“So [Signature’s] got a year to sort of do their due diligence, look at redeveloping options and then at the end of that year presumably buy the site and then move forward with who knows what kind of development options,” Young said.
Councilmember Terry Scott, who Young asked to help lead the redevelopment group, said his first priority is to focus on the 400 acres of the Valero property that haven’t been used for manufacturing and processing operations. That land wouldn’t require the same degree of remediation, and could potentially be turned into housing and other uses within several years.
As for the refinery property, he said, the city would need to court industries that could operate on land that will remain fairly contaminated, even after the remediation process.
“There’s gonna be some pretty bad brown spots there,” said Scott, who is hoping to attract less-polluting industries to replace the refinery. “This will not be growing gardens, and having front lawns and having kids running across it.”
Valero’s announcement in mid-April to “idle, restructure or cease” operations at the refinery that it’s operated since 2000, caught Young and other city officials completely off guard. The company cited California’s tough “regulatory and enforcement environment” as the main driver behind its move to consider closing the sixth-largest refinery in the state, which makes up about 9% of the state’s total crude oil capacity.
The news dropped less than two weeks after the City Council unanimously approved modest rules to increase their oversight of the refinery, and some six months since regional and state air regulators fined the company a record $82 million for secretly exceeding toxic emissions standards for more than 15 years.
Although that money is reserved for future public health initiatives, Young said he is pressing regulators to consider “a lenient and liberal” interpretation of what they mean by public health, so that Benicia leaders may use those funds “to offset some of the losses that the city’s going to see.”
Young also hopes he can help broker a deal with Valero and state officials to convince the company to continue operating the refinery for at least a few more years. He additionally intends to make the case that closing the facility next year could pose a serious national security threat, as it’s currently the sole provider of roughly 50 million gallons of jet fuel to nearby Travis Air Force Base, which it delivers via a direct pipeline.
