Date
martes, agosto 19, 2025
The Air District has reached a settlement with Tesoro Refining & Marketing Company that will significantly enhance air monitoring data transparency, providing more information about air pollutants around its refinery in unincorporated Contra Costa County, near Martinez. The agreement requires Tesoro to take new data access and community engagement actions beyond those required by regulation or permit.
The Air District’s Refining Emissions Tracking Rule (Regulation 12, Rule 15) requires Bay Area refineries to operate fenceline air monitoring systems that measure pollutant concentrations near their property lines. In October 2023, the Air District disapproved the Fenceline Air Monitoring Plans of all five Bay Area refineries because the plans did not meet the requirements of the rule.
Following disapproval of the plans, the Air District has worked with each of the refineries to meet all requirements and bring them back into compliance. Tesoro is the second among the Bay Area refineries to resolve disapproval of its fenceline air monitoring plan. The Air District will continue to work with the other refineries to resolve their air monitoring plan noncompliance and bring them into compliance.
The agreement requires Tesoro to:
- Implement the approved Fenceline Air Monitoring Plan and make additional improvements to monitoring in the near future. This includes:
- Operating a network of six point monitors for hydrogen sulfide.
- Clearer requirements for operating, maintaining, and assessing the performance of the monitoring equipment for all pollutants to improve accountability and transparency.
- Provide public access to real-time and historical data that can be easily downloaded
- Provide quarterly reports summarizing measured pollutant concentrations and detailing the results of quality assurance and quality control checks
- Hold a public meeting in 2025 to solicit feedback and respond to comments from local residents on improvements to the availability and visualization of data from Tesoro’s fenceline and other air monitoring systems
- Pay the Air District a penalty of $75,000, with additional penalties to ensure immediate accountability if Tesoro violates any settlement terms.
The Air District will coordinate closely with Tesoro to ensure all settlement obligations are implemented while continuing to engage with the local community to ensure residents have clear, timely information.
The Air District continually improves its emissions and air quality measurement programs as technology and air quality data needs evolve, particularly for communities disproportionately impacted by air pollution. For more information about the fenceline air monitoring program, visit the Fenceline Monitoring Plans web page.
View press release.
Last Updated: 19/08/2025