(The Contra Costa Times posted the following article by Tom Lochner on its website on August 12.)
RICHMOND, Calif. — About a dozen passengers detrained and some were stranded inside the locked Richmond Amtrak station for about an hour Saturday night after West County residents were warned to stay indoors because of a noxious refinery release.
Two Amtrak trains stopped to unload passengers, apparently unaware that the area was experiencing a potentially hazardous condition.
County health and Richmond public safety officials each said the other should have notified Amtrak. Rail service officials were checking to see if they were indeed told.
The incident left Amtrak passenger Margery Woodard, who was stuck in the station for nearly an hour, worried about health risks had the refinery emissions been more dangerous.
Shortly after 10 p.m., Woodard, a 74-year-old North Richmond resident, returning from a day trip to Sacramento, exited Amtrak train No. 751 at the darkened platform.
The stairs to the station lobby were barricaded. Woodard pressed the elevator button. Nothing. From the parking lot, a man shouted that the station was closed. Woodard noticed a faint smell of rotten eggs.
Earlier that evening, a release of hydrogen sulfide gas from the Chevron Richmond refinery had sent a rotten-egg-like odor wafting downwind. Sirens sounded about 9:15 p.m. across San Pablo, North Richmond and parts of Richmond, warning residents to stay indoors, shut windows and turn off air conditioners. The alert ended around 11 p.m.
Contra Costa County hazardous materials specialist Paul Andrews said ChevronTexaco reported at 7:30 p.m. “a little plant upset” that led to the venting of some hydrogen sulfide gas. Although the venting had stopped about 9 p.m., Andrews said, Richmond fire and police dispatchers were still receiving many calls complaining of the smell.
“The levels of (hydrogen sulfide) were not life-threatening, nor did they have any long-term adverse health effects,” Andrews said. “We sounded the sirens, even though we knew the refinery was stable, to get the people inside, where they could hear some news.”
Meanwhile, about a dozen train riders, among them Woodard and her nephew Johnny White, stood on the Richmond Amtrak station platform wondering what was going on.
Several men came up from the parking lot and said there was a “shelter-in-place” order. The men helped some passengers climb a wall and fence. Several others left the station by taking a long walk along the tracks to the end of the fence. Woodard, who has what she describes as “a slight heart condition,” decided to wait.
Using another passenger’s cell phone, White asked a 911 dispatcher to contact BART, which shares the station with Amtrak.
About then, another southbound Amtrak train arrived.
“We notified the conductor there was a ‘shelter-in-place,'” Woodard said. “He said, ‘I can let you off at Emeryville. Go and get on. We’re in a hurry.'”
Four or five remaining passengers got on. Woodard, White and another woman waited for BART police. About an hour after she got off the train, Woodard estimates, officers arrived and escorted the three from the station.
By this time, Woodard said, “I thought I may be having a heart attack. Pounding in the chest. Numbness in my arm.
“After I got home, I took a nitroglycerine pill and I was fine.”
BART police Lt. Pamela Cherry said the alert prompted her agency to shut down the Richmond, El Cerrito Del Norte and El Cerrito Plaza stations.
“Maybe Amtrak didn’t get the notification,” Cherry said. “I wonder why they’re not in the loop.”
Andrews, the county hazmat specialist, said it was up to Richmond dispatchers to inform Amtrak. But Richmond police Sgt. Mike Pon said it was up to the county health department to notify other agencies, as well as the community, when there is an alert.
Amtrak officials said they were studying the incident and could not say if they had been alerted.
“Thank God we finally got out of there and it wasn’t as bad as we thought it was,” Woodard said. “The idea — if it had really been a disaster. Children, disabled, older people.
“I was lying there, thinking about that all night.”