Safety & Environment
Protecting the earth's natural resources is important to Chevron as is providing the energy sources essential to improving our quality of life. Our environmental policies emphasize open dialogue with our community.
As a good neighbor, we look for ways to improve the quality of life wherever we do business. We work with over 30 federal, state and local regulatory agencies whose inspectors ensure that we meet stringent environmental standards for air, water and waste. In many cases we go beyond those mandates to find ways to further protect our community and surrounding environment.
Our safety culture has helped us achieve an exemplary record of safety and reliability. We have received numerous awards for our environmental stewardship, including the Contra Costa County Supervisors Award for Significant Achievement in Hazardous Waste Management as well as a Certificate of Appreciation from California's Department of Health Services for supporting the Waste Minimization Project.
The Chevron Richmond Refinery is a unique facility and we are aware of our special location and have developed our programs and policies accordingly. As part of our good neighbor policy, we have undertaken a refinery beautification program in addition to our efforts to improve the environment. This involves removing obsolete equipment, painting storage tanks to blend with the hillsides, planting drought-tolerant native trees and landscaping the refinery perimeter.
We employ our own onsite fire department comprised of state-certified fire fighters and emergency medical technicians. Our fire department maintains regular contact with state and local agencies and works with them to conduct large-scale emergency drills.
We are in strict compliance with all regulations and endeavor to stay ahead of the ever-changing technical and regulatory environment. For example, at the Chevron Richmond Refinery we have eliminated the use of chlorine gas in our cooling water towers and even reduced the chlorine in the swimming pool at our recreation facility.
In an effort to reduce air emissions and increase energy efficiency, we built a $150 million gas turbine cogeneration plant designed to provide most of the electrical and steam power we require.
All of our employees are trained to manage and protect natural resources. Innovative pollution-control technologies and state-of-the-art equipment are used throughout the refinery, often allowing us to turn waste into useful materials through new recycling processes. We've directed our efforts to saving energy, reducing air emissions and waste, treating water and protecting the Bay, preventing oil spills and preserving and restoring natural ecosystems.