In addition, field studies showed the importance of small-scale habitat variations, according to first author Megan Bontrager. "We planted out marsh sandwort in different habitats within a stone's throw of each other, and in areas dominated by willow they all died, whereas we had good success in nearby areas dominated by different species," said Bontrager, who worked on the study as a UCSC undergraduate and is now a graduate student at the University of British Columbia.
A key finding was the discovery that a relatively common plant can serve as a useful indicator of good habitat for the endangered marsh sandwort. Water parsley (Oenanthe sarmentosa) is a native plant that grows in wet areas along the west coast of North America. Field experiments in two California State Parks in Santa Cruz County showed that marsh sandwort does well in areas dominated by water parsley. This information provided guidance for larger-scale reintroduction experiments in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) in Marin County.
"We think water parsley might be a good indicator of moisture and light conditions that work well for this endangered species. That isn't to say that every place water parsley grows will be good for marsh sandwort, but within the range of coastal habitat this plant likes, planting it alongside water parsley is likely to be successful," Bontrager said.
The researchers were thrilled to discover that plants in the reintroduced populations are flowering and setting seed. This is especially important because sexual reproduction has not been observed in the one remaining natural population.
"Our reintroduction experiments have resulted in much more genetic diversity for this endangered species than there was before," Parker said.  "When we started, only 11 different genetic clones were left in the world. Seeing plants not only surviving but producing flowers and seeds in the field was fantastic."
Arenaria cuttings root easily, making it relatively straightforward to propagate large numbers of plants in the UCSC greenhouses. Greenhouses director Jim Velzy will continue to maintain the collection of Arenaria plants to preserve the genetic diversity of the original population in case it ever goes extinct in the wild.
For the field studies, Bontrager and coauthor Kelsey Webster, another UCSC undergraduate, worked closely with coauthor Mark Elvin, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist. With help from other undergraduates in Parker's lab, they prepared the plots, planted out marsh sandwort cuttings propagated in the UCSC greenhouses, and made regular visits to check on the plants and measure characteristics of the habitats where they were planted. Planting the larger field plots in Marin County was a big job that involved about a dozen undergraduates and almost as many federal biologists, Parker said.
Bontrager said the project is a good example of how government agencies and academic researchers can work together to save endangered species. "This collaboration was fruitful both in its practical conservation outcomes, by establishing new populations of an endangered species, and also in furthering our understanding of wetland ecology," she said.
This research was funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Tesoro Corp. Golden Eagle Refinery

"Tesoro refinery acid accident burns 2 workers"
2014-03-11 by Jaxon Van Derbeken and Henry K. Lee from "San Francisco Chronicle"[http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Tesoro-refinery-acid-accident-burns-2-workers-5304232.php]:
RODEO -- Two contractors doing maintenance work at Tesoro Corp.'s refinery near Martinez suffered burns Monday when they were splashed with sulfuric acid, an accident that occurred in the same processing unit where two employees were burned by acid last month, officials said.
A federal safety board said late Monday that it would investigate the cause of the latest incident. The agency also said it had not received full cooperation from the oil company in its probe of the first accident, which the federal board said was more serious than Tesoro has described.
The latest accident happened when sulfuric acid spilled on the two contractors' necks at 10:50 a.m. at the Golden Eagle Refinery at 150 Solano Way, said Maria Duazo, a Contra Costa County hazardous materials specialist. The men were taken to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek with injuries that were not life-threatening, she said.
Both maintenance workers were wearing protective garments, Duazo said.
Other workers with knowledge of what happened said the two had been splashed with acid while working on a pipeline, though the circumstances were not immediately known. The men were initially protected from injury by their protective suits, but some acid remained on the garments and drained onto their necks after the men took decontamination showers, the workers said.
Tina Barbee, spokeswoman for the San Antonio company, said in an e-mail that the workers had been conducting planned maintenance. One of the men was released from the hospital Monday while the other "remains at the facility for observation," she said.

Site of previous accident -
Peter Melton, spokesman for Cal/OSHA, the state's worker safety regulatory agency, said the contractors had been working on pipes in the same unit where two Tesoro employees were burned by acid Feb. 12. The pipes carry sulfuric acid to be mixed with butylene to boost octane levels in gasoline.
The two workers in the February incident were not wearing proper protective gear when a broken pipe sprayed acid on them. They were treated for first- and second-degree facial burns at a Sacramento hospital and released the same day.
The incident was scrutinized by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, which investigates the causes of accidents at chemical plants. Tesoro allowed federal investigators into the refinery the day after the workers were burned but barred them from future visits, saying the incident was minor and did not warrant a federal probe.

Investigators return -
The safety board wrote a letter in protest and, after federal investigators subpoenaed Tesoro for documents, the company allowed inspectors onto the refinery grounds again this month.
Safety board spokeswoman Hillary Cohen said late Monday that federal investigators had received "some cooperation" from Tesoro in their probe of the February accident. But the company "has yet to provide some of the key documents sought" and did not preserve some evidence from the incident, she added.
"One eye-opening document that the team did obtain is a Tesoro engineering calculation estimating that 84,000 pounds of sulfuric acid was released in the Feb. 12 incident," Cohen said in a statement.
She said it was "hardly the minor release that Tesoro has been describing to the public."
Tesoro's Barbee said the company disagreed with the safety board's assessment. She said the federal agency "failed to acknowledge that the release was contained in a process sewer, which is part of the system's design. The amount of (sulfuric acid) released to the environment was classified as minor according to regulatory requirements."
She added that Tesoro "placed no restrictions on the amount of time the (safety board) teams spent at the scene. We also provided documents and space to work at the refinery and facilitated interviews of employees with knowledge of the incident."
The Chemical Safety Board's investigative team left the Bay Area last week, but an inspector was expected to return to the refinery by Monday night to look into the latest accident.

Workers expressed fear -
State inspectors with Cal/OSHA ordered Tesoro's octane unit shut down Feb. 18 after finding several possible safety violations. In justifying the shutdown, investigators said workers "feared" dealing with the sulfuric acid and that a pipe had broken apart in workers' hands days after the spill.
After the company completed retraining and safety checks, the state agency allowed Tesoro to reopen the unit Feb. 28.
The state agency said it would also investigate the latest accident.


"State lets Tesoro refinery reopen accident unit"
2014-03-01 by Jaxon Van Derbeken from "San Francisco Chronicle" [http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/State-lets-Tesoro-refinery-reopen-accident-unit-5279413.php]:
State regulators allowed Tesoro Corp. on Friday to restart a unit at its refinery near Martinez that was shut down after two workers were burned with sulfuric acid.
Cal/OSHA said the company had conducted reviews of worker safety measures and training intended to prevent a repeat of the Feb. 12 incident at the Golden Eagle Refinery, in which the two employees were sprayed with sulfuric acid from a broken pipe. The two were treated for first- and second-degree burns at a Sacramento hospital and released the same day.
The state agency, which investigates workplace injuries, told Tesoro six days after the incident to shut down the unit where octane is added to gasoline. Authorities told the San Antonio company to review its operating procedures and protection measures against workers being sprayed with acid, and to arrange refresher training for all workers.
Also Friday, federal investigators said they had made progress in a standoff with Tesoro over a U.S. Chemical Safety Board probe of the Feb. 12 incident.
Tesoro allowed three federal investigators into the refinery the day after the workers were burned, but had barred them since then. The company said the incident was not serious enough to merit a safety board investigation.
Daniel Horowitz, managing director for the safety board, said late Friday that the company had agreed to let inspectors into the refinery again.
"We've made some progress - we're sending some investigators out," he said. "Unfortunately, the unit will already be online before we even have a chance to see it. They've been making modifications and repairs that change the conditions. "


"Tesoro bars federal safety agency from East Bay refinery"
2014-02-21 by Jaxon Van Derbeken from "San Francisco Chronicle" [http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Tesoro-bars-federal-safety-agency-from-East-Bay-5254436.php]:
PACHECO -- In an unprecedented challenge, Tesoro Corp. has barred federal authorities from going inside its refinery near Martinez to investigate an incident in which two workers were burned by acid spewing from a broken pipe, The Chronicle has learned.
State officials ordered a partial shutdown of the Golden Eagle Refinery following the Feb. 12 incident after inspectors with California's workplace safety agency found numerous suspected safety violations, state officials said.
The investigators with Cal/OSHA went to the plant at 150 Solano Way in the unincorporated community of Pacheco when a pipe containing sulfuric acid burst, spraying the two workers in the face with the caustic chemical. The two were flown by helicopter to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, where they were treated for first- and second-degree burns and released later that day.
On Feb. 18, Cal/OSHA ordered Tesoro to shut down the section of the refinery where the pipe was located until the company reviews its operations, shows how it protects workers against acid spills and conducts refresher training. The unit adds octane boosters to refined gasoline.

Probe blocked -
Investigators with the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, the lead federal agency in major chemical-plant accidents, showed up a day after the incident and gained access to the refinery grounds. However, Tesoro has rebuffed federal investigators' subsequent requests to return to the refinery, agency officials said Thursday.
Tesoro officials said the Feb. 12 incident was minor and did not qualify under the rules for a federal investigation.
Safety board officials could not recall another refinery or chemical plant on U.S. soil that has challenged the board's authority since its inception in 1998.
"It's rather unique," said Dan Horowitz, the federal agency's managing director, "because our authority is very broad. We not only investigate incidents, but we can investigate hazards even where there has not been a release."

Feds' job -
The Tesoro incident, Horowitz said, falls squarely into the agency's jurisdiction.
"This is a hazardous unit - it released a hazardous substance, (and) those workers were seriously impacted," Horowitz said. "This is not the sort of accident that should be occurring, a loss of containment involving a hazardous substance. This is exactly the sort of incident that regulatory systems are designed to prevent. We need to find out why this happened."
He said the Chemical Safety Board has subpoenaed Tesoro to turn over documents about the unit's operations and answer questions related to the accident by March 7.
Tesoro, based in San Antonio, downplayed the incident and said it was not satisfied the federal board had the right to intervene.
Elizabeth Watters, a company spokeswoman, described the incident as a "minor chemical release" that left the two workers with "minor chemical burns."
"We were surprised when the Chemical Safety Board notified the company that the agency intended to deploy a team to investigate, as the (board) is not charged with investigating a personal safety incident that did not result in serious injuries or substantial property damage," Watters said.

Chevron precedent -
Horowitz noted that Chevron allowed safety board investigators into its Richmond refinery to investigate an August 2012 fire, even though it resulted in no major injuries to workers. The board eventually found that Chevron had ignored workers' warnings about widespread corrosion at the plant.
The Chemical Safety Board's interest in Tesoro's operations heightened in April 2010, when an explosion at the company's Anacortes, Wash., refinery killed seven workers. In a draft report issued last month, the federal board said Tesoro had a lax approach to safety, which had led to "catastrophic consequences."
Tesoro required "proof of danger" before it would make safety improvements, the agency said in the report.
Don Holmstrom, head of the board's Western regional office of investigations, said the latest probe will focus on safety culture as well.
"We think there are some serious safety issues that need further examination," he said. "We need to examine how strong their safety culture is."

Working with state -
Watters said the company takes "all incidents seriously" and was cooperating with Cal/OSHA's probe, "as it is clearly within their jurisdiction to investigate."
The Feb. 12 incident was not the first one involving acid at the Tesoro plant, officials said.
In November, a worker suffered facial burns when he was sprayed with sulfuric acid from a pipe that had been leaking and had been clamped as a makeshift repair.
The workers burned in the latest incident were wearing standard protective gear, but Tesoro had not issued them the specialized equipment required by law to protect their face and body from acid burns, Holmstrom said.
Workers at the refinery told state investigators that they were "afraid" to operate the unit where the spill occurred because acid leaks occur "all the time," according to a Cal/OSHA report. They said the pipes carrying the caustic fluid are dangerously thin.
They said the pipe that failed Feb. 12 broke again just four days later, Cal/OSHA said. Pipe-fitters were working on the unit and "the piping came apart in the exact same spot it did during the accident," the state report said.


"Golden Eagle Refinery chastised by feds after workers hurt"
20104-02-28 by Trapper Byrne from "San Francisco Chronicle" [http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Golden-Eagle-Refinery-chastised-by-feds-after-5275024.php]:
The Contra Costa County refinery that barred federal investigators from its grounds after two workers were splashed in the face with sulfuric acid is creating the impression it has something to hide, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board said in a letter to the company.
The workers at Tesoro Corp.'s Golden Eagle Refinery just outside Martinez suffered first- and second-degree burns when they were splashed with acid from a broken pipe early Feb. 12. They were flown to a Sacramento hospital, where they were treated and released the same day.
After initially allowing Chemical Safety Board inspectors onto the refinery grounds, Tesoro refused to permit return visits or turn over documents, saying the workers' injuries weren't severe enough to warrant a federal investigation.
Company officials said they were instead cooperating with the state agency that investigates workplace accidents, Cal/OSHA. State investigators ordered Tesoro to shut down the refinery unit where the workers were injured after inspectors discovered possible safety violations.
The Chemical Safety Board subpoenaed Tesoro documents.
In their letter to Tesoro on Wednesday, Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso and the safety board's two other members said the company's action "creates a real concern that Tesoro may be trying to withhold other facts and issues from the agency."
Although Tesoro hasn't cooperated, federal investigators have learned that the burned workers weren't wearing required face shields, and that being splashed with sulfuric acid during routine procedures is "a common occurrence" at the refinery, the safety board said.
"Furthermore, some workers have made the assertion to us and to their union representatives that they have been fearful for their jobs at times when they wished to express safety concerns," the letter said.
The board members noted that after seven Tesoro workers were killed in an explosion at the company's refinery in Anacortes, Wash., in 2010, the federal agency "found a multitude of shortcomings in Tesoro's plant safety. The CSB is interested in examining safety culture issues stemming from the Feb. 12 incident."
Asked for comment, a Tesoro spokeswoman said, "We've received the letter and are in the process of reviewing it."
The safety board investigates most chemical-industry accidents in the U.S. It produces reports on causes but does not issue fines.


"Refinery workers splashed with acid"
2014-02-12 by Henry K. Lee from "San Francisco Chronicle" [http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Refinery-workers-splashed-with-acid-5227848.php]:
MARTINEZ -- Two workers at the Tesoro refinery in Martinez were injured early Wednesday when they were splashed with acid, firefighters said.
The victims were airlifted to UC Davis Medical Center after the incident, which happened about 2:40 a.m. at the refinery at 150 Solano Way, said Capt. Robert Marshall of the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District. Their conditions weren't immediately known, and their names have not been released.
The workers were injured while working in a gasoline production unit, said Tesoro spokeswoman Tina Barbee. The production unit has been shut down, and the cause of the release is under investigation, she said.
"All requisite regulatory agencies have been notified, including but not limited to the Contra Costa County Health Department, local law-enforcement agencies, the local Fire Department and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District," Barbee said.
About 700 employees produce gasoline and diesel fuel at the refinery.

Phillips 66 refinery

"Phillips 66 fined for air-quality violations at Rodeo refinery"
2014-03-10 Victoria Colliver from "San Francisco Chronicle" [http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Phillips-66-fined-for-air-quality-violations-at-5305031.php]:
Bay Area officials levied a $230,900 fine against Phillips 66 Co. on Monday for air-quality violations at the company's Rodeo refinery.
The oil company agreed to pay the penalty to cover 19 violations it committed in 2008 and 2009, including failing to take flare-gas samples and having vapor leaks at valves and connectors, said officials with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
"Any violation of these regulations, no matter how minor, will not be tolerated," said the air-quality agency's executive officer, Jack Broadbent.
The fine was the second major penalty the district has levied this year. In January, Tesoro Corp. agreed to pay $472,000 to settle 35 allegations of air-quality violations at its refinery near Martinez that happened from 2009 to 2011. The violations included two power failures that required nearby residents to stay in their homes until the air was cleared.
Officials at Phillips 66, headquartered in Houston, said the company had disclosed most of the violations to the air district and fixed the problems quickly.
"We continue to make improvements in our procedures, training and monitoring to minimize if not eliminate the likelihood of recurrence," said Janet Grothe, a spokeswoman for Phillips 66.