Nearly a year after the nearby refinery showered the city of Martinez with 20 tons of metal-contaminated dust, residents are still asking what went wrong, and how so many failures could occur in succession.
On Monday evening, Contra Costa County Health department officials tried to address some of their concerns when they offered the first opportunity for public comment on a toxicology report studying whether the spent catalyst release had made the city’s soil unsafe.
Community members, however, say they’re not satisfied.
Although the results of the report were first made public in June, the meeting felt like an effort to extend an olive branch to a community that believes the refinery and the health department need to re-earn their trust.
“We value your opinion and want you to feel empowered,” said Matt Hoffman, the deputy director of the Contra Costa County health department. “We really want to have the community involved in this process.”
The report stems from an incident in November when residents woke up to a layer of fine white silt on their cars, garbage cans, and window sills. The Martinez Refining Company, whose sprawling campus defines the east side of the city, said the release was “non-toxic,” “non-hazardous”, and “naturally occurring” spent catalyst dust used in the refining process. The company offered free car washes.
Only later did the County Health Department alert residents that the sand contained metals including aluminum, barium and chromium. Exposure to heavy metals has been linked with nausea, vomiting, respiratory issues, immune system dysfunction, cancer and even death. Then, months later, the county health department issued an advisory warning Martinez residents not to eat food grown from their gardens, because the dust may have infiltrated the soil.
In the months following, the spent catalyst release has prompted multiple investigations, a potential lawsuit from the District Attorney’s office, and the development of a new activist watchdog class in Martinez.
On Monday, county health staff and a group called TRC, which put together the toxicology report, presented a series of findings that showed, from their sampling, that there were not “elevated levels of harmful metals…that could be attributed to the release.”
But the distrust that has built up toward the County Health Department and the refinery company since the November incident was on full display at Monday’s meeting. Community members continued to press for answers on what the effects were to their health on the day of the release, when the spent catalyst dust was in the air and aerosolized at car washes. Some asked why the “acceptable background levels” were so high, and why the county chose to conduct their survey across such a broad geographic area.
Residents also repeatedly raised concerns that the entire study was flawed, in large part because it was conducted months after the spent catalyst release occurred, and following multiple atmospheric rivers last winter.
“We had a historic amount of rain,” said a member of Healthy Martinez, a local group formed in the aftermath of the release with the intent to hold the refinery accountable, who asked not to be identified publicly. “If this testing was done right away would we have gotten different results?”
Maureen Brennan, who identified herself as a biochemist by trade, said she was concerned the county health department was underplaying the dangers of the heavy metals present in the spent catalyst release.
“These heavy metals are particularly insidious, yet this report seems to minimize them,” Brennan said. “The damage won’t be seen tomorrow or next month – it might be 1 to 3 years before the damage becomes clear.”
County health officials responded to some, but not all of the resident’s concerns, and said that rain would not have affected the soil readings they collected.
“The intent was to test the soil for the worst case conditions,” said Jenny Phillips, a toxicologist employed by TRC.
The meeting on Monday showed that, beyond these immediate developments, the spent catalyst release has also engendered a persistent feeling of distrust.
“The community has been traumatized,” Brennan said during the meeting.
