The morning after Thanksgiving, families in Martinez woke up to a layer of fine white sand blanketing their cars and porches. At her house on a hill near downtown, Jenna Cassel could see smoke rising from the hulking refinery that frames the city’s eastern edge.
“I went outside and I saw ashes all over our vehicles. The air quality was kind of weird,” Cassel said. “Everyone was like, ‘OK, what’s going on?’”
Shortly after, the Martinez Refining Co. posted a statement on Facebook saying that it would investigate calls they had received about the layer of grit. A day later, the company posted again, this time to reassure residents that the sand was a “non-toxic”, “non-hazardous”, and “naturally occurring” spent catalyst dust used in the refining process. It offered free car washes.
Jenna Cassel is replacing the organic soil from her backyard garden beds and spreading it out to other plants that do not produce food at her home along Shell Avenue near the Martinez Refining Company site, in Martinez on Wednesday. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)
Dozens of Martinez residents drove to the Autopia car wash on Alhambra Avenue and stood in the mist as attendants power-washed the strange substance from their vehicles. After that, many people didn’t give the sand much more thought.
Despite the company’s assurance on Thanksgiving that there were “no health risks associated with this material,” the county health department alerted residents within the week that the sand contained heavy metals including aluminum, barium and chromium. Exposure to heavy metals has been linked with nausea, vomiting, respiratory issues, immune system dysfunction, cancer and even death.
Soil tests are still needed to determine the extent of the impact, but on Tuesday, the Contra Costa County Health Department told residents living near the refinery that they should not eat food grown in their gardens.
The county District Attorney’s Office is now reviewing a county Health Department request for potential prosecution of the refinery, and residents of Martinez have spent the week replanting raised beds and wondering whether their 100-year-old lemon trees are poisoned.
Jenna Cassel is removing green onions, cilantro, strawberry plants and other fruits and vegetables she no longer plans to eat that were grown in a backyard garden bed at her home along Shell Avenue near the Martinez Refining Company site, in Martinez, Calif., on Wednesday, March 8, 2023. The refinery accidentally released dust containing heavy metals in November and on Tuesday the …read more
Source:: The Mercury News