Smoke from the grassfire caused by the flaring at the Martinez Refining Company refinery on Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023. Photo: BAAQMD
One for public nuisance, two for visible emissions, another for illegal fire on a no burn day
By Bay Area Air Quality Management District
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (Air District) inspectors responded to five air quality complaints related to a grass fire reported by Martinez Refining Company refinery in Martinez on Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023. On Monday, the Air District issued a Notice of Violation for public nuisance for this event. The Air District’s investigation is ongoing.
Three additional Notices of Violation have been issued for this event: two for visible emissions and one for illegal fire on a no burn day. This investigation is ongoing.
The updated incident report is as follows:
December 17
At 4:26 PM Sunday, the Air District received a Contra Costa County Community Warning System (CWS) Level 1 alert filed by Martinez Refining Company (MRC) regarding a grass fire. The alert specifically stated that the smoke was from a grassfire. The alert did not mention flaring directly, but when Air District staff contacted MRC to discuss the CWS Level 1 alert, they said the grass fire was caused by “the heat of the flare.”
Air District Incident Response staff contacted MRC at 5:21 PM and were told that the grass fire had started at about 4:20 PM and was extinguished at approximately 5:10 PM. Two Air District staff were called out to the Martinez area to investigate. Five complaints alleging smoke and/or odor were filed between 4:30 PM and 5:07 PM. The adjacent photo of the grass fire was provided to the Air District by a complainant. The wind during the event was Northeast at 8-15 miles per hour. Based on the smoke plume observed, the Air District staff questioned MRC staff on a grass fire being the sole cause. At that time, an MRC representative told Air District staff that it was a grass fire.
December 18
On Monday, Air District staff, with Contra Costa County HazMat and Contra Costa County Fire personnel returned to MRC Refinery in the morning to jointly investigate the previous day’s event. The Air District investigation is ongoing and we will update this report as new information becomes available.
At this time, the Air District has issued the following Notice of Violations (NOV) to MRC for this event:
- Regulation 1, Section 301 – Public Nuisance
- Regulation 6, Rule 1, Section 301 – Visible emission standard exceeded
- Regulation 40 CFR 63.670(c) – Federal visible emissions standard exceeded
- Regulation 5, Section 301 – Illegal fire on a no burn day
For more information on the NOVs, click the link to the NOV web tool.
Martinez Refining Company Issues Statement:
On their website, MRC posted the following statement regarding the flaring and fire:
Intermittent flaring has continued at the Martinez Refining Company this weekend while we re-start equipment that was shut down during the operational incident that occurred on Friday, December 15.
At approximately 4:30 p.m. on December 17, a ground flare was in operation as part of the re-start process that caused visible black smoke and a brush fire. The brush fire was promptly contained, and subsequently extinguished at approximately 5:00 p.m.
All appropriate agencies were notified, and we thank our responders for their safe, effective response. We apologize for the concerns we caused the community and will be conducting a root cause analysis of the incident. Looking forward, we expect the potential for intermittent flaring to last through most of this week; however, we are working hard to minimize flaring and to maintain clean combustion for any flaring that may occur.
You are welcome to view real-time air monitoring measurements at our fence line air monitoring website: https://www.fenceline.org/martinez/. Additionally, you can learn more about flaring on our website: https://martinezrefiningcompany.com/about-flaring/.
As always, we have a community inquiry phone number you can call 925-313-3777 or 925-313-3601 during off work hours. Thank you.”
When asked, an MRC spokesperson said the company didn’t have a comment on the NOV’s at this time as they had just received them.
Please check back later for any updates to this report.
Allen D. Payton contributed to this report.
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