Air District To Recommend Abatement Order For Emissions From Chemtrade Facility
He was considered armed and dangerous. While the target room was being monitored, the Central County SWAT team responded and began setting up.
The suspect and a female acquaintance were arrested by the SWAT team outside the hotel. Both suspects were turned over to the FBI after interviews.
Police say using the SWAT team helps reduce the risk to the public and officers by making a variety of resources available for volatile and rapidly changing situations.
The Central County SWAT team has members of the Pleasant Hill, San Ramon, Walnut Creek, Martinez, and BART Police Departments and includes a tactical team, tactical medics, K9s, crisis negotiators, tactical dispatchers, and drone operators.
Officials with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District officials announced Tuesday it will be bringing an abatement order regarding emissions at Chemtrade’s Richmond facility to the independent hearing board in April.
District officials said that the violations stem from a previous audit of the facility’s continuous emissions monitoring system and that an investigation uncovered multiple violations prompting a deeper investigation.
The district alleges that Chemtrade underreported sulfur dioxide emissions by an average of 64 tons annually, though staying below their annual permit limit.
The senior deputy executive officer of operations and enforcement for the district, Damian Breen, alleges that the facility had faulty monitoring �in a community already overburdened by air pollution.�
The district recently got heat for overlooking years of hazardous emissions at the Benicia Valero Refinery of which the agency said it was not aware. The independent board issued an abatement order to Valero this month.
Chemtrade provides chemicals to industries such as agriculture, pulp and paper, food production and oil refining, according to its website.
Two Mt. Diablo High School Teachers Named Mt. Diablo Unified School District 2022-23 Teachers of the Year
The Mt. Diablo Unified School District announced that Mt. Diablo High School teachers Katalina Gallo and Natasha Paul have been selected as the two District Teachers of the Year for 2022-23.
Should the hearing board approve the abatement order, Chemtrade would be required to come into compliance by April 15 and conduct source testing by May
They will both represent the district as nominees for the Contra Costa County Teacher of the Year competition, which will announce its winners in September.
The pair were selected from five finalists that also included College Park High School teacher Laima Haider, Pine Hollow Middle School teacher Dr. Lizette Ortega Dolan and Bancroft Elementary School teacher Maria Sajjad. The finalists were selected from the more than 100 outstanding educators nominated throughout the district. The MDUSD School Board plans to recognize the District Teachers of the Year, finalists and nominees at its April 13 meeting.
Both Gallo and Paul said they were honored to be chosen to represent the district and their school, which they both graduated from themselves (Gallo in 2007 and Paul in 1991).
Gallo and Paul are two of approximately 20 other educators who will be named Teachers of the Year for their school districts. Each of them becomes a nominee for the Contra Costa County Teacher of the Year program, which is coordinated by the Contra Costa County Office of Education.
The winners of the County Teacher of the Year program will be announced Sept. 22 in a ceremony at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, where all District Teachers of the Year will be honored.
Katalina Gallo, Mt. Diablo High School Natasha Paul, Mt. Diablo High School Laima Haider, College Park High School Dr. Lizette Ortega Dolan, Pine Hollow Middle School Maria Sajjad, Bancroft Elementary School
