Oil company Valero and shipping company Amports will pay $3.3 million as part of a settlement with San Francisco Baykeeper for the alleged pollution of the Port of Benicia.
The settlement announced Monday is the result of a year-long investigation by San Franciso Baykeeper, an environmental nonprofit that utilized drone footage to document numerous discharges of petroleum coke — a carbon-rich byproduct of the oil-refining process that can contain toxic metals — into bay waters outside of Valero’s refinery in Benicia for a period of more than a year.
Under the terms of the settlement, Valero and Amports will pay $2.38 million to the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment, a Bay Area nonprofit championing environmental stewardship, which will be gifted to local nonprofits. Baykeeper was also awarded $875,000 from the defendants for costs incurred from the investigation and the ensuing lawsuit.
The executive director of Baykeeper, Sejal Choksi-Chugh, expressed outrage at the companies’ actions and praised the outcome of the suit.
“It’s kind of shocking that they were so careless dumping fossil fuels into the bay,” Sejal Choksi-Chugh said. “This is a really great settlement for the community.”
Valero did not respond to requests for comment.
Findings from the investigation show petroleum coke, which is considered too dirty to burn in the United States because it releases 30-80% more carbon emissions than coal. Petroleum coke is known in the industry as “petcoke.”
While petcoke has a low level of toxicity on its own, particles can lodge themselves in airways and in the lungs which can lead to respiratory diseases like asthma and lung cancer.
Baykeeper’s investigation was initiated by a civilian tip to the organization’s pollution hotline in 2020, Choksi-Chugh said. While Baykeeper members could not get a good view of the chemical releases from the group’s patrol boat, she said, a drone donated by Autonomous Imagery was able to capture aerial images of petcoke polluting Bay waters – photos which proved invaluable to the settlement.
An oily stream of petcoke, a pollutant with adverse public health effects, spreads along the San Francisco Bay waters of the Port of Benicia in 2021 in drone footage captured by Baykeepers. (Photo courtesy of Baykeepers)
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“We caught them multiple times,” Choksi-Chugh said. “It’s the kind of pollution report that gets my blood boiling because these are huge corporations. They know what the law is and they know they need to be complying with it.”
Baykeeper filed suit against Valero and Amports for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act on March 1, 2022. While Monday’s settlement fell short of finding Valero and Amports at fault or liable for the release of petcoke, the settlement is a “huge win” in the effort to protect the Bay Area’s environment, said Rose Foundation’s grantmaking director Jodene Isaacs.
“Baykeeper has compelled two major polluters to clean up their acts, and the settlement will result in local grassroots nonprofits getting a big boost to conduct shoreline cleanups, wetlands restoration, and environmental education programs,” Isaac said. “That means the Bay, its wildlife, and residents will be better protected in the future.”
The settlement on Monday marks the 300th legal victory for Baykeeper, Choksi-Chugh said. She highlighted drone technology’s potential for environmental oversight and she hopes companies will think twice before polluting the Bay.
“Companies have been harming the Bay for so many years with their polluting activities,” Choksi-Chugh said. “It’s pretty amazing that we have this technology now at our fingertips so that whenever we get a pollution report, we can catch it with our drones.”