Meeting held over smelly air and chemical release in Richmond

RICHMOND, Calif. (KRON) – The Richmond City Council spent hours questioning the Veolia Water company Tuesday night about a hydrogen sulfide emission at the water treatment plant. The odor was released from Dec. 4-6 and led to complaints by people living in Point Richmond.

Tensions were high at the special council meeting. The community heard from executives with Veolia Water North America about the hydrogen sulfide odor emitted from the water treatment plant.

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The odor emission began the night of Dec. 4 after everyone had left the plant for the night.

“That really sharp acrid smell of manure, that’s what it is. It’s like living on a manure pile. It is embarrassing,” said Edie Alderette-Sellers, who lives in the Port Richmond area. “I woke up the next morning spitting up blood because I have coughed so hard in my sleep that my tonsils started bleeding.”

Representatives from the plant say there was a dip in the power at the facility and the equipment failed, leading the emission to be above the 60 parts per million limit placed on the plant by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. As they worked to fix the equipment, there continued to be spikes in emissions through Dec. 6. But there is no notification system to let people know of the emissions.

“If it wasn’t for the fact that people were calling in the next morning we wouldn’t even know it was them. They never stood up and took responsibility,” said Alderette-Sellers.

Alfredo Angulo with Communities for a Better Environment said they want to see more accountability from Veolia. 

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"Up until the moment where I was giving public comment I was still getting messages from community members about what they were experiencing about the stench from the company," he said.

Tuesday’s meeting was just an initial presentation. The city council voted to require Veolia to complete a technical report and hand it into the city by Jan. 8. They will discuss it further at the Jan. 23 city council meeting.

from KRON4 https://ift.tt/MDaweyq