Environmental groups are urging the EPA to enact stricter water pollution standards after a new analysis revealed that the agency is failing to adequately regulate and enforce restrictions of harmful discharges.
With nearly a half billion gallons of toxic wastewater spilling out of refineries across the United States every day, including into San Francisco Bay, environmental groups are urging the Environmental Protection Agency to enact stricter water pollution standards after a new analysis of EPA regulatory data revealed that the agency is failing to adequately regulate and enforce restrictions of harmful discharges.
As a result, hundreds of millions of gallons of toxic wastewater rush out of refineries every day, dumping a deluge of unregulated and potentially harmful chemicals, like PFAs and heavy metals, into ecosystems and posing a threat to wildlife and human health, particularly for low-income residents and communities of color.
Four of those studied, including the Chevron Richmond and Valero Benicia refineries, have released more than a million pounds of nitrogen and thousands of pounds of nickel selenium and ammonia, as well as oil and grease, arsenic, cyanide and hexavalent chromium, into San Francisco Bay and its tributaries in 2021 alone.
A recent study from UC Davis found split tails collected from a pumping station in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River with zigzagging spines that curved in unnatural angles. Deformities were also found in birds exposed to selenium concentrated in agricultural runoff in the same area in the 1980s. A spokesperson for Chevron said its Richmond refinery’s stormwater releases are managed under strict Regional Water Quality Control Board permits and that its treated water is discharged in compliance with allowable environmental limits. He also said that the analysis uses inaccurate permit limits to calculate releases and instead pointed to California’s Integrated Water Quality System, which shows the refinery had one violation over five years.
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