Richmond Answers Residents’ Questions on Chevron’s Long-Awaited Wet Gas Scrubber

A device meant to sharply cut soot from Chevron's Richmond refinery is moving through its final local reviews. The Richmond City Council is scheduled to discuss the project's environmental impacts at its meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, Richmondside reported.

What a wet gas scrubber does

A wet gas scrubber uses water and sodium hydroxide to strip particulate matter and sulfur compounds from exhaust before it leaves the stack. Chevron's would be installed on the refinery's fluidized catalytic cracking unit, according to the city's project page. That unit is the largest source of particulate pollution at refineries, the Bay Area Air District says.

The air district adopted Rule 6-5 in 2021, effectively requiring scrubbers at Chevron and the Martinez Refining Company. Both companies sued, then settled in February 2024 for up to $138 million combined. The air district said the settlement set a July 2026 compliance deadline for Chevron, with escalating penalties for delay, and estimated a 70% cut in particulate emissions from Chevron's cracking unit.

What residents asked, and what the city said

• Water: The scrubber would use 370,000 gallons of drinking water a day from EBMUD. If a proposed cooling tower is approved, Chevron could use recycled water instead, the city said.
• Waste: Solids would go to a landfill or be recycled at a cement kiln. Liquid would be treated at the refinery's wastewater plant before being released into San Pablo Bay.
• Soil: Excavated soil would be treated as contaminated unless testing proves otherwise and disposed of at sites like the Buttonwillow landfill in Kern County.
• Power: Communities for a Better Environment called the project's roughly 16,000 megawatt-hours a year “massive.” The city said any extra electricity would come from PG&E, not Chevron's cogeneration plant.
• Noise: Construction may start as early as 6 a.m., but the loudest work, like pile driving, would happen during normal working hours.

Why it matters

The air district has identified the refinery as Richmond's single largest source of fine particulate pollution, or PM 2.5, and estimates those emissions contribute to more than 11 premature deaths a year in nearby neighborhoods, Richmondside reported. Former planning commissioner Jeff Kilbreth wrote that the project would bring “the most significant single amount of pollution reduction in well over 30 years.” For recent refinery news, see our story on the Chevron odor report.