Foul odors fill the Point Monday morning

   POINT RICHMOND - An all-too-familiar foul smell invaded The Point Monday morning, residents reported.
     The foul odors have recently been blamed by Contra Costa County health officials and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District on Republic Services' composting operation on Parr Road.
     Last Tuesday Republic Services was hit with a county cease-and-desist order to stop taking any more compostable material until it can demonstrate it can do so without generating the odor.
     
     The company has a Feb. 1 deadline to tell the county how it will change its operations to better handle composting and to remove the raw compost material on site that is believed to be the source of the odor.
     “Since September 2016, there have been more than 400 complaints from the surrounding community about odors coming from the facility. Although the odors are not imminently dangerous they do cause a public nuisance and some reports indicated having headache, nausea, throat irritation and breathing problems,” Dr. Marilyn Underwood, CCEH Director said.
     Underwood and other health and air quality officials made a presentation at the Richmond City Council meeting last Tuesday about the problems.
     At the meeting BAAQMD's Wayne Kino said he believes the large windrows of raw composting material on site are going "septic" and moving them is likely to let loose the noxious fumes generating the complaints.
     
     Early today Point Richmond Neighborhood Council President David Schoenthal said Chevron officials told him that the company is installing new odor-detection equipment at its facility.
     "Chevron is deploying new odor detection equipment that basically allows us to fingerprint odors and match those odor fingerprints with known refinery sources," said Joe Lorenz, a government affairs representative of Chevron."
     "This technology was demonstrated at last August’s refinery community tour day and was again discussed at the Chevron booth at September’s Picnic in the Park."

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CONTACT INFORMATION:

Chevron company odor hotline: 510-242-2127
Bay Area Air Quality Management hotline - 1-800-334-6367
Contra Costa County's Lori Braunesreither, Department of Health
EMAIL: Lori Braunesreither. Direct Phone: 925-692-2528

Nicole Ewing, Richmond Code Enforcement (510-621-1591)

Bielle Moore, Republic Services community affairs manager
PHONES: (510-262-7547 or 510-205-4908)
Email: Bielle Moore