Bay Area air quality regulators on Tuesday announced $900,000 in fines against Chevron, amid claims the company didn’t properly monitor air pollution emissions at its Richmond refinery.
The Bay Area Air Quality District’s fines follow the company’s failure to upgrade 20 air quality monitors, after regulators found they weren’t properly configured, according to a news release by the district. As a result, the monitors couldn’t detect the full range of emissions that could emanate from the refinery — meaning that high levels of emissions could go undetected and unreported, the district said.
The failure led the air district to issue nine notices of violation. The company appears to have since “addressed” all the problematic monitors, and regulators are reviewing those fixes to ensure that they are in working order, the district said…