(Reuters) – A California regulator said it was investigating emissions containing higher-than-normal amounts of heavy metals due to an equipment failure at PBF’s 156,400 barrel-per-day refinery in Martinez last week.
Additionally, the refinery did not notify it nor the county’s Community Warning System as required by law about the release of the ‘powdery substance,’ which began around 9:30 p.m. (0530 GMT Friday) on Thanksgiving, going on till the early morning hours of Friday, Nov. 25, the Contra Costa Health (CCH) Services said in a release.
CCH’s HazMat team was only made aware of the release on Saturday morning after community complaints about white dust on surfaces near the refinery, the release said.
The sample collected by CCH showed levels of aluminum, barium, chromium, nickel, vanadium, and zinc higher than normal background levels for those metals, it added.
The company was not immediately available for comment.
(Reporting by Seher Dareen in Bengaluru;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
