Mayor and City Council:

This is an update regarding issuance of permits for the Chevron refinery repair.

We had a meeting/conference call this past Monday morning at 11:00 AM that included representatives of the City (including legal counsel and the metallurgical consultant for the City), Chevron, Contra Costa County, Chemical Safety Board, Cal-OSHA, BAAQMD, and EPA, to specifically discuss pipe material and the choice between 9-chrome and series 300 stainless steel.  The meeting lasted nearly two hours.  Following the meeting, City staff concluded that there needs to be a more detailed risk analysis than what has been completed thus far regarding the choice of pipe material efore a definitive conclusion can be reached regarding the appropriate material to approve as part of the permits for the pipe repair.  Such an analysis needs to be reviewed with conclusions formally accepted by the City’s metallurgical consultant prior to the issuance of such permits.  Until this analysis is completed and approved by the City's metallurgical consultant, we are not issuing building permits for portions of the repair where the pipe material is an unresolved issue.

In the meantime, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need additional information.

Bill Lindsay
City Manager
City of Richmond
(510) 620-6512
Bill_lindsay@ci.richmond.ca.us