How can the City of Benicia provide better oversight over industrial facilities?

Valero has shown repeatedly it is NOT a team player, that it will run roughshod over a town and its people, if not forced (like an antisocial delinquent) by real consequences to follow the rules, be transparent, admit to mistakes when they occur and swiftly correct them, not meddle in this very small town's politics, etc. The ISO was proposed before several years ago. In a strategy all too familiar these days, slow-walking the process; inventing gratuitous obstacles, each of which has to be addressed in a deliberate (i.e., slow) manner, etc., is a sure way of killing the momentum of any plan to achieve a worthy goal. The public has difficulty sustaining an interest in these cases, and those trying to thwart the ISO know this. (Do corporations offer their employees weeks-long courses on how to gum up any forward-thinking initiative to maintain the status quo, and not disrupt profits?). So, the ISO from a few years ago did not go into effect; it withered and died on the vine. The ISO is wanted and needed. It is my understanding that every county in the Bay Area that has within its borders an oil refinery also has an Industrial safety ordinance--except Benicia. Why are we so exceptional? It is as though Benicia is stuck in a time warp that has allowed it to miss clean air initiatives that swept the U.S. some 50 years ago. The fairly recent (2022) revelation that the Valero owners have been pouring cancer-causing chemicals into our air (a pattern that the feckless Bay Area Air Quality Management District missed year-after-year) for a decade or more makes an ISO with teeth imperative. (The recent swing to an anti-renewable-energy upcoming administration in Washington makes all of these things at the local level imperative as well, it goes without saying.) The ISO, if written properly and not watered down, would and should have teeth so there are real consequences to this Texas-based company (where, I guess, polluting the neighboring communities is just, well, business as usual), including millions of dollars in fines, such as was leveled against it by BAAQMD just recently. Do we as citizens really think so little of ourselves and our town that we cannot have what every other town has in place? Is it because we are in Solano County, an area that seems to struggle with feeling poorer and disenfranchised from the rest of the Bay Area (when will a BART come to us using the millions in bridge toll fees we all pay each year?). We're a proud town. As I wrote for these other questions on engagebenicia.com, the Velero oil refinery does not define us; it is one facet of the economy, its long history here notwithstanding. The town has deep roots in what allowed the Bay Area to flourish. It was our water-level geography that allowed the barges to bring people from the East to what are now Contra Costa and Alameda Counties--when the bluffs of Crocket and Vallejo probably looked like useless cliffs before the bridges finally were built. Let's join the 20th century, let alone the 21st century, and have in place an I.S.O as the town's government's means of playing a defined role in reminding businesses that they operate under our discretion, that we the citizens have the final say, and are not yoked to a business based on how many lawyers it can pay to sue us, or how many political adds it can stuff in our mailboxes to swing an election toward their hand-picked candidate(s). The I.S.O. represents a town having a spine.

The City of Benicia should adopt the proposed Health and Safety ordinance

To make a long story short, the City should have a very strong ISO with an equally strong Oversight Commission that plays far more than an adivsory role. The Oversight Commission membership should comprise individuals with a demonstrated commitment to environmental protection, public health, industrial safety. It should not include Valero representatives, employees or contractors. This is not to deny Valero legitimate input into the Oversight Commission's deliberations or other discussions regarding the refinery and its violations, incidents, accidents and operations. It has legitimate concerns and perspectives worth considering. But the fox cannot be left to guard the henhouse.

A local Benicia industrial safety ordinance is essential. What we presently have is not working. We have no 'local' oversight agency to give immediate warnings and keep the public informed about incidents. The existing situation presently fails at adequately monitoring the industrial events and doesn't have enough compliance monitoring with substantial punitive effects that would remedy future episodes. And , please if you respond to me identify yourself or I will not respond back.

Have a team of experts including community input to approve an ordinance that will enforce consequences/fines to be paid within a timeline. Include further consequences if the fines are not paid within the timeline.

The city and the residents need to know the cause of problems that could be health risks to the community. When a problem arises, such as a gas leak, there needs to be a root cause anylsis of the problem. That however is only the first step. Once that is done it should be made public and the process of fixing the problem should also be made public. We need to know that problems are fixed before they get worse. We need to identify the problem, the fix and then that it has been accomplished. All of this should be public. We aslo need more independly run community air monitoring stations. We can't trust the refineries monitors and need ones that are run by the community. Only by having these in multiple locations can we determine if there are problems.