General manager: If you have a refinery in your community, ‘you want Valero to run that refinery’

Valero Benicia Refinery’s Crude-by-Rail Project is a logistics endeavor that ultimately would reduce transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions not only in Benicia but throughout other Bay Area communities, a packed room in the local Ironworkers Union building heard Monday night.

Don Cuffel, the refinery’s environmental engineer groupmanager, told the audience that with the exception of adding delivery of crude by Union Pacific Railroad, little else would change in the refinery’s operations.

No additional fuel would be produced, he said, and the refinery wouldn’t be allowed to increase either its own emissions or its product output.

It was the second public meeting Valero has had on the project, which also has been the subject of meetings by those opposed to bringing crude in by train, particularly if it is either the volatile, light and sweet crude of the Bakken formation in the Upper Midwest or the sulfur-heavy crude extracted from Canadian tar sands.

Cuffel said Monday the proposed project would add rail to ship and pipeline delivery of crude to Valero, increasing access to domestic types of crude and reducing reliance on foreign sources.

The project proposes building 8,800 feet of rail line, two lengths of which would be used for 25 rail cars each to deliver their loads of crude. The third rail would be a staging site for trains preparing to exit Valero.

The refinery and the city have been working on the project for a year. The city is currently circulating a draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) that examines how the project would affect the environment, not only delicate plants or migrating birds but also traffic and noise.

Among the draft report’s findings, the project would improve Bay Area air quality compared to the current situation by exchanging rail transport for that of ships. It also would comply with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Bay Area 2010 Clean Air Plan.

In addition, the draft said the project as proposed either is environmentally superior or more legally defensible compared to a set of alternatives examined in the report. In most areas the report reviewed, the project would have either no or “less than significant” impact.

“If it’s significant, you try to mitigate,” Cuffel said of any impact the project had on the property and elsewhere.

While locomotives would bring their own emissions, Cuffel said in the Bay Area in particular, emissions would decline because trains release far less than the tanker ships.

He said he expects that reduction to be 225,825 metric tons. “It’s a wonderful thing to modernize our facility and reduce emissions and reduce greenhouse gas,” he said.

The report noted, however, that communities between the Bay Area and Roseville wouldn’t have a similar reduction in shipping to compensate for the emissions from the two daily round trips the trains would make.

It said the project would have “significant and unavoidable” impacts to air quality outside the Bay Area.

Whether in or outside the city, Benicia can’t impose emissions controls on locomotives because rail operations are for the most part regulated at a federal level.

That’s because trains travel throughout the nation, and their operations would be hindered if some local or state governments could impose certain types of restrictions that were in direct conflict with restrictions other states, counties and cities had in place, the audience heard.

The public has at least 45 days from the June 17 release of the DEIR to comment on the draft report. Besides sending comments directly to the city, those interested also may speak July 10 at a Planning Commission hearing at City Hall, 250 East L St.

At that time, the commission may decide to extend the comment period.

Public comments and questions will be addressed and incorporated into the final EIR, which will be circulated and sent to the Planning Commission for certification. Should the panel approve the EIR, it also could issue the refinery’s use permit.

The final EIR must be certified before the refinery could get its permit and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District would consider issuing its own permit to Valero.

Because the entire project is on industrial-zone land and is confined to Valero’s property, permission for the project could have been handled administratively had it been less costly to do.

Cuffel said Monday that California is among the strictest states in regulating air quality, and other state regulations make California Air Resources Board (CARB) gasoline “among the cleanest fuels you can buy.”

He said the Crude-by-Rail Project would be the latest in a series of refinery projects that would be better for the environment. Among its other projects is the installation of a flue scrubber that has reduced sulphur dioxide emissions by more than 95 percent, and other measures that reduced nitrogen oxide emissions by more than 55 percent.

He described the tougher train rail cars Valero would use to transport the crude, the 1232 cars that have reinforced shells made of higher tensile strength. Improved couplers, extra shielding on front and back, and a policy that would forbid trains from being left unattended would increase safety, Cuffel said.

Security has been on many minds since an unattended train derailed and exploded July 6, 2013, at Lac-Megantic, near Quebec, Canada, killing 47. That wouldn’t happen with a UP train, Cuffel said, because of the decision not to leave trains unattended.
In addition, that train was using lower-quality tank cars, called DOT-111 in the United States and CTC-111A in Canada.

Despite several recent dramatic accidents involving tanker car crude spills and explosions, Cuffel said, accidents involving trains remain far lower than those involving tanker ships, and cited the DEIR report’s findings to support his statement.

In addition, the refinery, which has a state-certified industrial fire department that trains with Benicia Fire Department and is part of a larger mutual-aid group involving other petroleum industries, has trained to address emergencies.

“Each year we simulate spills,” Cuffel said. “We are not starting from scratch.”

Christopher Howe, director of the refinery’s health, safety, environment and government affairs, elaborated, saying the refinery’s fire department is trained and prepared to handle hazardous materials, medical emergencies and other situations.

Valero Fire Chief Joe Bateman said his department has 70 employees, including 28 emergency medical technicians and 32 trained to handle hazardous materials. Usually each shift has 15 to 20 on duty, he said, but all are on call should a major event take place.

In addition, since the two departments train together, Bateman said, Benicia Fire Department is one of the best-trained municipal departments with which he’s worked.

Cuffel described Valero’s operations to explain the type of crude it can process. He pointed to a chart that focused on two characteristics of oil — gravity and sulfur. The refinery is limited to allowable measurements of each, but he said any blend that fits those parameters could be refined in Benicia.

“If we can blend it, we can refine it,” he said. “Any crude that can be safely transported and is economically attractive is a candidate.”

He said the recent Valero Improvement Project, which had two EIR documents, “reduced emissions dramatically.”

The CBR project also is expected to affect Benicia Industrial Park traffic, but Cuffel said the speed of trains, between 5 and 8 mph, would tie up intersections less than train traffic does now.

He said two 50-car trains would arrive daily to deliver crude. They also would leave daily. These deliveries would eliminate the need for 72 ship arrivals each year, he said.

There are no guarantees the project will be approved, even if the final EIR is certified, and refinery officials were asked what Valero might do if the project is rejected.

Vice President and General Manager John Hill said the project would help the local refinery remain competitive. It would add the equivalent of 20 jobs, and would keep producing the cleaner gasoline consumers need.

In addition, he said, it would let the refinery keep all its employees, and remain a part of the community where it’s been for the last 45 years.

“We want to continue to do that,” Hill said. “We have an excellent reputation in the community.”

He said his company has a reputation outside Benicia, too; that people say if you have a refinery in a community, “you want Valero to run that refinery.”

He said, “If you want us to run it, let us do the project.”

Hill also reminded the audience of Valero’s contributions to Benicia, that refinery revenues contribute 25 percent of the city’s General Fund money, and the refinery has given $13.7 million to area charities.

He said the refinery employs 450 of its own workers, as well as 250 from contractors, produces 10 percent of CARB-regulated gasoline in the state and a quarter of CARB gasoline used in the San Francisco Bay Area, and supports 3,900 other jobs in the Bay Area.

He said the refinery recently listed 15 job openings and received 1,100 applications in five days.