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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 12042001 - D.2 (2) HAZARDOUS MATERIALS PROGRAMS CONTRA COSTA ......--...._.-._-.-...._.--.......... ----.._..._.-..---.....-- -------- HEALTH SERVICES REPORT TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS ON THE EQUILON MRC OCTOBER INCIDENT INVESTIGATIONS WITH ROOT CAUSE ANALYSES AND RESPONSES TO PUBIC QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS DECEMBER 4, 2001 REPORT TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS ON THE EQUILON MRC OCTOBER INCIDENT INVESTIGATIONS WITH ROOT CAUSE ANALYSES AND RESPONSES TO PUBIC QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS DECEMBER 4, 2001 INTRODUCTION Two incidents occurred in October at the Equilon Martinez Refining Company. The first incident occurred on October 14, 2001 starting at approximately 8:00 PM. The second incident occurred on October 17, 2001 starting at approximately 8:50 AM. Health Services made a report to the Board of Supervisors on these incidents at the November 6 meeting. The report included the notifications,the investigation of the incidents,and the status of the refinery. This report will discuss the status of the root cause analyses that are being done and the shutdown and the scheduled start up of the Catalytic Cracking Unit of the Equilon Martinez Refining Company. This report also includes the responses to the questions and comments that Health Services received from the public after the incidents occurred. The questions and comments came were received either from the public meeting or from correspondences that were received. SUMMARY ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS Equilon MRC is doing an incident investigation,including a root cause analysis. The team doing the investigation includes representation from the PACE union, operations and maintenance, and technical expertise from the Equilon Corporate office and another Equilon refinery. Equilon is investigating each of the two incidents with this team. Health Services is meeting with this team on a regular basis to review the method that Equilon is using to determine the root cause(s) of the incidents and the status of their investigation. Cal/OSHA and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District are participating in these meetings with Equilon. Equilon has determined the functional causes of the two incidents and is now looking at the Human Systems to determine the root causes of the incidents. The root causes are expected to be complete by the middle of December and within thirty days will issue their Root Cause Analyses reports to Contra Costa Health Services. Health Services will make this report public upon receipt. 2 STATUS OF THE EQUILON SHUTDOWN AND SUBSEQUENT STARTUP OF THE CATALYTIC CRACKING UNIT Equilon has been meeting with Health Services and the Cal/OSHA to brief them on the status of the shutdown and, when ready, the startup of the Catalytic Cracking Unit. Equilon has agreed to correct the functional causes of the incidents that are learned from the incident investigations prior to starting the unit back up. They have also committed keeping the different agencies involved in their status and the decision to start back up. RESPONSE TO PUBLIC COMMENTS Health Services with assistance from the Equilon Martinez Refining Company have answered the questions or comments that were raised at the Public Meeting that was held in Martinez on October 24 and from other correspondences that have been received by Health Services. The questions and comments ranged from what was released; to how do new people moving into the area learn of the Community Warning System; to questions about the Community Alert Network. Health Service response letters are included with this report. ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS Facilities that are subject to the California Accidental Release Prevention Program are required to perform an incident investigation to determine the causes of the incident. The Industrial Safety Ordinance requires the facilities that are subject to these requirements to perform a root cause' analysis for Major Chemical Accident or Releasee (MCAR). and for incidents that could have reasonably caused a MCAR. Equilon had assembled a team to do an Incident Investigation including a root cause analysis after the October 14 incident. Equilon decided to use the same team in doing the root cause analysis for the October 17 incident. The Equilon investigating team consists of representatives from operations and maintenance, PACE Health & Safety representative, reliability representative from another Equilon Refinery, and an Equilon corporate representative. The ' "Root Cause' means prime reasons, such as failures of some management systems, that allow faulty design, inadequate training, or improper changes, which lead to an unsafe act or condition,and result in an incident. If root causes were removed,the particular incident would not have occurred. (County Ordinance Chapter 450-8,§450-8.014(1)) 2 "Major Chemical Accident or Release'means an incident that meets the definition of a Level 3 or Level 2 Incident in the Community Warning System incident level classification system defined in the September 27, 1997 Contra Costa County guideline for the Community Warning System as determined by the Department; or results in the release including, but not limited to, air, water, or soil of a Regulated Substance and meets one or more of the following criteria: (1) results in one or more fatalities; (2) results in greater than 24 hours of hospital treatment of three or more persons; (3) causes on and/or off-site property damage (including clean-up and restoration activities) initially estimated at $500,000 or more. On-site estimates shall be performed by the Stationary Source. Off-site estimates shall be performed by appropriate agencies and compiled by the Department.; (4) results in a flammable vapor cloud of more than 5000 pounds. (County Ordinance Chapter 450-8,§450-8.014(h)) 3 different responsibilities of the incident investigation team may include performing eyewitness interviews, capturing and retaining process data and operator logs, as well as performing calculations in order to find the root cause(s) of a Major Chemical Accident or Release. Equilon considers human systems as casual factors in the investigation of MCAR's and those incidents that could have reasonably have resulted in a MCAR. A Human System is defined as the systems (i.e., written or unwritten policies, procedures and practices) in effect to minimize existence/persistence of latent conditions. Casual Factors are defined as the events and conditions that are necessary to produce or contribute to an incident,including: direct cause, contributing cause, and root cause. Equilon uses a Fault Tree Analysis method to. conduct root. cause analyses. This method includes special features that 'test for cause' and examine data quality. Human systems as casual factors are considered with the use of a Latent Conditions checklist that was developed by an Incident Investigation Human Factors sub-team for use on both MCAR's and those incidents that could have reasonably resulted in a MCAR. Health Services, along with representatives form Cal/OSHA and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, is meeting with Equilon on the progress of their investigations. These meetings include the status of the investigating team's progress, the method they are using for the investigation,and the ability for each of the agencies to ask questions. The functional causes of the incidents have been determined. Equilon's investigating team is looking at the Human Systems to determine the underlying or root causes of the incidents. The determination of the root causes should be complete by the middle of December with the Root Cause Analysis Reports being submitted to Health Services within thirty days after the investigation is complete. STATUS OF THE SHUTDOWN AND SUBSEQUENT START UP OF THE CATALYTIC CRACKER UNIT AT THE EQUILON MARTINEZ REFINING COMPANY Health Services and Cal/OSHA has been meeting with Equilon two to three times a week to receive updates on the status of the shut down, the actions that are being taken that come from the incident investigation recommendations,and the startup of the Catalytic Cracking Unit. Maintenance is not expected to be completed before December 7 with the unit starting up in the middle of December. Equilon is revising their operating procedures with assistance from an expert on Catalytic Cracking Unit that formerly worked for Kellogg and assistance from Chevron Research. The operators are and will be trained on these new revised procedures. The review of the operating procedures will assist in addressing some of the human factors issues that could rise in operating the Catalytic Cracking Unit. HEALTH SERVICES RESONSES TO PUBLIC COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS Approximately eighty people attended a public meeting to discuss the October incidents. The meeting was held on October 24 at the Board of Supervisor's Chambers. The Martinez City Counsel and Contra Costa County's Board of Supervisor's .Bay Area Air Quality Management District's representatives presided over the meeting with Supervisor Uilkeriia chairing the meeting. The meeting began with presentation by Dr.Wendel Brunner on the possible health effects of the release, Lewis Pascalli on the response to the incidents,and Chuck Flagg, from Equilon,on what happen and what the refinery is doing in response to the incidents. Supervisor Uilkema then opened up the 4 meeting for comments and questions from the public. The questions that were raised by the public were written down so a response to their questions and comments could be completed. When the public was complete with their questions and comments, the Martinez City Council and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District's representatives addressed the public. Supervisor Uilkema also stated that any written correspondence received would receive a response. Since the incidents Health Services is in receipt of correspondence that came directly to Health Services or was received through Supervisor Uilkema's office or was copied on correspondence that was sent to Equilon. Concerns and questions were raised on the Community Warning System, Equilon's process to ensure that the refinery is ready to start back up, and health concerns. Attachment one is a listing of the questions and comments that were received and Health Services responses. Health Services asked for Equilon's assistance in responding to some of the questions and comments. Attachment two includes copies of the letters that were sent to the people who received comments from. 5 Questions and Comments Received From the Public With Responses From Contra Costa Health Services • Can new residents be told of warning system? Contra Costa Health Services will work with Contra Costa County CAER Group Inc. to find ways to educate new residents. This will include working with the different Community Development Departments and Realtor Agencies. • Can there be a phone number to call to get info during an incident? A 2-1-1 service will be started in Contra Costa County in the spring of 2002. The 2- 1-1 is setup to be an information services that will allow people to get information on situations that are occurring within the County. As an alternative to this Contra Costa County Office of Emergency Services and Contra Costa Health Services are looking at establishing an 800 number for people to call to get information. Neither option is available at this time. • The wind directions that were given were confusing. The different emergency response agencies have worked on drills where the public has participated to get input on how to best communicate information during an incident. This includes how we best can communicate the wind direction. Contra Costa Health Services would like to have any suggestions from you on how we can report the wind direction that makes it understandable to you. Please let us know what suggestions that you may have. • I believe that Mr. Pascalli has some explaining to do as to why the Community Alert Network (the automated telephone dialing system) was not activated. The Community Alert Network was not activated on October 14, because by the time that Contra Costa Health Services was aware there was an incident and that the Community Alert Network was not already activated the release was stopped. The Community Alert Network is used to tell people downwind of a release to shelter in place and if the release is already over, it is not necessary for people to shelter in place. The County is investigating as to why there was a delay in the notification by Equilon and the process that the Community Alert Network should be activated. We will provide you with this analysis when it is complete. • A second public meeting should be held to answer many of the public questions from the community. A second public meeting.has been tentatively scheduled for 7:00 PM on January 10, 2002, after the County has received the Root Cause Analyses of the two incidents. You will be notified personally of the final schedule and location of the meeting. • Are there other siren sounds for other types of emergencies? The Community Warning System is designed to signal when there is a chemical release, because of this only one siren sound exists as. part of the- Community Warning System. When a person hears a Community Warning System siren they should go inside and turn on their radio or television for more i i 11/29/01 _2 November 29,2001 i information. The County has worked closely with KCBS in the past to broadcast emergency information. I Contra Costa Health Services is also working with the communities that have local emergency radios to get information out during an incident. j 0 Could the message on 530 AM, the local emergency station be improved? The County's contractor on the Community Warning System is working with the City of Richmond to put their local radio station in a automatic loop. When this is complete and has been tested; Contra Costa Health Services plans to work with the City of Martinez ito include their radio station in the Community Warning System. i a How long can you shelter in place effectively during an accident? It depends on the chemicals being released, the concentrations of the chemicals,the location of the building, and how airtight the building is. Contra Costa Health Services takes all these factors in determining if a shelter in place should remain in effect or an evacuation should be called. Initially when a release occurs, it is safer to shelter in place If it is determined that an evacuation should be necessary, Contra ACosta;Health Services, working with Contra Costa County's Office of Emergency Services and the different law enforcement agencies, will determine where people should evacuate to, the evacuation routes to be taken,and when to do this evacuation. • Could a terrorist cause a worse case incident and would the public be affected? Based on the recent events in New York, the answer to both questions is yes. All of the facilities in the County have increased their security. The different law enforcement agencies are also determining where the greatest threats may be located. Contra Costa Health Services is meeting with the different facilities that have the chemicals that could have the greatest impact on the surrounding community, if released, to determine what security measures the facilities have in place. ■ Through the California Accidental Release Prevention Program the refineries are required to look at the "worst case" scenarios that could occur. The "worst case" scenarios are included in the Risk Management Plans that the refineries submit to Contra Costa Health Services. If you wish to see a Risk Management Plan, please make an appointment with Contra Costa Health Services Hazardous Materials Programs by calling(925) 646-228 ■ Can he get his house cleaned? Yes. Equilon has established a local claims company to handle issues regarding personal property claims. • Can fenceline monitoring for releases be installed around refinery? The Equilon Martinez facility has five "fenceline monitors". Four are point-source monitors (monitors that take samples at one location) located at different boundary points along the facility perimeter. These four are hydrogen sulfide detectors. One also measures sulfur dioxide. During the October 11/29/01 —3— November 29,2001 events, two of the hydrogen sulfide detectors measured slightly increased levels of hydrogen sulfide. The fourth fenceline monitor is an open path hydrocarbon detector (open path monitors take the average concentration of the chemicals that are detected by the monitor over a path that can be of a distance of one kilometer) that is located adjacent to Pacheco Blvd. This monitor did not detect any elevated levels of hydrocarbon during the October events. There are no particulates fenceline monitors at the Martinez facility. Had there been a particulates fenceline monitor at the perimeter, it is not likely that it would have detected this release due to the airborne nature of the release (i.e. the.particulates plume would have drifted over the sensor path of the monitor rather than through it.). The Phillips (formerly Tosco) Rodeo refinery has open path monitors on the north and south sides of the refinery. These include Fouier Transform Infrared (F]PIR), Ultra-violet (UV), and Laser Diode open path monitors. Contra Costa Health Services working with the Shoreline Environmental Alliance, Communities for a Better Environment, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under grants from the EPA reviewed the open path monitors at the Phillips refinery. It was found that only the FTIR open path monitors were effective in detecting the chemicals at the concentrations that the monitors were designed to operate. The group looked for a correlation between when there were known releases and the readings from the FTIR monitors and was unable to come up with any correlations that could state that the FTIR monitors would assist in detecting when a release has occurred or is occurring. . • Can a requirement be put in place to disclose to a new-time homebuyer what the sirens mean and if they live close enough to hear them? Contra Costa Health Services will work with Contra Costa County CAER Group Inc. to find ways to educate new residents. This will include working with the different Community Development Departments and Realtor Agencies. • When is the refinery supposed to notify the County of a problem? The Contra Costa Board of Supervisors has established a Hazardous Materials Incident Notification Policy, which requires the facilities to notify Contra Costa Health Services immediately upon the knowledge of a release. A copy of this policy is attached. • Can an independent person watch the refinery for accidents? It is physically possible for an independent person to watch the refineries for accidents. The question is does it make sense to have someone at each of the refineries to watch for accidents if major chemical accidents or releases may not occur at a particular refinery for years. Contra Costa County has worked with the different refineries in defining when they are to notify Contra Costa Health Services, Sheriffs Dispatch, the appropriate Fire Departments, U.S. Coast Guard, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and the California -2— November 29,2001 Highway Patrol. This can be done quickly and efficiently using the Community Warning System. The California Accidental Release Prevention (CalARP) Program and the County's Industrial Safety Ordinance require facilities to have listed programs in place to prevent accidents. Some of these programs include performing process hazard analyses, training operators, having process safety information available, managing changes that could occur at the refinery, and incident investigations. Contra Costa Health Services audits and inspect the facilities that fall under these regulations to ensure that they are in compliance with these regulations. When a public participation process has been established in the City of Martinez, public meeting will occur to discuss the preliminary audit findings. • Has Equilon provided hospitals with support to respond to incidents? Equilon worked in conjunction with the County Sheriffs Dept to identify local hospitals and provided health information in the form of Material Safety Data Sheets for the material that was released. Equilon offered to provide further assistance to medical personnel, but received no inquiries. • Was Mark Hughes offered a planning commissioner post? According to the Contra Costa Times Mark Hughes was offered the position of a planning commissioner by the Martinez City Council and has accepted the appointment. If you have any questions about this appointment, contact the Martinez City Counsel. • Why was Contra Costa County Fire Protection District not included in the response? Contra Costa County Fire Protection District was notified of the incidents. Their assistance was not required for either event as no fire was present. • A second public meeting should be held to answer many of the public questions from the community. A second public meeting has been tentatively scheduled for January 10, 2002 at 7:00 PM after the County is in receipt of the Root Cause Analyses of the two incidents from Equilon. You will be notified personally when this meeting is scheduled. • Was the cause on the 14th the same as on the 17''? Incident investigations that include root causes analyses are being performed and should be complete shortly. Based on the information that has been learned from the investigations, to date, the causes of the two incidents appear to different. When the root cause analyses reports are completed Contra Costa Health Services will send you a copy of these reports. • Was the conclusion of the first root cause done at the time of the second incident? No. It is important to find the initiating causes before the facility starts back -3— November 29,2001 up and make corrections. The root causes are in the systems and can at times take years to have such things as changing the culture of a refinery. • Who has the authority to restart the unit, what criteria were used to restart the unit? Departmental management of each process unit has the authority to initiate the restart of a unit. Equilon generally does not consider a unit to be started up, restarted, or operational until feed. to the unit is introduced. Certainly, there are many "startup activities" that are undertaken before feed is introduced. The term "restart" was used by the member of the community asking the question. In the future, Equilon will make attempts to be clearer as to the operational status of the unit. Contra Costa Health Services has offered to hold meetings with industry and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to discuss the definitions of these phrases if such a meeting is requested. • Can new residents be informed of what the sirens mean? Contra Costa Health Services will work with Contra Costa County CAER Group Inc. to find ways to educate new residents. This will include working with the different Community Development Departments and Realtor Agencies. • Why wasn't there a media scroll on Sunday? The.week prior to the incidents the CWS added California's Department of Health Laboratories in Richmond to the System. Rerouting and reprogramming was required throughout the. system to accommodate this change and other recent changes. A programming error occurred where two number were transcribed at the Equilon computers. Because of this error the Level 3 message did not go to the media. (The media had been alerted earlier with a Level 2 message that did go out.) This error has been corrected and the remaining changes to the system were reviewed again to ensure that no other errors were trade. • Why wasn't CAN used on Sunday? Equilon delay in notification and by the time Contra Costa Health Services learned that CAN had not been activated the release was over. Contra Costa Health Services at that time decided that it would not help to make calls to shelter-in-place, since by the time the people would be receiving the calls the release would no longer be affecting them. • Can more community members be involved in education about the warning system? Yes. Contra Costa County CAER Group Inc. has agreed'to do the education for the Community Warning System. Please call Tony Semenza, CAER's Executive Director, at (925) 313-9296 to see how you can best participate with the education of the warning system. • Has Equilon's Risk Management Plan and Safety Plan under the Industrial Safety Ordinance been reviewed? Contra Costa Health Services has reviewed both -2— November 29,2001 plans. A public participation process is being developed through a contract with the PACE Union. When this process has been rolled out in Rodeo and Crockett, public participation will also occur in the Martinez area that will include public meeting on the plans. Contra Costa Health Services has also audited Equilon's accidental release prevention and safety programs to ensure that they are in compliance with the requirements of the regulations. Again, after a public participation process is in place a public comment period with a public meeting on the preliminary audit findings will occur. • Will the two releases cause there to be a review of Equilon's Risk Management Plan? The Industrial Safety Ordinance requires Equilon to perform an incident investigation that includes a root cause analysis with a root cause analysis report submitted to'Contra Costa Health Services. Contra Costa Health Services is also meeting with Equilon during the incident investigation to learn what is being found and the process that they are following to determine the root cause(s). If there is a need based on this root cause analysis, Contra Costa Health Services can perform another audit. • I understand that a problem with one computer caused the whole system to fail. The Community Warning System did not fail. The notification process failed on October 14. Equilon gave quick and proper notification on October 17 and the Community Warning System worked as designed, except for a connection at Contra Costa TV, which was subsequently performed manually. Sirens were sounded, messages were sent to the emergency response agencies, emergency response agencies were paged, the media was notified, including the activation of the Emergency Alert System, follow-up information was sent to the emergency response agencies and the media, and the appropriate siren was resounded six times during the incident. The Community. Alert Network phone calls did have a problem on October 17 with the initial calls being made to Richmond instead of Martinez. Contra Costa Health Services is again reviewing their contract with the Community Alert Network. • The sirens worked! Unfortunately, many of the people in our community did not understand what to do when they heard the sirens. After the October 17 incident a survey was performed to understand what people knew to do if they hear sirens and what actions they should take. The purpose of the survey is to understand where people need more information and how the Community Warning System may be improved. The survey found that 76% of the residential community knew what the sirens signaled and what actions to take. Contra Costa County CAER Group Inc. has agreed to continue educating the community on the appropriate actions to take when sirens are sounded. • What is the basis that there are no long-term health effects? The determination was based on the information on the material that was released and the air -3— November 29,2001 and wipe samples that were taken during and after the release that no long term effects would occur. • Equilon must not only conclude a root cause analysis of both incidents, but must provide the County and the public with information as to what changes have been made in the operations to assure that this type of accident will not happen again. The Root Cause Analysis report is to include the actions that Equilon have and are taking to address the'root causes of the incidents. • The County must review and address: o Failure of Equilon's Accidental Release Prevention Program. Equilon's Accidental Release Prevention Program includes performing an incident investigation,after such releases. The County's Industrial Safety Ordinance requires that as part of the incident investigation a root cause analysis be;performed. When these are complete and it is determined that a further review needs to be done Contra Costa Health Services will perform this review. o Failure of Shell's notification procedures. The District Attorney's Office is reviewing this failure to determine if any actions can be taken. o Failure of the CAN system. Dr. Walker reported to the Board of Supervisor's on November 6 that Contra Costa Health Services is requesting proposals from companies to handle the telephone call out system for the County to determine what other companies have to offer. This is expected to be complete in March 2002. o Failure of the media to fulfill its role in the Community Warning System. On October 17, there was good coverage from the media on the incident. On October 14, there was poor coverage. On October 14, the media received a health advisory (Level 2), but did not receive a shelter in place information (Level 3) due to a programming error that occurred the week prior to the release. This has been corrected and the remaining changes to the programming have been reviewed. o The cause of the first release and why a second release occurred. A Root Causes Analyses Reports will be submitted to the County on both incidents. Contra Costa Health Services is meeting with Equilon on an ongoing basis to ensure that a good process is in place. o The lack of an all-clear siren sound to notify the community. The decision to have the sirens to mean to shelter in place and not to have other meanings was made to reduce confusion on the sirens mean. The education of the community is difficult enough with new people moving into the community at all times and with people forgetting what the sirens mean. The committee that made this decision -4— November 29,2001 included eight members of the communities from Richmond to Antioch, four members of industry, and three members from emergency response agencies. • The use of CAN system to notify those who have been contacted by CAN of the incident of an all clear. This is done whenever CAN is used for hazardous materials spill, including on October 17. • John Muir Elementary School did not shelter in place until after I called the Martinez Police Department. Contra Costa Health Services met with the Martinez School District, the Martinez Police Department, Contra Costa County CAER Group Inc., and Equilon after the October 17 incident to discuss getting the correct information on the appropriate actions for the different schools to take during an incident. The Martinez Police Department has committed 'themselves to notifying the Martinez School District if another incident occurs to let them know what are the necessary actions to be taken. • I have read where many citizens and small business did not shelter in place because they were not aware that they were supposed to do that. Contra Costa Health Services had a survey performed after the October 17 incident to determine what people knew of the Community Warning System and what actions were taken. It was found that over 70% of the people knew what actions to take and in most cases took appropriate actions. Education on the system has been occurring since 1995 and is ongoing. The Contra Costa County CAER Group Inc., who gave the County the Community Warning System, has agreed to do this:'continuous education. One outreach effort that is being planned is to include an insert in the Contra Costa Times. • The attached article mentions: the possibility of getting rid of the emergency warning system if it's not going to work. There are no plans on getting rid of the Community Warning System. There are plans to review the County's contract with the Community Alert Network, who performs the automated telephone dialing to get information to the community downwind of the incident. Contra Costa Health Services is also looking at other systems to replace the Community Alert Network. The Community Alert Network has had. a contract with the County for the last ten years to perform this function. The Community Warning System includes the sirens, messages to the emergency response agencies, messages to the media, and activating the Emergency Alert System. The Community Warning System includes.links.to the Community Alert Network. This system worked as designed on October 17,except a connection to Contra Costa TV,which has been corrected. • Equilon needs to be held accountable for its actions and inactions. The refinery has shut down the Catalytic Cracking Unit, where the release occurred, until they are able to inspect and make the necessary repairs. The refinery is also -2— November 29,2001 performing incident investigations on the October 14 and 17 incidents. The incident investigations also include performing a root cause analysis, which gets to the underlying causes of the incident. I suggest that the schools near refineries be equipped with televisions as an assessment tool for when an emergency or crisis situation arises. Contra Costa County CAER Group Inc. has bought and will install NOAA weather radios in all of the schools, day care facilities, nursing homes, and hospitals in the northern part of Contra Costa County around the industrial facilities. This NOAA weather radio will alert the schools when an incident is occurring in their area and ask them to turn to their radios and televisions to get more information. ❖ What are the rare earth elements in the catalyst, and at what concentration? Wipe samples were taken after the October 14 incident. It was found that over 99% of the material in the wipe samples were soot. Less than 1% of the sample was from the catalyst. The rare earth elements in the catalyst are considered trade secret information. Contra Costa Health Services had the wipe samples analyzed for heavy metals. Ten wipe samples were taken with the following Heavy Metals above a detection level: ➢ NOTE: The metals that were found may have been in what was released by the Equilon refinery or may have been on surface where the wipe samples were taken prior to the release. ➢ Arsenic showing up in three samples at 3, 4, and 5 micrograms per square foot ➢ Barium showing up in all ten samples with concentrations between 1.3 to 200 micrograms per square foot ➢ Cadmium showed up in one sample at 1 microgram per square foot ➢ Cobalt showed up in four samples with concentrations between 0.6 to 3.8 micrograms per square foot ➢ Chromium showed up in seven samples with concentrations between 1.2 to 22 micrograms per square foot ➢ Molybdenum showed up in one sample at 5 micrograms per square foot ➢ Nickel showed up in all ten samples with concentrations between 0.6 to 29 micrograms per square foot ➢ Lead showed up in eight of the samples with concentrations between 1.1 to 66 micrograms per square foot ➢ Antimony showed up in one sample at 2 micrograms per square foot ➢ Vanadium showed up in five of the samples with concentrations between 0.8 to 19 micrograms per square foot ➢ Zinc showed up in all ten samples with concentrations .between 11 _to 510 micrograms per square foot •:• What was the pH of the wipe samples? The wipe sample that was taken by Contra .. . Costa Health Services, which was on the sun roof of a recently washed car, showed that the sample was 99% soot. Soot does not dissolve in water to level where a pH could be taken. —2— November 29,2001 ❖ What was the pm 10 value for the air samples? No particulate sampling was done during the incident ❖ Why was the plume black then a yellow/gray color? To the best of Equilon's knowledge, the plume color was black due to the presence of soot. The green/yellow colors were caused by the presence of hydrocarbon. • I believe that Mr. Pascalli has some explaining to do as to why the Community Alert Network (the automated telephone dialing system) was not activated. The Community Alert Network was not activated on October 14, because by the time that Contra Costa Health Services was aware there was an incident and that the Community Alert Network was not already activated the release was stopped. The Community Alert Network is used to tell people downwind of a release to shelter in place and if the release is already over, it is not necessary for people to shelter in place. The County is investigating as to why there was a delay in the notification by Equilon and the process that the Community Alert Network should be activated. We will provide you with this analysis when it is complete. • Can a policy be developed that would allow the County to require the refinery to curtail production as a penalty? The County's Health Officer has the authority to shutdown a refinery if it poses an imminent threat to the community. County policy cannot require the refinery to curtail production as a penalty. Refineries are prosecuted for improper notifications and releases under state law through the County's District Attorney's Office. • Couldn't we have a series of different sirens that could alert us as to the type and severity of problems? The Community Warning System sirens are only designed for hazardous material incidents and as such have only one tone. When someone hears a Community Warning System siren that person should shelter in place,which means go inside,close windows and doors,shut off your heater or air conditioner and turn on your radio or television to receive more information. Contra Costa Health Services works closely with KCBS 740AM to get information out during an incident. The decision to have the sirens to mean to shelter in place and not to have other meanings was made to as not to confuse people. The education of the community is difficult enough with new people moving into the community at all times and with people forgetting what the sirens mean. The committee that made this decision included eight members of the communities from Richmond to Antioch, four members of industry, and three members from emergency response agencies. • Couldn't the sirens go off before chemicals rain us on? The refineries have the ability to sound sirens as soon as they are aware that they are having an impact outside of the refinery. They are usually aware of an incident after the beginning of the release has occurred. The October 14 incident there was a delay by Equilon in the activation of the sirens. • I was also not alerted by phone. Maybe it would be better to have a little gizmo we could hang on the wall that would just keep announcing the alert for 10 minutes or so (in case phone lines and electricity go out). The Community Alert Network (the automated telephone call out system) was not activated, because by the time Contra Costa Health Services was aware that the Community Alert Network had not been activated the incident was.over. Contra Costa County is working with the Governor's Office of Emergency Services and the National Weather Services to send emergency warnings through the Community Warning System over NOAA weather radios. When a new transmitter is installed and tested, the City of Martinez will receive warnings on hazardous material incidents over NOAA weather radios. The transmitter is expected to be installed at anytime. NOAA weather radios can be purchased at Radio Shack and other locations. Also through the Governor's Office of Emergency Services Emergency Digital Information System people can receive warnings and updates on an incident that is occurring by email. To sign up for this service, go to Incident.com and fill out appropriately for the type of notifications you want to receive. • I.have also been told that we only have the one siren pattern and it only means stay in place and close windows and doors. If it is an emergency where I will need to evacuate, how will I learn about this? As stated above the Community Warning System is designed for hazardous material incidents and when a person hears a siren they should shelter in place. Sheltering in place includes turning on your radio or television to get additional information. If it is necessary to evacuate parts of a community, the locations where to evacuate to and the routes to be taken will need to be determined by the law enforcement agencies. This information will be broadcasted through radio and television media. Again, Contra Costa Health Services has an excellent relationship with KCBS 740 AM. • Is there any correct way to evacuate Martinez? There is no one correct way to evacuate from portions of Martinez. The decision on where to evacuate to and the appropriate evacuation routes will be determined by the type of incident,evacuation destinations,and the wind direction. • How hazardous is the dust? The wipe samples that were taken from the fallout shows that most of the dust composition is soot. Soot is basically partially burned carbon products. The soot.. can exasperate preexisting breathing conditions. If enough of the soot was breathed there could be irritation of the bronchial tubes. No expected long-term health effects are expected from this release. • The whole response and notification system should be treated with a root cause analysis,just as the incidents will. The separate elements of the system should be -2— November 29,2001 looked at separately, and as they interact with the rest of the system. Contra Costa Health Services and Contra Costa County OES is looking at Community Warning System to determine how the system worked on October 14 and October 17 and are making any necessary changes. The purpose is not only to look at what did not work, but where improvements can be made. The Board of Supervisors has requested that Contra Costa Health Services review other companies that have the ability to make automated telephone calls. This process is expected to be complete in March 2002. The thing that did not work on the Community Warning System on October 17 was the connection to CCTV. This has been corrected. Also CCTV was able to activate the system manually. The October 14 incident a programming error did not allow the system to get shelter in place information to the media. This has been corrected. Contra Costa Health Services is determining what were the root causes for these incidents and will make the necessary corrections. • I would also like to see a composite time line, made up of at least Equilon's actions, County agency responses, CAN system performance and a log of events -2— November 29,2001 as recorded by the CWS portion of the system. At the time of this report with all of the different logs are being compiled. When this is complete Contra Costa Health Services will get you the information. • CHP either had incomplete information on the first incident, or did not broadcast it properly. After the sirens sounded, they announced that this was a Level 2 incident. Equilon activated a Level 2 sequence right before the Level 3 was activated. This could be where the confusion lies. • Some attention should be given to putting the Martinez PD radio into the automatic loop, as well as the County TV channel. The County's contractor on the Community Warning System is working with the City of Richmond to put their local radio station in a automatic loop. When this is complete and has been tested, Contra Costa Health Services plans to work with the City of Martinez to include their radio station in the Community Warning System. • Barbara Woodburn's suggestion about putting notices in the Martinez water bills is a good one. Perhaps the notices could include a small sticker for folks to put on their TV sets, with appropriate information on the media to which to tune. Your suggestion will be passed onto the Contra Costa County CAER'Group, Inc., who has agreed to do the public education for the Community Warning System. CAER is planning to create an insert for the Contra Costa Times. • Was hydrogen sulfide released? Trace quantities of hydrogen sulfide may have been released. Hydrogen sulfide smells like rotten eggs and most people can smell hydrogen sulfide at very low concentrations well below the concentrations that are considered harmful. Contra Costa Health Services took to air samples on the night of October 14. One sample was taken at Howe Road and the other at 363 Marie Drive. For both samples, the concentrations of the hydrocarbons that were measured were in the parts per billion. If hydrogen sulfide was also released the concentration would be in the low parts per billion. Hydrogen sulfide that was measured at the refinery fenceline was below concentrations of any known health effects. • Thinks a health study of the community should be conducted — Your concerns have been given to Dr. Wendel Brunner, Contra Costa Health Services Public Health Director. W11IIAnt B. WAIAIV'. M. D. HAZARDOUS MATERIALS PROGRAMS HIAIIH SIRVIUs DIRI'70R Ll.wis G. PASCAI I I.IIt..EstL 4333 Pacheco Boulevard D�Rr(InR Martinez, California 94553-2295 CONTRA COSTA Ph (925) 646-2286 HEALTH SERVICES fax (925) 646-2073 November 29, 2001 Ms. Miriam Stange 1725 Landana Dr. Concord, CA Dear Ms. Stange: SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS FROM THE EQUILON MARTINEZ REFINING COMPANY'S OCTOBER INCIDENTS Thank you for coming to the public meeting to discuss the Equilon Martinez Refining Company's incidents that occurred on October 14 and 17 and your willingness to ask questions about the incidents. Contra Costa Health Services has attempted to answer each of the questions asked by the public. In some cases, Contra Costa Health Services referred some of the questions to Equilon, because the question was addressed to them. Enclosed you will find the responses to all of the questions that were asked at the public meeting and from letters that were received after the meeting. The answers to your questions are listed below. • Thinks a health study of the community should be conducted — Your concerns have been given to Dr. Wendel Brunner, Contra Costa Health Services Public Health Director. Please contact Randy Sawyer of my staff at (925) 646-2879 if you have any questions on . the above answers. Si , ` Gam- uo ' Lewis G. Pascalli,Jr. Director Hazardous Materials Programs Enclosure(1) cc: Contra Costa County's Board,of Supervisors Randy Sawyer 57 • Contra Costa Community Substance Abuse Services • Contra Costa Emergency Medical Services • Contra Costa Environmental Health Contra Costa Health Plan • Contra Costa Hazardous Materials Programs •Contra Costa Mental Health • Contra Costa Public Health • Contra Costa Regional Medical Center • Contra Costa Health Centers Wti i inM B. Wni►tr.. M. D. HAZARDOUS MATERIALS PROGRAMS Hl AIIH S,.Rv,CI s DIE,r TOR 4333 Pacheco Boulevard Loris G. PANCA1.1.r.)a..EticZ DlRrriON Martinez, California 94553-2295 CONTRA COSTA Ph (925) 646-2286 HEALTH SERVICES Fax (925) 646-2073 November 29, 2001 Ms. Delia Estrada 1330 Plaza Dr Martinez, CA 94553 Dear Ms.Estrada: SUBJECT:RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS FROM THE EQUILON MARTINEZ REFINING COMPANY'S OCTOBER INCIDENTS Thank you for coming to the public meeting to discuss the Equilon Martinez Refining Company's incidents that occurred on October 14 and 17 and your willingness to ask questions about the incidents. Contra Costa Health Services has attempted to answer each of the questions asked by the public. In some cases,Contra Costa Health Services referred some of the questions to Equilon,because the question was addressed to them. Enclosed you will find the responses to all of the questions that were asked at the public meeting and from letters that were received after the meeting. The answers to your questions are listed below. • Was hydrogen sulfide released? Trace quantities of hydrogen sulfide may have been released. Hydrogen sulfide smells like rotten eggs and most people can smell hydrogen sulfide at very low concentrations well below the concentrations that are considered harmful. Contra Costa Health Services took to air samples on the night of October 14. One sample was taken at Howe Road and the other at 363 Marie Drive. For both samples, the concentrations of the hydrocarbons that were measured were in the parts per billion. If hydrogen sulfide was also released the concentration would be in the low parts per billion. Hydrogen sulfide that was measured at the refinery fenceline was below concentrations of any known health effects. Please contact Randy.Sawyer of my staff at (925) 646-2879 if you have any questions on the above answers. Si ere y, lA r Lewis G.Pascalli,Jr. Director Hazardous Materials Programs Enclosure(1) cc: Contra Costa County's Board of Supervisors Randy Sawyer '! • Contra Costa Community Substance Abuse Services • Contra Costa Emergency Medical Services • Contra Costa Environmental Health • Contra Costa Health Plan • Contra Costa Hazardous Materials Programs •Contra Costa Mental Health • Contra Costa Public Health • Contra Costa Regional Medical Center • Contra Costa Health Centers WIII.IAM B. WAIKI It. M. D. HAZARDOUS MATERIALS PROGRAMS I-tl A11N 5(RVI(ES DIR(C ION 4333 Pacheco Boulevard Liwis G. PA%CAI.i.i.j ..E.%q tt DIRECTOR Martinez, California 94553-2295 CONTRA COSTA Ph (925) 646-2286 HEALTH SERVICES Fax (925) 646-2073 November 29, 2001 Ms. Elena Edwards Martinez, CA 94553 Dear Ms. Edwards: SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS FROM THE EQUII.ON MARTINEZ REFINING COMPANY'S OCTOBER INCIDENTS Thank you for your comments, questions and concerns on the incidents that occurred at the Equilon Martinez Refining Company on October 14 and 17. Contra Costa Health Services has attempted to answer each of the questions asked by the public. In some cases, Contra Costa Health Services referred some of the questions to Equilon, because the question was addressed to them. Enclosed you will find the responses to all of the questions that were asked at the public meeting and from letters that were received after the meeting. The answers to your questions are listed below. • Couldn't we have a series of different sirens that could alert us as to the type and severity of problems? The Community Warning System sirens are only designed for hazardous material incidents and as such have only one tone. When someone hears a Community Warning System siren that person should shelter in place,which means go inside,close windows and doors,shut off your heater or air conditioner and turn on your radio or television to receive more information. Contra Costa Health Services works closely with KCBS 740AM to get information out during an incident. The decision to have the sirens to mean to shelter in place and not to have other meanings was made to as not to confuse people. The education of the community is difficult enough with new people moving into the community at all times and with people forgetting what the sirens mean. The committee that made this decision included eight members of the communities from Richmond to Antioch, four members of industry, and three members from emergency response agencies. • Couldn't the sirens go off before chemicals rain us on? The refineries have the ability to sound sirens as soon as they are aware that they are having an impact outside of the refinery. They are usually aware of an incident after the beginning of the release has occurred. The October 14 incident there was a delay by Equilon in the activation of the sirens. • Contra Costa Community Substance Abuse Services • Contra Costa Emergency Medical Services • Contra Costa Environmental Health • Contra Costa Health Plan • • Contra Costa Hazardous Materials Programs •Contra Costa Mental Health • Cama Costa Pudic Health • Contra Costa Regional Medical Center • Contra Costa Health Center i -2— November 29,2001 • I was also not alerted by phone. Maybe it would be better to have a little gizmo we could hang on the wall that would just keep announcing the alert for 10 minutes or so (in case phone lines and electricity go out). The Community Alert Network (the automated telephone call out system) was not activated, because by the time Contra Costa Health Services was aware that the Community Alert Network had not been activated the incident was over. Contra Costa County is working with the Governor's Office of Emergency Services and the National Weather Services to send emergency warnings through the Community Warning System over NOAA weather radios. When a new transmitter is installed and tested, the City of Martinez will receive warnings on hazardous material incidents over NOAA weather radios. The transmitter is expected to be installed at anytime. NOAA weather radios can be purchased at Radio Shack and other locations. Also through the Governor's Office of Emergency Services Emergency Digital Information System people can receive warnings and updates on an incident that is occurring by email. To sign up for this service, go to Incident.com and fill out appropriately for the type of notifications you want to receive. • I have also been told that we only have the one siren pattern and it only means stay in place and close windows and doors. If it is an emergency where I will need to evacuate, how will I.learn about this? As stated above the Community Warning System is designed for hazardous material incidents and when a person hears a siren they should shelter in place. Sheltering in place includes turning on your radio or television to get additional information. If it is necessary to evacuate parts of a community, the locations where to evacuate to and the routes to be taken will need to be determined by the law enforcement agencies. This information will be broadcasted through radio and television media. Again, Contra Costa Health Services has an excellent relationship with KCBS 740 AM. • Is there any correct way to evacuate Martinez? There is no one correct way to evacuate from portions of Martinez. The decision on where to evacuate to and the appropriate evacuation routes will be determined by the type of incident,evacuation destinations,and the wind direction. • How hazardous is the dust? The wipe samples that were taken from the fallout shows that most of the dust composition is soot. Soot is basically partially burned carbon products. The soot can exasperate preexisting breathing conditions. If enough of the soot was breathed there could be irritation of the bronchial tubes. No expected long-term health effects are expected from this release. -3— November 29,2001 Please contact Randy Sawyer of my staff at (925) 646-2879 if you have any questions on the above answers. Si is G. Pascalli,Jr. ' Director Hazardous Materials Programs Enclosure (1) cc: Contra Costa County's Board of Supervisors Randy Sawyer i, Wit lIAM B. 1 Wnl11t:. M. D. SI HIAIIH 51RVIfIS DIHAZARDOUS MATERIALS PROGRAMS If. RI! (�H �;? Y 4333 Pacheco Boulevard Ltt��ts G. Pnsc;nti.I.Jtt..E�cL. � • _ D-RrcIoR ` .� Martinez, California 94553-2295 CONTRA COSTA Ph (925) 646-2286 HEALTH SERVICES Fax (925) 646-2073 November 29, 2001 Mr. Ed Vining 4819 John Muir Rd Martinez, CA 94553 Dear Mr. Vining: SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS FROM THE EQUILON MARTINEZ REFINING COMPANY'S OCTOBER INCIDENTS Thank you for your comments, questions and concerns on the incidents that occurred at the Equilon Martinez Refining Company on October 14 and 17. Contra Costa Health Services has attempted to answer each of the questions asked by the public. In some cases, Contra Costa Health Services referred some of the questions to Equilon, because the question was addressed to them. Enclosed you will find the responses to all of the questions that were asked at the public meeting and from letters.that were received after the meeting. The answers to your questions are listed below. • The whole response and notification system should be treated with a root cause analysis,just as the incidents will. The separate elements of the system should be looked at separately, and as they interact with the rest of the system. Contra Costa Health Services and Contra Costa County OES is looking at Community Warning System to determine how the system worked on October 14 and October 17 and are making any necessary changes. The purpose is not only to look at what did not work, but where improvements can be made. The Board of Supervisors has requested that Contra Costa Health Services review other companies that have the ability to make automated telephone calls. This process is expected to be complete in March 2002. The thing that did not work on the Community Warning System on October 17 was the connection to CCTV. This has been corrected. Also CCTV was able to activate the system manually. The October 14 incident a programming error did- not allow the system to get shelter in place information to the media. This has been corrected. Contra Costa Health Services is determining what were the root causes for these incidents and will make the necessary corrections. • I would also like to see a composite time line, made up of at least Equilon's actions, County agency responses, CAN system performance and a log of events '� • Contra Costa CommunitySubstance Abuse Services • Contra Costa Eme rgerrcy Medical Services • Contra Costa Environmental Health • Contra Costa Health Plan • Contra Costa Hazardous Materials Programs •Contra Costa Mental Health • Contra Costa Public Health • Contra Costa Regional Medical Center • Contra Costa Health Centers - -2— November 29,2001 as recorded by the CWS portion of the system. At the time of this report with all of the different logs are being compiled. When this is complete Contra Costa Health Services will get you the information. • CHP either had incomplete information on the first incident, or did not broadcast it properly. After the sirens sounded, they announced that this was a Level 2 incident. Equilon activated a Level 2 sequence right before the Level 3 was activated. This could be where the confusion lies. • Some attention should be given to putting the Martinez PD radio into the automatic loop, as well as the County TV channel. The County's contractor on the Community Warning System is working with the City of Richmond to put their local radio station in a automatic loop. When this is complete and has been tested, Contra Costa Health Services plans to work with the City of Martinez to include their radio station in the Community Warning System. • Barbara Woodburn's suggestion about putting notices in the Martinez water bills is a good one. Perhaps the notices could include a small sticker for folks to put on their TV sets, with appropriate information on the media to which to tune. Your suggestion will be passed onto the Contra Costa County CAER Group, Inc., who has agreed to do the public education for the Community Warning System. CAER is planning to create an insert for the Contra Costa Times. Please contact Randy Sawyer of my staff at (925) 646-2879 if you have any questions on the above answers. Si , c , is G. Pascalli,Jr. • Director Hazardous Materials Programs Enclosure (1) cc: Contra Costa County's Board of Supervisors Randy Sawyer WIII.IAM B. WAIKI.R. M. D. y} :1 HAZARDOUS MATERIALS PROGRAMS HIAI1H SIRVI(fs IRI-..TOR 4333 Pacheco Boulevard Lims G. PASCAI.I.I.1R.1stL D�RlCI()F Martinez, California 94553-2295 CONTRA COSTA Ph (925) 646-2286 HEALTH SERVICES Fax (925) 646-2073 November 29, 2001 Mr. Rich Lammer 3401 Ricks Martinez, CA 94553 Dear Mr. Lammer: SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS FROM THE EQUILON MARTINEZ REFINING COMPANY'S OCTOBER INCIDENTS Thank you for coming to the public meeting to discuss the Equilon Martinez Refining Company's incidents that occurred on October 14 and 17 and your willingness to ask questions about the incidents. Contra Costa Health Services has attempted to answer each of the questions asked by the public. In some cases, Contra Costa Health Services referred some of the questions to Equilon,because the question was addressed to them. Enclosed you will find the responses to all of the questions that were asked at the public meeting and from letters that were received after the meeting. The answers to your questions are listed below. • Can a policy be developed that would allow the County to require the refinery to curtail production as a penalty? The County's Health Officer has the authority to shutdown a refinery if it poses an imminent threat to the community. County policy cannot require the refinery to curtail production as a penalty. Refineries are prosecuted for improper notifications and releases under state law through the County's District Attorney's Office. Please contact Randy Sawyer of my staff at (925) 646-2879 if you have any questions on the above answers. Si , Lewis G. Pascalli,Jr. Director Hazardous Materials Programs Enclosure (1) cc: Contra Costa County's Board of Supervisors Randy Sawyer - Contra Costa Community Substance Abuse Services - Contra Costa Emergency Medical Services • Contra Costa Environmental Health • Contra Costa Heatth Plan • Contra Costa Hazardous Materials Programs -Contra Costa Mental Health - Contra Costa Public Health 9 Contra Costa Regional Medical Center - Contra Costa Health Centers - Wtt t 1W B. WAi r:t R. M. D. �pie HAZARDOUS MATERIALS PROGRAMS HI/.I1i1 Sir+vuts Dow-tok 4333 Pacheco Boulevard Uwis G. PANCAiMartinez, California Dmi r.ioR 94553-2295 CONTRA COSTA Ph (925) 646-2286 HEALTH SERVICES Fax (925) 646-2073 November 29,2001 Ms.Susan Masayko 735 E Street Martinez,CA 94553 Dear Ms.Masayko: SUBJECT:RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS FROM THE EQUILON MARTINEZ REFINING COMPANY'S OCTOBER INCIDENTS Thank you for coming to the public meeting to discuss the Equilon Martinez Refining Company's incidents that occurred on October 14 and 17 and your willingness to ask questions about the incidents. Contra Costa Health Services has attempted to answer each of the questions asked by the public. In some cases,Contra Costa Health Services referred some of the questions to Equilon, because the question was addressed to them. Enclosed you will find the responses to all of the questions that were asked at the public meeting and from letters that were received after the meeting. The answers to your questions are listed below. • 1 believe that Mr.Pascalli has some explaining to do as to why the Community Alert Network(the automated telephone dialing system)was not activated. The Community Alert Network was not activated on October 14,because by the time that Contra Costa Health Services was aware there was an Incident and that the Community Alert Network was not already activated the release was stopped. The Community Alert Network is used to tell people downwind of a release to shelter in place and if the release Is already over,It is not necessary for people to shelter In place. The County is investigating as to why there was a delay In the notification by Equilon and the process that the Community Alert Network should be activated. We will provide you with this analysis when it is complete. Please contact Randy Sawyer of my staff at (925) 646-2879 if you have any questions on the above answers. Sinc , 1 IA Lewt G.Pascalli,Jr. • Director Hazardous Materials Programs Enclosure(1) cc: Contra Costa County's Board of Supervisors Randy Sawyer '� • Contra Costa CommunitySubstance Abuse Services • Contra Costa Emergency gency Medical Services • Contra Costa Environmental Health • Contra Costa Health Plan • Contra Costa Hazardous Materials Programs •Contra Costa Mental Health • Contra Costa Public Health • Contra Costa Regional Medical Center • Contra Costa Health Centers WIIIIAM B. WAIKIR. M. D. HAZARDOUS MATERIALS PROGRAMS EIfAIIM SIFVI(.IS Dim(I()R 4333 Pacheco Boulevard Ltms G. PASCA1.1 i jit—Esq. Dlalcloe Martinez, California 94553-2295 CONTRA COSTA Ph (925) 646-2286 HEALTH SERVICES Fax (925) 646-2073 November 26, 2001 Ms. Sue Eckert 1305 Lewis Lane Pinole, CA 94564 Dear Ms. Eckert: SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS FROM THE EQUILON MARTINEZ REFINING COMPANY'S OCTOBER INCIDENTS Thank you for your comments, questions and concerns on the incidents that occurred at the Equilon Martinez Refining Company on October 14 and 17. Dr. William Walker asked if I would respond to your letter that was sent to him. Contra Costa Health Services has attempted to answer each of the questions asked by the public. In some cases, Contra Costa Health Services referred some of the questions to Equilon, because the question was addressed to them. Enclosed you will find the responses to all of the questions that were asked at the public meeting and from letters that were received after the meeting. The answers to your questions are listed below. • John Muir Elementary School did not.shelter in place until after I called the Martinez Police Department. Contra Costa Health Services met with the Martinez School District, the Martinez Police Department, Contra Costa County CAER Group Inc., and Equilon after the October 17 incident to discuss getting the correct information on the appropriate actions for the different schools to take during an incident. The Martinez Police Department has committed themselves to notifying the Martinez School District if another incident occurs to let them know what are the necessary actions to be taken. • I have read where many citizensand small business did not shelter in place because they were not aware that they were supposed to do that. Contra Costa Health Services had a survey performed after the October 17 incident to determine what people knew of the Community Warning System and what actions were taken. It was found that over 70% of the people knew what actions to take and in most cases took appropriate actions. Education on the system has been occurring since 1995 and is ongoing. The Contra Costa County CAER Group Inc., who gave the County the Community Warning • Contra Costa Community Substance Abuse Services • Contra Costa Emergency Medical Services • Contra Costa Environmental Health • Contra Costa Health Plan • Contra Costa Hazardous Materials Programs •Contra Costa Mental Health • Contra Costa Public Health • Contra Costa Regional Medical Center • Contra Costa Health Centers -2— November 29,2001 System, has agreed to do this continuous education. One outreach effort that is being planned is to include an insert in the Contra Costa Times. • The attached article mentions the possibility of getting rid of the emergency warning system if it's not going to work. There are no plans on getting rid of the Community Warning System. There are plans to review the County's contract with the Community Alert'Network, who performs the automated telephone dialing to get information to the community downwind of the incident. Contra Costa Health Services is also looking at other systems to replace the Community Alert Network. The Community Alert Network has had a contract with the County for the last ten years to perform this function. The Community Warning System includes the sirens, messages to the emergency response agencies, messages to the media, and activating the Emergency Alert System. The Community Warning System includes links to the Community Alert Network. This system worked as designed on October 17,except a connection to Contra Costa TV, which has been corrected. • Equilon needs to be held accountable for its actions and inactions. The refinery has shut down the Catalytic Cracking Unit, where the release occurred, until they are able to inspect and make the necessary repairs. The refinery is also performing incident investigations on the October 14 and 17 incidents. The incident investigations also include performing a root cause analysis, which gets to the underlying causes of the incident. • I suggest that the schools near refineries be equipped with televisions as an assessment tool for when anemergency or crisis situation arises. Contra Costa County CAER Group Inc. has bought and will install NOAA weather radios In all of the schools, day care facilities, nursing homes, and hospitals in the northern part of Contra Costa County around the industrial facilities. This NOAA weather radio will alert the schools when an incident is occurring in their area and ask them to turn to their radios and televisions to get more information. Please contact Randy Sawyer of my staff at (925)646-2879 if you have any questions on the above answers. Sinc , w PJ2-4 . Lewis G. Pascalli,Jr. Director Hazardous Materials Programs Enclosure (1) cc: Contra Costa County's Board of Supervisors William B. Walker, M.D. Will IAM B. WAIKI.R. M. D. (f HAZARDOUS MATERIALS PROGRAMS Hi Aiiti Sr RV1(.Is DIRE(TOR F �- 4333 Pacheco BoulevardLi.avu G. fASCA1.1.1.1ia. Esq. Martinez, California 94553-2295 CONTRA COSTA Ph (925) 646-2286 HEALTH SERVICES Fax (925) 646-2073 November 26, 2001 Mr. Ralph Sattler 1204 Ulfinina Way Martinez, CA 94553-1973 Dear Mr.: Sattler: SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS FROM THE EQUILON MARTINEZ REFINING COMPANY'S OCTOBER INCIDENTS Thank you for coming to the public meeting to discuss the Equilon Martinez Refining Company's incidents that occurred on October 14 and 17 and your willingness to ask questions about the incidents. Contra Costa Health Services has attempted to answer each of the questions asked by the public. In some cases, Contra Costa Health Services referred some of the questions to Equilon, because the question was addressed to them. Enclosed you will find the responses to all of the questions that were asked at the public meeting and from letters that were: received after the meeting. The answers to your questions are listed below. • Was the cause on the 14th the same as on the 17th? Incident investigations that include root causes analyses are being performed and should be complete shortly. Based on the information that has been learned from the investigations, to date, the causes of the two incidents appear to different. When the root cause analyses reports are completed Contra Costa Health Services will send you a copy of these reports. • Was the conclusion of the first root cause done at the time of the second incident? No. It is important to find the initiating causes before the facility starts back up and make corrections. The root causes are in the systems and can at times take years to have such things as changing the culture of a refinery. • Who has the authority to restart the unit, what criteria were used to restart the unit? Departmental management of each process unit has. the authority to initiate the restart of a unit. Equilon generally does not consider a unit to be started up, restarted, or operational until feed to the unit is introduced. Certainly, there are many "startup activities" that are undertaken before feed is introduced. The term "restart" was used by the member of the community asking the question. In the future,Equilon will make attempts to be clearer as to the operational status ofthe unit. Contra Costa Health Services has offered to hold meetings with industry and the Bay Area Air • Contra Costa Community Substance Abuse Services • Contra Costa Emergency Medical Services • Contra Costa Environmental Health • Contra Costa Health Plan • Contra Costa Hazardous MaterialsPrograms •Contra Costa Mental Health • Contra Costa Public Health • Contra Costa Regional Medical Center • Contra Costa Health Centers -2— November 29,2001 Quality Management District to discuss the definitions of these phrases if such a meeting is requested. • Can new residents be informed of what the sirens mean? Contra Costa Health Services will work with Contra Costa County CAER Group Inc. to find ways to educate new residents. This will include working with the different Community Development Departments and Realtor Agencies. • Why wasn't there a media scroll on Sunday? The week prior to the incidents the CWS added California's Department of Health Laboratories in Richmond to the System. : Rerouting and reprogramming was required throughout the system to accommodate this change and other recent changes. A programming error occurred where two number were transcribed at the Equilon computers. Because of this error the Level 3 message did not go to the media. (The media had been alerted earlier with a Level 2 message that did go out.) This error has been corrected and the remaining changes to the system were reviewed again;to ensure that no other errors were made. • Why wasn't CAN used on Sunday? Equilon delay in notification and by the time Contra Costa Health Services learned that CAN had not been activated the release was over. Contra Costa Health Services at that time decided that it would not help to make calls to shelter-in-place, since by the time the people would be receiving the calls the release would no longer be affecting them. • Can more community members be involved in education about the warning system? Yes. Contra Costa County CAER Group Inc. has agreed to do the education for the Community Warning System. Please call Tony Semenza, CAER's Executive Director, at (925) 313-9296 to see how you can best participate with the education of the warning system. • Has Equilon's Risk Management Plan and Safety Plan under the Industrial Safety Ordinance been reviewed? Contra Costa Health Services has reviewed both plans. A public participation process is being developed through a contract with the PACE Union. When this process has been rolled out in Rodeo and Crockett, public participation will also occur in the Martinez area that will include public meeting on the plans. Contra Costa Health Services has also audited Equilon's accidental release prevention and safety programs to ensure that they are in compliance with the requirements of the regulations. Again, after a public participation process is in place a public comment period with a public meeting on the preliminary audit findings will occur. Will the two releases cause there to be a review of Equilon's Risk Management Plan? The Industrial Safety Ordinance requires Equilon to perform an incident investigation that includes a root cause analysis with a root cause analysis report submitted to Contra Costa Health Services. Contra Costa -3— November 29,2001 Health Services is also meeting with Equilon during the incident investigation to learn what is being found and the process that they are following to determine the root cause(s). If there is a need based on this root cause analysis, Contra Costa Health Services can perform another audit. • I understand that a problem with one computer caused the whole system to fail. The Community Warning System did not fail. The notification process failed on October 14. Equilon gave quick and proper notification on October 17 and the Community Warning System worked as designed, except for a connection at Contra Costa TV, which was subsequently performed manually. Sirens were sounded, messages were sent to the emergency response agencies, emergency response agencies were paged, the media was notified, including the activation of the Emergency Alert System, follow-up information was sent to the emergency response agencies and the media, and the appropriate siren was resounded six times during the incident. The Community Alert Network phone calls did have a problem on October 17 with the initial calls being made to Richmond instead of Martinez. Contra Costa Health Services is again reviewing their contract with the Community Alert Network. • The sirens worked! Unfortunately, many of the people in our community did not understand what to do when they heard the sirens. After the October 17 incident a survey was performed to understand what people knew to do if they hear sirens and what actions they should take. The purpose of the survey is to understand where people need more information and how the Community Warning System may be improved. The survey found that 76% of the residential community knew what the sirens signaled and what actions to take. Contra Costa County CAER Group Inc. has agreed to continue educating the community on the appropriate actions to take when sirens are sounded. • What is the basis that there are no long-term health effects? The determination was based on the information on the material that was released and the air and wipe samples that were taken during and after the release that no long term effects would occur. • Equilon must not only conclude a root cause analysis of both incidents, but must provide the County and the public with information as to what changes have been made in the operations to assure that this type of accident will not happen again. The Root Cause Analysis report is to include the actions that Equilon have and are taking to address the root causes of the incidents. • The County must review and address: o Failure of Equilon's Accidental Release Prevention Program. Equilon's Accidental Release Prevention Program includes performing an -4— November 29,2001 incident investigation after such releases. The County's Industrial Safety Ordinance requires that as part of the incident investigation a root cause analysis be performed. When these are complete and it is determined that a further review needs to be done Contra Costa Health Services will perform this review. o Failure of Shell's notification procedures. The.District Attorney's Office is reviewing this failure to determine if any actions can be taken. o Failure of the CAN system. Dr. Walker reported to the Board of Supervisor's on November 6 that Contra Costa Health Services is requesting proposals from companies to handle the telephone call out system for the County to determine what other companies have to offer. This is expected to be complete in March 2002. o Failure of the media to fulfill its role in the Community Warning System. On October 17, there was good coverage from the media on the incident. On October 14, there was poor coverage. On October 14, the media received a health advisory (Level 2), but did not receive a shelter in place information (Level 3) due to a programming error that occurred the week prior to the release. This has been corrected and the remaining changes to the programming have been reviewed. o The cause of the first release and why a second release occurred. A Root Causes Analyses Reports will be submitted to the County on both incidents. Contra Costa Health Services is meeting with Equilon on an ongoing basis to ensure that a good process is in place. o The lack of an all-clear siren sound to notify the community. The decision to have the sirens to mean to shelter in place and not to have other meanings was made to reduce confusion on the sirens mean. The education of the community is difficult enough with new people moving into the community at all times and with people forgetting what the sirens mean. The committee that made this decision included eight members of the communities from Richmond to Antioch, four members of industry, and three members from emergency response agencies. o The use of CAN system to notify those who have been contacted by CAN of the incident of an all clear. This is done whenever CAN is used for hazardous materials spill, including on October 17. Please contact Randy Sawyer of my staff at (925) 646-2879 if you have any questions on the above answers. -5— November 29,2001 S, is G. Pascalli, Director Hazardous Materials Programs Enclosure (1) cc: Contra Costa County's Board of Supervisors Randy Sawyer Wtt t inns B. WAI Ki it. M. D. HAZARDOUS MATERIALS PROGRAMS HIAIIN SINyicis DiRf(.tuk . 4333 Pacheco Boulevard Llwu G. PnSt:nl.li.jIt..ENc2. Martinez, California DiNrr.igN 94553-2295 CONTRA COSTA Ph (925) 646-2286 HEALTH SERVICES Fax (92S) 646-2073 November 29, 2001 Mr. Howard Adams 720 Kendall Avenue Crockett, CA 94525 Dear Mr. Adams: SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS FROM THE EQUILON MARTINEZ REFINING COMPANY'S OCTOBER INCIDENTS Thank you for coming to the public meeting to discuss the Equilon Martinez Refining Company's incidents that occurred .on October 14 and 17 and your willingness to ask questions about the incidents. Contra Costa Health Services has attempted to answer each of the questions asked by the public. In some cases, Contra Costa Health Services referred some of the questions to Equilon, because the question was addressed to them. Enclosed you will find the responses to all of the questions that were asked at the public meeting and from letters that were received after the meeting. The answers to your questions are listed below. ❖ What are the rare earth elements in the catalyst, and at what concentration? Wipe samples were taken after the October 14 incident. It was found that over 99% of the material in the wipe samples were soot. Less than 1% of the sample was from the catalyst. The rare earth elements in the catalyst are considered trade secret information. Contra Costa Health Services had the wipe samples analyzed for heavy metals. Ten wipe samples were taken with the following Heavy Metals above a detection level: ➢ NOTE: The metals that were found may have been in what was released by the Equilon refinery or may have been on surface where the wipe samples were taken prior to the release. ➢ Arsenic showing up in three samples at 3, 4, and 5 micrograms per square foot ➢ Barium showing up in all ten samples with concentrations between 1.3 to 200 micrograms per square foot ➢ Cadmium showed up in one sample at 1 microgram per square foot ➢ Cobalt showed up in four samples with concentrations between 0.6 to 3.8 micrograms per square foot ➢ Chromium showed up in seven samples with concentrations between 1.2 to 22 micrograms per square foot ➢ Molybdenum showed up in one sample at 5 micrograms per square foot • Contra Costa Community Substance Abuse Services • Contra Costa Emergency Medical Services • Contra Costa Environmental Health • Contra Costa Health Plan • Contra Costa Hazardous Materials Programs •Contra Costa Mental Health • Contra Costa Public Health • Contra Costa Regional Medical Center • Contra Costa Health Centers -2— November 29,2001 ➢ Nickel showed up in all ten samples with concentrations between 0.6 to 29 micrograms per square foot ➢ Lead showed up in eight of the samples with concentrations between 1.1 to 66 micrograms per square foot ➢ Antimony showed up in one sample at 2 micrograms per square foot Vanadium showed up in five of the samples with concentrations between 0.8 to 19 micrograms per square foot ➢ Zinc showed up in all ten samples with concentrations between 11 to 510 micrograms per square foot ❖ What was the pH of the wipe samples? The wipe sample that was taken by Contra Costa Health Services, which was on the sun roof of a recently washed car, showed that the sample was 99% soot. Soot does not dissolve in water to level where a pH could be taken. ❖ What was the pm10 value for the air samples? No particulate sampling was done during the incident ❖ Why was the plume black then a yellow/gray color? To the best of Equilon's knowledge, the plume color was black due to the presence of soot. The green/yellow colors were caused bythe presence of hydrocarbon. Please contact Randy Sawyer of my staff at (925) 646-2879 if you have any questions on the above answers. Si , OAA- Lewis G. Pascalli,Jr. Director Hazardous Materials Programs Enclosure(1) cc: Contra Costa County's Board of Supervisors Randy Sawyer Will lAm B. WAI.KIIt. M. D. HAZARDOUS MATERIALS PROGRAMS HI AI I II SI RVIC.I s DIRT(IUR , Imo ' 4333 Pacheco Boulevard hwis G. PASCAi.ti.�rt..EstZ, Martinez, California D,R(rloR 94553-2295 CONTRA COSTA Ph (925) 646-2286 HEALTH SERVICES Fax (925) 646-2073 November 29, 2001 Mr. Jim Neu 3334 Ricks Avenue Martinez, CA 94553 Dear Mr.Neu: SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS FROM THE EQUILON MARTINEZ REFINING COMPANY'S OCTOBER INCIDENTS Thank you for coming to the public meeting to discuss the Equilon Martinez Refining Company's incidents that occurred on October 14 and 17 and your willingness to ask questions about the incidents. Contra Costa Health Services has attempted to answer each of the questions asked by the public. In some cases, Contra Costa Health Services referred some of the questions to Equilon, because the question was addressed to them. Enclosed you will find the responses to all of the questions that were asked at the public meeting and from letters that were received after the meeting. The answers to your questions are listed below. • Has Equilon provided hospitals with support to respond to incidents? Equilon worked in conjunction with the County Sheriffs Dept. to identify local hospitals and provided health information in the form of Material Safety Data Sheets for the material that was released. Equilon offered to provide further assistance to medical personnel,but received no inquiries. • Was Mark Hughes offered a planning commissioner post? According to the Contra Costa Times Mark Hughes was offered the position of a planning commissioner by the Martinez City Council and has accepted the appointment. If you have any questions about this appointment, contact the Martinez City Counsel. • Why was Contra Costa County Fire Protection District not included in the response? Contra Costa County Fire Protection District was notified of the incidents. Their assistance was not required for either event as no fire was present. • A second public meeting should be held to answer many of the public questions from the community. . A second public meeting has been tentatively scheduled for January 10, 2002 at 7:00 PM after the County is in receipt of the Root • Contra Costa Community Substance Abuse Services • Contra Costa Emergency Medical Services • Contra Costa Environmental Health • Contra Costa Health Plan • Contra Costa Hazardous Materials Programs •Contra Costa Mental Health • Contra Costa Public Health • Contra Costa Regional Medical Center • Contra Costa Health Centers i -2— November 29,2001 Cause Analyses of the two incidents from Equilon. You will be notified personally when this meeting is scheduled. Please contact Randy Sawyer of my staff at (925) 646-2879 if you have any questions on the above answers. Si re y, -P.."E Lewis G. Pascalli, Jr. • Director Hazardous Materials Programs Enclosure (1) cc: Contra Costa County's Board of Supervisors Randy Sawyer Will IAM B. WAII:I.R. M. D. HAZARDOUS MATERIALS PROGRAMS HIAIIH SI.Hvic(s DIRI(.1()R >, • 4333 Pacheco Boulevard Dl f n I\ G. SCnLI I.II:..EuZ Martinez, California DIHr(r(iQR 94553-2295 CONTRA COSTA Ph (925) 646-2286 HEALTH SERVICES Fax (925) 646-2073 November 26, 2001 Mr. Julian Frazer 2415 Alhambra Avenue Crockett, CA 94553 Dear Mr. Frazer: SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS FROM THE EQUILON MARTINEZ REFINING COMPANY'S OCTOBER INCIDENTS Thank you for coming to the public meeting to discuss the Equilon Martinez Refining Company's incidents that occurred on October 14 and 17 and your willingness to ask questions about the incidents. Contra Costa Health Services has attempted to answer each of the questions asked by the public. In some cases, Contra Costa Health Services referred some of the questions to Equilon,because the question was addressed to them. Enclosed you will find the responses to all of the questions that were asked at the public meeting and from letters that were received after the meeting. The answers to your questions are listed below. • Can fenceline monitoring for releases be installed around refinery? The Equilon Martinez facility has five "fenceline monitors". Four are point-source monitors (monitors that take samples at one location) located at different boundary points along the facility perimeter. These four are hydrogen sulfide detectors. One also measures sulfur dioidde. During the October events, two of the hydrogen sulfide detectors measured slightly increased levels of hydrogen sulfide. The fourth fenceline monitor is an open path hydrocarbon detector (open_path monitors take the average concentration of the chemicals that are detected by the monitor over a path that can be of a distance of one kilometer) that is located adjacent to Pacheco Blvd. This monitor did not detect any elevated levels of hydrocarbon during the October events. There are no particulates fenceline monitors at the Martinez facility. Had there been a particulates fenceline monitor at the perimeter, it is not likely that it would have detected this release due to the airborne nature of the release (i.e. the particulates plume would have drifted over the sensor path of the monitor rather than through it.). The Phillips (formerly Tosco) Rodeo refinery has open path monitors on the north and south sides of the refinery. ' These include Fouier Transform Infrared (FTIR), Ultra-violet (LTV), and Laser. Diode open path monitors. . • Contra Costa Community Substance Abuse Services • Contra Costa Emergency Medical Services • Contra Costa Environmental Health • Contra Costa Health Plan • Contra Costa Hazardous Materials Programs •Contra Costa Mental Health • Contra Costa Public Health • Contra Costa Regional Medical Center • Contra Costa Health Centers 11/29/01 —2— November 29,2001 Contra Costa Health Services working with the Shoreline Environmental Alliance, Communities for a Better Environment, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under grants from the EPA reviewed the open path monitors at the Phillips refinery. It was found that only the FTIR open path monitors were effective in detecting the chemicals at the concentrations that the monitors were designed to operate. The group looked for a correlation between when there were known releases and the readings from the FTIR monitors and was unable to come up with any correlations that could state that the FTIR monitors would assist in detecting when a release has occurred or is occurring. • Can a requirement be put in(place to disclose to a new-time homebuyer what the sirens mean and if they live close enough to hear them? Contra Costa Health Services will work with Contra Costa County CAER Group Inc. to find ways to educate new residents.; This will include working with the different Community Development Departments and Realtor Agencies. • When is the refinery supposed to notify the County of a problem? The Contra Costa Board of Supervisors has established a Hazardous Materials Incident Notification Policy, which requires the facilities to notify Contra Costa Health Services immediately upon the knowledge of a release. A copy of this policy is attached. • Can an independent person watch the refinery for accidents? It is physically possible for an independent person to watch the refineries for accidents. The question is does it make sense to have someone at each of the refineries to watch for accidents if major chemical accidents or releases may not occur at a particular refinery for years. Contra Costa County has worked with the different refineries in defining when they are to notify Contra Costa Health Services, Sheriff's Dispatch, the appropriate Fire Departments, U.S. Coast Guard, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and the California Highway Patrol. This can be done quickly and efficiently using the Community Warning System. The California Accidental Release Prevention (CalARP) Program and the County's Industrial Safety Ordinance require facilities to have listed programs in place to prevent accidents. Some of these programs include performing process hazard analyses, training operators, having process safety information available, managing changes that could occur at the refinery, and incident investigations. Contra Costa Health Services audits and inspect the facilities that fall under these regulations to ensure that they are in compliance with these regulations. When a public participation process has been established in the City of Martinez, public meeting will occur to discuss the preliminary audit findings. 11/29/01 —3— November 29,2001 Please contact Randy Sawyer of my staff at (925) 646-2879 if you have any questions on the above answers. Si re , fOVLA Lewis G. Pascalli,Jr. • Director Hazardous Materials Programs Enclosure (2) cc: Contra Costa County's Board of Supervisors Randy Sawyer W11 t 1AM B. WAi KI R. M. D. � „ �M HAZARDOUS MATERIALS PROGRAMS HIAITH SLRvic[s DIRK10k Llwiti G. Pnticni.i.l.)u..EscZ. 4333 Pacheco Boulevard Dlkrc TOR Martinez, California 94553-2295 CONTRA COSTA Ph (925) 646-2286 HEALTH SERVICES Fax (925) 646-2073 November 29, 2001 Glen Patania 1350 Vealo Martinez, CA 94553 Dear Mr. Patania: SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS FROM THE EQUILON MARTINEZ REFINING COMPANY'S OCTOBER INCIDENTS Thank you for coming to the public meeting to discuss the Equilon Martinez Refining Company's incidents that occurred on October 14 and 17 and your willingness to ask questions about the incidents. Contra Costa Health Services has attempted to answer each of the questions asked by the public. In some cases, Contra Costa Health Services referred some of the questions to Equilon,because the question was addressed to them. Enclosed you will find the responses to all of the questions that were asked at the public meeting and from letters that were received after the meeting. The answers to your questions are listed below. • Can he get his house cleaned? Yes. Equilon has established a local claims company to handle issues regarding personal property claims. Please contact Randy Sawyer of my staff at (925) 646-2879 if you have any questions on the above answers. Si cerely, w Lewis G. Pascalli,Jr. Director Hazardous Materials Programs . Enclosure (1) cc: Contra Costa County's Board of Supervisors Randy Sawyer • Contra Costa Community Substance Abuse Services • Contra Costa Emergency Medical Services • Contra Costa Environmental Health Contra Costa Health Plan • Contra Costa Hazardous Materials Programs •Contra Costa Mental Health • Contra Costa Public Health • Contra Costa Regional Medical Center • Contra Costa Health Centers W11 IAM B. WAI KI R. M. D. HAZARDOUS MATERIALS PROGRAMS HIA11H Slllviws DINT!1oN ' 4333 Pacheco Boulevard Lims G. PASCAII.I.IR.A.S(I. — D�rcrcloR / Martinez, California 94553-2295 CONTRA COSTA Ph (925) 646-2286 HEALTH SERVICES Fax (925) 646-2073 November 26, 2001 Mr. Cliff Souza 1044 Arlington Way Martinez, CA 94553 Dear Mr. Souza: SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS FROM THE EQUILON MARTINEZ REFINING COMPANY'S OCTOBER INCIDENTS Thank you for your comments, questions and concerns on the incidents that occurred at the Equilon Martinez Refining Company on October 14 and 17. Supervisor Gayle Uilkema asked if I would respond to the email that you sent to her. Contra Costa Health Services has attempted to answer each of the questions asked by the public. In some cases, Contra Costa Health Services referred some of the questions to Equilon, because the question was addressed to them. Enclosed you will find the responses to all of the questions that were asked at the public meeting and from letters that were received after the meeting. The answers to your questions are listed below. • A second public meeting should be held to answer many of the public questions from the community. A second public meeting has been tentatively scheduled for 7:00 PM on January 10, 2002, after the County has received the Root Cause Analyses of the two incidents. You will be notified personally of the final schedule and location of the meeting. Please contact Randy Sawyer of my staff at (925) 646-2879 if you have any questions on the above answers. Si erely, t tA P0,4_A' ' Lewis G. Pascalli, Jr. Director Hazardous Materials Programs Enclosure (1) cc: Contra Costa County's Board of Supervisors William B. Walker, M.D. Randy Sawyer • Contra Costa Community Substance Abuse Services • Contra Costa Emergency Medical Services • Contra Costa Environmental Health Contra Costa Health Plan • Contra Costa Hazardous Materials Programs •Contra Costa Mental Health • Contra Costa Public Health • Contra Costa Regional Medical Center • Contra Costa Health Centers Wit t lAm B. WAi t;i R. M. D. HAZARDOUS MATERIALS PROGRAMS Hl Atm Si.kvi(is Dwi(lok '� '' 4333 Pacheco Boulevard t. xviN G. PASCAI.ii.)iz..Esq. Martinez, California DIFI(:I OR 94553-2295 CONTRA COSTA Ph (925) 646-2286 HEALTH SERVICES Fax (925) 646-2073 November 29, 2001 Ms, Beth Rainsford 3321 Estudillo Martinez, CA 94553 Dear Ms: Rainsford: SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS FROM THE EQUILON MARTINEZ REFINING COMPANY'S OCTOBER INCIDENTS Thank you for coming to the public meeting to discuss the Equilon Martinez Refining Company's incidents that occurred on October 14 and 17 and your willingness to ask questions about the incidents. Contra Costa Health Services has attempted to answer each of the questions asked by the public. In some cases, Contra Costa Health Services referred some of the questions to Equilon, because the question was addressed to them. Enclosed you will find the responses to all of the questions that were asked at the public meeting and from letters that were received after the meeting. The answers to your questions are listed below. • Can new residents be told of warning system? Contra Costa Health Services will work with Contra Costa County CAER Group Inc. to find ways to educate new residents. This will include working with the different Community Development Departments and Realtor Agencies. • Can there be a phone number to call to get info during an incident? A 2-1-1 service will be started in Contra Costa County in the spring of 2002. The 2- 1-1 is setup to be an information services that will allow people to get information on situations that are occurring within the County. As an alternative to this Contra Costa County Office of Emergency Services and Contra Costa Health Services are looking at establishing an 800 number for people to call to get information. Neither option is available at this time. • The wind directions that were given were confusing. The different emergency response agencies have worked on drills where the public have participated to get input on how to best communicate information during an incident. This includes how we best can communicate the wind direction. Contra Costa Health Services would like to have any suggestions from you on how we can report the wind direction that makes it understandable to you. Please let us know what suggestions that you may have. • Contra Costa Community Substance Abuse Services • Contra Costa Emergency Medical Services • Contra Costa Environmental Health • Contra Costa Health Plan • Contra Costa Hazardous Materials Programs •Contra Costa Mental Health • Contra Costa Public Health • Contra Costa Regional Medical Cente+ 9 Contra Costa Health Centers I —2— November 29,2001 Please contact Randy Sawyer of my staff at (925) 646-2879 if you have any questions on the above answers. Si Lewis G. Pascalli, Jr. �,�J,,t_ • Director Hazardous Materials Programs Enclosure (1) cc: Contra Costa County's Board of Supervisors Randy Sawyer Wit i tn.,r B. Wnl Ki R. M. D. ,Q HAZARDOUS MATERIALS PROGRAMS HIA1111 $te:�it.is D�atctou Ltwu G. f nSrrnt.i.t.Ii:..Esq. 4333 Pacheco Boulevard Martinez, California D RtcroW 94553-2295 CONTRA COSTA Ph (925) 646-2286 HEALTH SERVICES Fax (925) 646-2073 November 29, 2001 Ms. Christine Huff 3511 Sunrise Court Martinez, CA 94553 Dear Ms. Huff: SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS FROM THE EQUILON MARTINEZ REFINING COMPANY'S OCTOBER INCIDENTS Thank you for coming to the public meeting to discuss the Equilon Martinez Refining Company's incidents that occurred on October 14 and 17 and your willingness to ask questions about the incidents. Contra Costa Health Services has attempted to answer each of the questions asked by the public. In some cases, Contra Costa Health Services referred some of the questions to Equilon, because the question was addressed to them. Enclosed you will find the responses to all of the questions that were asked at the public meeting and from letters that were received after the meeting. The answers to your questions are listed below. • Are there other siren sounds for other types of emergencies? The Community Warning System is designed to signal when there is a chemical release, because of this only one siren sound exists as part of the Community Warning System. When a person hears a Community Warning System siren they should go inside and turn on their radio or television for more information. The County has worked closely with KCBS in the past to broadcast emergency information. Contra Costa Health Services is also working with the communities that have local emergency radios to get information out during an incident. • Could the message on 530 AM, the local emergency station be improved? The County's contractor on the Community Warning System is working with the City of Richmond to put their local radio station in a automatic loop. When this is complete and has been tested, Contra Costa Health Services plans to work with the City of Martinez to include their radio station in the Community Warning System. • How long can you shelter in place effectively during an accident? It depends on the chemicals being released, the concentrations of the chemicals,the location of the building, and how airtight the building is. Contra Costa Health Services takes all these factors in determining if a shelter in place should • Contra Costa Community Substance Abuse Services • Contra Costa Emergency Medical Services • Contra Costa Environmental Health • Contra Costa Health Plan • Contra Costa Hazardous Materials Programs •Contra Costa Mental Heahh • Contra Costa Public Health • Contra Costa Regional Medical Center 9 Contra Costa Health Centers I —2— November 29,2001 remain in effect or an evacuation should be called. Initially when a release occurs, it is safer to shelter in place. If it is determined that an evacuation should be necessary, Contra Costa Health Services, working with Contra Costa County's Office of Emergency Services and the different law enforcement agencies, will determine where people should evacuate to, the evacuation routes to be taken,and when to do this evacuation. • Could a terrorist cause a worse case incident and would the public be affected? Based on the recent events in New York, the answer to both questions is yes. All of the facilities in the County have increased their security. The different law enforcement agencies are also determining where the greatest threats may be located. Contra Costa Health Services is meeting with the different facilities that have the chemicals that could have the greatest impact on the surrounding community, if released, to determine what security measures the facilities have in place. Through the California Accidental Release Prevention Program the refineries are required to look at the "worst case" scenarios that could occur. The "worst case" scenarios are included in the Risk Management Plans that the refineries submit to Contra Costa Health Services. If you wish to see a Risk Management Plan, please make an appointment with Contra Costa Health Services Hazardous Materials Programs by calling(925) 646-228 Please contact Randy Sawyer of my staff at (925) 646-2879 if you have any questions on the above answers. Si , Lewis G. Pascalli,Jr. • Director Hazardous Materials Programs Enclosure(1) cc: Contra Costa County's Board of Supervisors Randy Sawyer