window.__IS_SSR__=true
window.__INITIAL_STATE__={
"attachmentsReducer": {
"audio_0": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_0",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background0.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_1": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_1",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background1.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_2": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_2",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background2.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_3": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_3",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background3.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_4": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_4",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background4.jpg"
}
}
},
"placeholder": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "placeholder",
"imgSizes": {
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"height": 533,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-768x512.jpg",
"width": 768,
"height": 512,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-lrg": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-med": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-sm": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"height": 533,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xxsmall": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xsmall": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"small": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xlarge": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1920x1280.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"height": 1280,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-32": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 32,
"height": 32,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-50": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 50,
"height": 50,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-64": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 64,
"height": 64,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-96": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 96,
"height": 96,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-128": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 128,
"height": 128,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"detail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1333
}
}
},
"news_12052267": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "news_12052267",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "12052267",
"found": true
},
"title": "Martinez California Cityscape",
"publishDate": 1755206887,
"status": "inherit",
"parent": 12052204,
"modified": 1755206948,
"caption": "The city of Martinez, California, on Jan. 11, 2025. The Bay Area Air District filed a lawsuit this week against Acme Fill Corporation’s landfill, located at 950 Waterbird Way, for allegedly violating air quality regulations set by local and state agencies.",
"credit": "Michael R. Lopez/Getty Images",
"altTag": null,
"description": null,
"imgSizes": {
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/MartinezGetty-160x128.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 128,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/MartinezGetty-1536x1229.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1229,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/MartinezGetty-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/MartinezGetty-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/MartinezGetty.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1600
}
},
"fetchFailed": false,
"isLoading": false
},
"news_12051269": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "news_12051269",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "12051269",
"found": true
},
"title": "250303-AntiochPolice-13-BL_qed (1)",
"publishDate": 1754588662,
"status": "inherit",
"parent": 12051261,
"modified": 1754610050,
"caption": "The A. F. Bray Courthouse Contra Costa Superior Court, in Martinez on March 3, 2025.",
"credit": "Beth LaBerge/KQED",
"altTag": null,
"description": null,
"imgSizes": {
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250303-AntiochPolice-13-BL_qed-1-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250303-AntiochPolice-13-BL_qed-1-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250303-AntiochPolice-13-BL_qed-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250303-AntiochPolice-13-BL_qed-1-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250303-AntiochPolice-13-BL_qed-1.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1333
}
},
"fetchFailed": false,
"isLoading": false
},
"news_12036969": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "news_12036969",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "12036969",
"found": true
},
"title": "Residential homes by the Martinez Refining Company in Martinez on Feb. 3, 2025.",
"publishDate": 1745267903,
"status": "inherit",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1745267962,
"caption": "Residential homes by the Martinez Refining Company in Martinez on Feb. 3, 2025.",
"credit": "Gina Castro/KQED",
"altTag": null,
"description": null,
"imgSizes": {
"medium": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-23_qed-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"height": 533,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-23_qed-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-23_qed-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-23_qed-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-23_qed-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-23_qed-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-23_qed-1920x1280.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"height": 1280,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-23_qed.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1333
}
},
"fetchFailed": false,
"isLoading": false
},
"news_12025560": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "news_12025560",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "12025560",
"found": true
},
"title": "Martinez Refining Company in Martinez on Feb. 3, 2025.",
"publishDate": 1738652387,
"status": "inherit",
"parent": 12026572,
"modified": 1739316912,
"caption": "The Martinez Refining Company in Martinez, California, on Feb. 3, 2025.",
"credit": "Gina Castro/KQED",
"altTag": null,
"description": null,
"imgSizes": {
"medium": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"height": 533,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7-1920x1280.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"height": 1280,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1333
}
},
"fetchFailed": false,
"isLoading": false
},
"news_12025559": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "news_12025559",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "12025559",
"found": true
},
"title": "20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-46",
"publishDate": 1738651778,
"status": "inherit",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1739293638,
"caption": "Ronald Thomas looks toward the Martinez Refining Company, where a fire broke out over the weekend in Martinez, California, on Feb. 3, 2025. Thomas lives across the street from the refinery and said he had to evacuate on Saturday during the fire. He has lived there for four years.",
"credit": "Gina Castro/KQED",
"altTag": null,
"description": null,
"imgSizes": {
"medium": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-46-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"height": 533,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-46-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-46-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-46-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-46-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-46-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-46-1920x1280.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"height": 1280,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-46.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1333
}
},
"fetchFailed": false,
"isLoading": false
},
"news_12025394": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "news_12025394",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "12025394",
"found": true
},
"title": "The PBF refinery in Martinez abuts residential neighborhoods on Sept. 21, 2023.",
"publishDate": 1738607137,
"status": "inherit",
"parent": 12025377,
"modified": 1742511883,
"caption": "The Martinez Refinery Co., owned by PBF Energy, in Martinez, touches residential neighborhoods on Sept. 21, 2023.",
"credit": "Martin do Nascimento/KQED",
"altTag": null,
"description": null,
"imgSizes": {
"medium": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/230921-PBF-MARTINEZ-REFINERY-MD-04_qed-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"height": 533,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/230921-PBF-MARTINEZ-REFINERY-MD-04_qed-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/230921-PBF-MARTINEZ-REFINERY-MD-04_qed-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/230921-PBF-MARTINEZ-REFINERY-MD-04_qed-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/230921-PBF-MARTINEZ-REFINERY-MD-04_qed-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/230921-PBF-MARTINEZ-REFINERY-MD-04_qed-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/230921-PBF-MARTINEZ-REFINERY-MD-04_qed-1920x1280.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"height": 1280,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/230921-PBF-MARTINEZ-REFINERY-MD-04_qed.jpg",
"width": 1999,
"height": 1333
}
},
"fetchFailed": false,
"isLoading": false
},
"news_12025294": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "news_12025294",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "12025294",
"found": true
},
"title": "475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n",
"publishDate": 1738464437,
"status": "inherit",
"parent": 12025273,
"modified": 1738464595,
"caption": "Contra Costa County Fire Department firefighters outside the Martinez Refining Company as smoke billows from the refinery on Saturday in Martinez.",
"credit": "Courtesy of the city of Martinez",
"altTag": null,
"description": null,
"imgSizes": {
"medium": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621-800x553.jpg",
"width": 800,
"height": 553,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621-1020x706.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 706,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621-160x111.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 111,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-1229x1536.jpg",
"width": 1229,
"height": 1536,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621.jpg",
"width": 1440,
"height": 996
}
},
"fetchFailed": false,
"isLoading": false
},
"news_12002164": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "news_12002164",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "12002164",
"found": true
},
"title": "The town of Port Costa in Contra Costa County on Aug. 27, 2024.",
"publishDate": 1724870110,
"status": "inherit",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1724870369,
"caption": "The town of Port Costa in Contra Costa County on Aug. 27, 2024.",
"credit": "Beth LaBerge/KQED",
"altTag": null,
"description": null,
"imgSizes": {
"medium": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-63-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"height": 533,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-63-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-63-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-63-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-63-BL-KQED-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-63-BL-KQED-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-63-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"height": 1280,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-63-BL-KQED.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1333
}
},
"fetchFailed": false,
"isLoading": false
}
},
"audioPlayerReducer": {
"postId": "stream_live",
"isPaused": true,
"isPlaying": false,
"pfsActive": false,
"pledgeModalIsOpen": true,
"playerDrawerIsOpen": false
},
"authorsReducer": {
"katrinaschwartz": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "234",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "234",
"found": true
},
"name": "Katrina Schwartz",
"firstName": "Katrina",
"lastName": "Schwartz",
"slug": "katrinaschwartz",
"email": "kschwartz@kqed.org",
"display_author_email": false,
"staff_mastheads": [
"news"
],
"title": "Producer",
"bio": "Katrina Schwartz is a journalist based in San Francisco. She's worked at KPCC public radio in LA and has reported on air and online for KQED since 2010. She covered how teaching and learning is changing for MindShift between 2012 and 2020. She is the co-host of the MindShift podcast and now produces KQED's Bay Curious podcast.",
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/a6a567574dafefa959593925eead665c?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": "kschwart",
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "news",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "mindshift",
"roles": [
"administrator"
]
},
{
"site": "stateofhealth",
"roles": [
"author"
]
},
{
"site": "science",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "Katrina Schwartz | KQED",
"description": "Producer",
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/a6a567574dafefa959593925eead665c?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/a6a567574dafefa959593925eead665c?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/katrinaschwartz"
},
"kqed": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "236",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "236",
"found": true
},
"name": "KQED News Staff",
"firstName": "KQED News Staff",
"lastName": null,
"slug": "kqed",
"email": "faq@kqed.org",
"display_author_email": false,
"staff_mastheads": [],
"title": null,
"bio": null,
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/ef0e801a68c4c54afa9180db14084167?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": null,
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "arts",
"roles": [
"contributor"
]
},
{
"site": "news",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "futureofyou",
"roles": [
"author"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "KQED News Staff | KQED",
"description": null,
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/ef0e801a68c4c54afa9180db14084167?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/ef0e801a68c4c54afa9180db14084167?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/kqed"
},
"matthewgreen": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "1263",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "1263",
"found": true
},
"name": "Matthew Green",
"firstName": "Matthew",
"lastName": "Green",
"slug": "matthewgreen",
"email": "mgreen@kqed.org",
"display_author_email": false,
"staff_mastheads": [],
"title": "KQED Editor/Reporter",
"bio": "Matthew Green is a digital media producer for KQED News. He previously produced \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/lowdown\">The Lowdown\u003c/a>, KQED’s multimedia news education blog. Matthew's written for numerous Bay Area publications, including the Oakland Tribune and San Francisco Chronicle. He also taught journalism classes at Fremont High School in East Oakland.\r\n\r\nEmail: mgreen@kqed.org; Twitter: @MGreenKQED",
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3bf498d1267ca02c8494f33d8cfc575e?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": "MGreenKQED",
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "news",
"roles": []
},
{
"site": "lowdown",
"roles": []
},
{
"site": "science",
"roles": []
},
{
"site": "education",
"roles": []
},
{
"site": "quest",
"roles": []
},
{
"site": "liveblog",
"roles": []
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "Matthew Green | KQED",
"description": "KQED Editor/Reporter",
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3bf498d1267ca02c8494f33d8cfc575e?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3bf498d1267ca02c8494f33d8cfc575e?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/matthewgreen"
},
"jsmall": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "6625",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "6625",
"found": true
},
"name": "Julie Small",
"firstName": "Julie",
"lastName": "Small",
"slug": "jsmall",
"email": "jsmall@kqed.org",
"display_author_email": true,
"staff_mastheads": [
"news"
],
"title": "KQED Contributor",
"bio": "Julie Small reports on criminal justice and immigration.\r\n\r\nShe was part of a team at KQED awarded a regional 2019 Edward R. Murrow award for continuing coverage of the Trump Administration's family separation policy.\r\n\r\nThe Society for Professional Journalists recognized Julie's 2018 \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11636262/the-officer-tased-him-31-times-the-sheriff-called-his-death-an-accident\">reporting\u003c/a> on the San Joaquin County Sheriff's \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11634689/autopsy-doctors-sheriff-overrode-death-findings-to-protect-law-enforcement\">interference\u003c/a> in death investigations with an Excellence in Journalism Award for Ongoing Coverage.\r\n\r\nJulie's\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11039666/two-mentally-ill-inmates-died-one-month-in-santa-clara\"> reporting\u003c/a> with Lisa Pickoff-White on the treatment of mentally ill offenders in California jails earned a 2017 regional Edward R. Murrow Award for news reporting and an investigative reporting award from the SPJ of Northern California.\r\n\r\nBefore joining KQED, Julie covered government and politics in Sacramento for Southern California Public Radio (SCPR). Her 2010 \u003ca href=\"https://www.scpr.org/specials/prisonmedical/\">series\u003c/a> on lapses in California’s prison medical care also won a regional Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting and a Golden Mic Award from the RTNDA of Southern California.\r\n\r\nJulie began her career in journalism in 2000 as the deputy foreign editor for public radio's \u003cem>Marketplace, \u003c/em>while earning her master's degree in journalism from USC’s Annenberg School of Communication.",
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/4baedf201468df97be97c2a9dd7585d0?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": "@SmallRadio2",
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "news",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "stateofhealth",
"roles": [
"author"
]
},
{
"site": "science",
"roles": [
"author"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "Julie Small | KQED",
"description": "KQED Contributor",
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/4baedf201468df97be97c2a9dd7585d0?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/4baedf201468df97be97c2a9dd7585d0?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/jsmall"
},
"clei": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "8617",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "8617",
"found": true
},
"name": "Cecilia Lei",
"firstName": "Cecilia",
"lastName": "Lei",
"slug": "clei",
"email": "clei@KQED.org",
"display_author_email": false,
"staff_mastheads": [],
"title": "KQED Contributor",
"bio": "Cecilia Lei is an on-call host and producer for KQED News and Podcasts. Previously, she was the executive producer and host of the San Francisco Chronicle's daily news podcast, 'Fifth and Mission'. Cecilia is a graduate of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and the former president of the Asian American Journalists Association San Francisco Bay Area chapter.",
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/40975f1f88fccf628ee537bf6ffc2af8?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": null,
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "arts",
"roles": [
"contributor"
]
},
{
"site": "news",
"roles": [
"author",
"read_private_posts"
]
},
{
"site": "about",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "Cecilia Lei | KQED",
"description": "KQED Contributor",
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/40975f1f88fccf628ee537bf6ffc2af8?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/40975f1f88fccf628ee537bf6ffc2af8?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/clei"
},
"jessicakariisa": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "11831",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "11831",
"found": true
},
"name": "Jessica Kariisa",
"firstName": "Jessica",
"lastName": "Kariisa",
"slug": "jessicakariisa",
"email": "jkariisa@kqed.org",
"display_author_email": false,
"staff_mastheads": [
"news"
],
"title": "Producer, The Bay",
"bio": "Jessica Kariisa is the producer of The Bay. She first joined KQED as an intern for The California Report Magazine, after which she became an on-call producer. She reported a Bay Curious episode on the use of rap lyrics in criminal trials which won a Society of Professional Journalists award in 2023 for Excellence in Features Journalism and the 2023 Signal Award for Best Conversation Starter. She’s worked on podcasts for Snap Judgment and American Public Media. Before embarking on her audio career, she was a music journalist.\r\n\r\nJessica Kariisa is represented by SAG-AFTRA.",
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/4afd355fd24f5515aeab77fd6c72b671?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": null,
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "arts",
"roles": [
"author"
]
},
{
"site": "news",
"roles": [
"editor",
"manage_categories"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "Jessica Kariisa | KQED",
"description": "Producer, The Bay",
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/4afd355fd24f5515aeab77fd6c72b671?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/4afd355fd24f5515aeab77fd6c72b671?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/jessicakariisa"
},
"kmonahan": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "11842",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "11842",
"found": true
},
"name": "Katherine Monahan",
"firstName": "Katherine",
"lastName": "Monahan",
"slug": "kmonahan",
"email": "kmonahan@kqed.org",
"display_author_email": true,
"staff_mastheads": [],
"title": "Reporter / Sound Engineer",
"bio": "I cover state and local news. I’m also a sound engineer at the station, mixing stories and running live broadcasts. I link to source materials so that readers can draw their own conclusions, and seek comment from a range of perspectives, including from people directly affected by events. Awards received include from the Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California chapter and the Alaska Press Club. I speak multiple languages and have reported and engineered in the Bay Area, Alaska, West Africa and Latin America.",
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/ed63e1170ee4abe7e85e75cfcbdfc787?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": null,
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "news",
"roles": [
"contributor"
]
},
{
"site": "science",
"roles": [
"contributor"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "Katherine Monahan | KQED",
"description": "Reporter / Sound Engineer",
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/ed63e1170ee4abe7e85e75cfcbdfc787?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/ed63e1170ee4abe7e85e75cfcbdfc787?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/kmonahan"
},
"kdebenedetti": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "11913",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "11913",
"found": true
},
"name": "Katie DeBenedetti",
"firstName": "Katie",
"lastName": "DeBenedetti",
"slug": "kdebenedetti",
"email": "kdebenedetti@kqed.org",
"display_author_email": false,
"staff_mastheads": [
"news",
"science"
],
"title": "KQED Contributor",
"bio": "Katie DeBenedetti is a digital reporter covering daily news for the Express Desk. Prior to joining KQED as a culture reporting intern in January 2024, she covered education and city government for the Napa Valley Register.",
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/6e31073cb8f7e4214ab03f42771d0f45?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": null,
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "news",
"roles": [
"author"
]
},
{
"site": "science",
"roles": [
"author"
]
},
{
"site": "liveblog",
"roles": [
"author"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "Katie DeBenedetti | KQED",
"description": "KQED Contributor",
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/6e31073cb8f7e4214ab03f42771d0f45?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/6e31073cb8f7e4214ab03f42771d0f45?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/kdebenedetti"
},
"skennedy": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "11935",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "11935",
"found": true
},
"name": "Samantha Kennedy",
"firstName": "Samantha",
"lastName": "Kennedy",
"slug": "skennedy",
"email": "SKennedy@kqed.org",
"display_author_email": false,
"staff_mastheads": [],
"title": "KQED Contributor",
"bio": null,
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/43c08445062d04cdb6776b73517064c6?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": null,
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "news",
"roles": [
"author"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "Samantha Kennedy | KQED",
"description": "KQED Contributor",
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/43c08445062d04cdb6776b73517064c6?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/43c08445062d04cdb6776b73517064c6?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/skennedy"
},
"mvelasquez": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "11939",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "11939",
"found": true
},
"name": "Mel Velasquez",
"firstName": "Mel",
"lastName": "Velasquez",
"slug": "mvelasquez",
"email": "mvelasquez@kqed.org",
"display_author_email": false,
"staff_mastheads": [],
"title": "KQED Contributor",
"bio": null,
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/409094312d56fab09fef4251e949ffa6?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": null,
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": "www.linkedin.com/in/melanievelasquezz",
"sites": [
{
"site": "news",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "Mel Velasquez | KQED",
"description": "KQED Contributor",
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/409094312d56fab09fef4251e949ffa6?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/409094312d56fab09fef4251e949ffa6?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/mvelasquez"
}
},
"breakingNewsReducer": {},
"pagesReducer": {},
"postsReducer": {
"stream_live": {
"type": "live",
"id": "stream_live",
"audioUrl": "https://streams.kqed.org/kqedradio",
"title": "Live Stream",
"excerpt": "Live Stream information currently unavailable.",
"link": "/radio",
"featImg": "",
"label": {
"name": "KQED Live",
"link": "/"
}
},
"stream_kqedNewscast": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "stream_kqedNewscast",
"audioUrl": "https://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/RDnews/newscast.mp3?_=1",
"title": "KQED Newscast",
"featImg": "",
"label": {
"name": "88.5 FM",
"link": "/"
}
},
"news_12052204": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "news_12052204",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "12052204",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1755207075000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "bay-area-air-district-sues-martinez-landfill-owner-over-alleged-methane-leak",
"title": "Bay Area Air District Sues Martinez Landfill Owner Over Alleged Methane Leak",
"publishDate": 1755207075,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "Bay Area Air District Sues Martinez Landfill Owner Over Alleged Methane Leak | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"site": "news"
},
"content": "\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area-air-quality-management-district\">Bay Area Air District\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/files/communications-and-outreach/news-and-events/penalties-and-assessments/acme-complaint-081325.pdf\"> filed a lawsuit\u003c/a> this week against the operator of a Martinez landfill for allegedly violating air quality regulations set by local and state agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit alleges that the Acme Fill Corporation’s landfill, located at 950 Waterbird Way, illegally emitted methane and other toxic contaminants that exceeded the limits set by the Air District and the California Air Resources Board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We take our enforcement responsibilities seriously, and when facilities fail to comply with air quality regulations, we are prepared to pursue legal action to ensure violators are held accountable,” said Philip Fine, the Air District’s executive officer, in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district is asking that the company pay up to $87,850 for its violations, with each violation costing $12,550 per day, according to the lawsuit.[aside postID=news_12048605 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/025_KQED_SchnitzerSteelPortofOakland_03082022_qed.jpg']Acme did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit comes nearly two years after the Air District said it conducted a compliance inspection on Aug. 24, 2023, that found four leaks that exceeded legal limits. The district said the inspection also found that the landfill’s gas collection system was leaking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two of those leaks exceeded methane and other organic compound limits by more than 30 and 20 times. The landfill exceeded emissions limits for one or two days, depending on the location of the leak, according to the complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Methane is a “potent greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to climate change,” Fine said in the statement. The Air District said methane is also linked to respiratory and cardiovascular harm and can contribute to smog formation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district issued two notices of violations on Jan. 9, 2024, for the leaks, according to the lawsuit. On May 23, the Air District issued another — unrelated to the lawsuit — notice of violation that regulates the gas collection systems at landfills, according to public records. The status of those notices is pending.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the alleged 2023 violations, \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/files/engineering/title-v-permits/a1464/a1464_acme_fill_corporation_072924_a-pdf.pdf?rev=dabb43c1de0e42ec8af02c44ed99d021&sc_lang=en\">an inspection \u003c/a>conducted last year by the Air District found that the landfill had come into compliance with air quality regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and a significant contributor to climate change, said a Bay Area Air District official. ",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1755211035,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 11,
"wordCount": 369
},
"headData": {
"title": "Bay Area Air District Sues Martinez Landfill Owner Over Alleged Methane Leak | KQED",
"description": "Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and a significant contributor to climate change, said a Bay Area Air District official. ",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "NewsArticle",
"headline": "Bay Area Air District Sues Martinez Landfill Owner Over Alleged Methane Leak",
"datePublished": "2025-08-14T14:31:15-07:00",
"dateModified": "2025-08-14T15:37:15-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"isAccessibleForFree": "True",
"publisher": {
"@type": "NewsMediaOrganization",
"@id": "https://www.kqed.org/#organization",
"name": "KQED",
"logo": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"url": "https://www.kqed.org",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/KQED",
"https://twitter.com/KQED",
"https://www.instagram.com/kqed/",
"https://www.tiktok.com/@kqedofficial",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/kqed",
"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeC0IOo7i1P_61zVUWbJ4nw"
]
}
}
},
"primaryCategory": {
"termId": 8,
"slug": "news",
"name": "News"
},
"sticky": false,
"nprStoryId": "kqed-12052204",
"templateType": "standard",
"featuredImageType": "standard",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/news/12052204/bay-area-air-district-sues-martinez-landfill-owner-over-alleged-methane-leak",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area-air-quality-management-district\">Bay Area Air District\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/files/communications-and-outreach/news-and-events/penalties-and-assessments/acme-complaint-081325.pdf\"> filed a lawsuit\u003c/a> this week against the operator of a Martinez landfill for allegedly violating air quality regulations set by local and state agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit alleges that the Acme Fill Corporation’s landfill, located at 950 Waterbird Way, illegally emitted methane and other toxic contaminants that exceeded the limits set by the Air District and the California Air Resources Board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We take our enforcement responsibilities seriously, and when facilities fail to comply with air quality regulations, we are prepared to pursue legal action to ensure violators are held accountable,” said Philip Fine, the Air District’s executive officer, in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district is asking that the company pay up to $87,850 for its violations, with each violation costing $12,550 per day, according to the lawsuit.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "news_12048605",
"hero": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/025_KQED_SchnitzerSteelPortofOakland_03082022_qed.jpg",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Acme did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit comes nearly two years after the Air District said it conducted a compliance inspection on Aug. 24, 2023, that found four leaks that exceeded legal limits. The district said the inspection also found that the landfill’s gas collection system was leaking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two of those leaks exceeded methane and other organic compound limits by more than 30 and 20 times. The landfill exceeded emissions limits for one or two days, depending on the location of the leak, according to the complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Methane is a “potent greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to climate change,” Fine said in the statement. The Air District said methane is also linked to respiratory and cardiovascular harm and can contribute to smog formation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district issued two notices of violations on Jan. 9, 2024, for the leaks, according to the lawsuit. On May 23, the Air District issued another — unrelated to the lawsuit — notice of violation that regulates the gas collection systems at landfills, according to public records. The status of those notices is pending.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the alleged 2023 violations, \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/files/engineering/title-v-permits/a1464/a1464_acme_fill_corporation_072924_a-pdf.pdf?rev=dabb43c1de0e42ec8af02c44ed99d021&sc_lang=en\">an inspection \u003c/a>conducted last year by the Air District found that the landfill had come into compliance with air quality regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/news/12052204/bay-area-air-district-sues-martinez-landfill-owner-over-alleged-methane-leak",
"authors": [
"11935"
],
"categories": [
"news_34165",
"news_19906",
"news_457",
"news_28250",
"news_8"
],
"tags": [
"news_32080",
"news_2036",
"news_2928",
"news_1386",
"news_20628",
"news_255",
"news_18352",
"news_20023",
"news_31830",
"news_35099",
"news_21891",
"news_227",
"news_19960"
],
"featImg": "news_12052267",
"label": "news"
},
"news_12051261": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "news_12051261",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "12051261",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1754607925000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "former-contra-costa-deputy-released-early-from-prison-denied-release-from-parole",
"title": "Former Contra Costa Deputy, Released Early From Prison, Denied Release From Parole",
"publishDate": 1754607925,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "Former Contra Costa Deputy, Released Early From Prison, Denied Release From Parole | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"site": "news"
},
"content": "\u003cp>Months after the former Contra Costa County Sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot an unarmed man \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033616/former-contra-costa-deputy-released-early-after-fatal-2018-shooting-sparking-outrage\">was released early from prison\u003c/a>, a judge declined to reduce his punishment again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andrew Hall, who was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11907219/we-prayed-he-would-get-jail-time-ex-contra-costa-cop-gets-6-years-in-prison-for-killing-man-with-mental-illness\">convicted in 2021 of assault for fatally shooting \u003c/a>Laudemer Arboleda, was denied early release from his parole on Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hall was released from prison back in March after only serving half of his six-year sentence for fatally shooting Arboleda in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the end of the day, my brother is still not here. Tyrell Wilson is still not here. The lives he took are still not here. He should do his parole the whole time; he was convicted,” Jennifer Leong, Arboleda’s sister, told KQED. “I still have faith in this court system, and today — today — they gave me some hope.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charges for Arboleda’s death were filed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11870567/video-footage-of-tyrell-wilson-killing-released-as-same-danville-officer-charged-in-another-death\">a month after Hall shot and killed\u003c/a> Wilson, a 32-year-old man who was homeless and suffering from depression. Hall was never charged with the death of Wilson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leong and around a dozen supporters rallied ahead of Thursday’s hearing outside the A.F. Bray Courthouse in Martinez to protest Hall’s potential early release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11707357\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11707357\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS33986_alt_800-e1542667208147.jpg\" alt=\"Jessica Leong, whose uncle Laudemer Arboleta was shot and killed by a police officer in Danville Nov. 3, speaks at a press conference announcing a legal claim filed agains the city on Nov. 19.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"974\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS33986_alt_800-e1542667208147.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS33986_alt_800-e1542667208147-160x81.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS33986_alt_800-e1542667208147-800x406.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS33986_alt_800-e1542667208147-1020x517.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS33986_alt_800-e1542667208147-1200x609.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jessica Leong, whose uncle, Laudemer Arboleda, was shot and killed by a police officer in Danville on Nov. 3, speaks at a press conference announcing a legal claim filed against the city on Nov. 19, 2018. \u003ccite>(Alex Emslie/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s not a happy day. It’s not a day to celebrate. It’s one part in this journey that’s been in the interest of justice and fairness and objectivity,” Bella Quinto Collins, the sister of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11986351/family-of-man-suffocated-by-antioch-police-restraint-to-get-7-5-million-settlement\">Angelo Quinto, who Antioch police officers killed in 2020\u003c/a>, told KQED after the hearing. “It was extremely entitled of Hall, who has been remorseless from the get-go, to even request an early release from a parole that was only two years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Arboleda had led officers on a nine-minute-long car chase on Nov. 3, 2018, before Hall arrived on scene and attempted to block Arboleda’s car at the intersection of Diablo and Front streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hall got out of his car and stepped in front of Arboleda’s car before firing into the windshield, according to footage from a police car’s dashcam. Arboleda was shot nine times and died at the scene.[aside postID=news_12051263 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250530-DublinEmployees-60-BL_qed.jpg']Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton said, “given the severity of the offense and its impact on the community,” that her office opposed Hall’s request.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office remains steadfast in its commitment to protecting victims’ rights and ensuring justice for the Arboleda family and the community at large,” Becton said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hall was initially charged with assault with a deadly weapon and voluntary manslaughter. But the voluntary manslaughter charge was dismissed after the jury deadlocked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hall’s early release from prison months ago also drew criticism from Leong, sparking a similar rally outside the Sheriff’s Office in Martinez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in March said Hall had completed his prison sentence after earning credits for good behavior and participation in rehabilitative programs. Leong, who was notified by the CDCR’s Office of Victim and Survivor Rights and Services of the release that month, later only learned Hall had been released that morning by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Upon Hall’s release, Contra Costa County Sheriff David Livingston, who’s backed Hall since he was first charged in Arboleda’s death, said Hall “never should have been in prison in the first place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jlara\">\u003cem>Juan Carlos Lara\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "Former Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Deputy Andrew Hall was denied early release from parole after the 2018 fatal shooting of Laudemer Arboleda.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1754610205,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 17,
"wordCount": 662
},
"headData": {
"title": "Former Contra Costa Deputy, Released Early From Prison, Denied Release From Parole | KQED",
"description": "Former Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Deputy Andrew Hall was denied early release from parole after the 2018 fatal shooting of Laudemer Arboleda.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "NewsArticle",
"headline": "Former Contra Costa Deputy, Released Early From Prison, Denied Release From Parole",
"datePublished": "2025-08-07T16:05:25-07:00",
"dateModified": "2025-08-07T16:43:25-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"isAccessibleForFree": "True",
"publisher": {
"@type": "NewsMediaOrganization",
"@id": "https://www.kqed.org/#organization",
"name": "KQED",
"logo": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"url": "https://www.kqed.org",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/KQED",
"https://twitter.com/KQED",
"https://www.instagram.com/kqed/",
"https://www.tiktok.com/@kqedofficial",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/kqed",
"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeC0IOo7i1P_61zVUWbJ4nw"
]
}
}
},
"primaryCategory": {
"termId": 8,
"slug": "news",
"name": "News"
},
"sticky": false,
"nprStoryId": "kqed-12051261",
"templateType": "standard",
"featuredImageType": "standard",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/news/12051261/former-contra-costa-deputy-released-early-from-prison-denied-release-from-parole",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Months after the former Contra Costa County Sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot an unarmed man \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033616/former-contra-costa-deputy-released-early-after-fatal-2018-shooting-sparking-outrage\">was released early from prison\u003c/a>, a judge declined to reduce his punishment again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andrew Hall, who was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11907219/we-prayed-he-would-get-jail-time-ex-contra-costa-cop-gets-6-years-in-prison-for-killing-man-with-mental-illness\">convicted in 2021 of assault for fatally shooting \u003c/a>Laudemer Arboleda, was denied early release from his parole on Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hall was released from prison back in March after only serving half of his six-year sentence for fatally shooting Arboleda in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the end of the day, my brother is still not here. Tyrell Wilson is still not here. The lives he took are still not here. He should do his parole the whole time; he was convicted,” Jennifer Leong, Arboleda’s sister, told KQED. “I still have faith in this court system, and today — today — they gave me some hope.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charges for Arboleda’s death were filed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11870567/video-footage-of-tyrell-wilson-killing-released-as-same-danville-officer-charged-in-another-death\">a month after Hall shot and killed\u003c/a> Wilson, a 32-year-old man who was homeless and suffering from depression. Hall was never charged with the death of Wilson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leong and around a dozen supporters rallied ahead of Thursday’s hearing outside the A.F. Bray Courthouse in Martinez to protest Hall’s potential early release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11707357\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11707357\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS33986_alt_800-e1542667208147.jpg\" alt=\"Jessica Leong, whose uncle Laudemer Arboleta was shot and killed by a police officer in Danville Nov. 3, speaks at a press conference announcing a legal claim filed agains the city on Nov. 19.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"974\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS33986_alt_800-e1542667208147.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS33986_alt_800-e1542667208147-160x81.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS33986_alt_800-e1542667208147-800x406.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS33986_alt_800-e1542667208147-1020x517.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS33986_alt_800-e1542667208147-1200x609.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jessica Leong, whose uncle, Laudemer Arboleda, was shot and killed by a police officer in Danville on Nov. 3, speaks at a press conference announcing a legal claim filed against the city on Nov. 19, 2018. \u003ccite>(Alex Emslie/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s not a happy day. It’s not a day to celebrate. It’s one part in this journey that’s been in the interest of justice and fairness and objectivity,” Bella Quinto Collins, the sister of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11986351/family-of-man-suffocated-by-antioch-police-restraint-to-get-7-5-million-settlement\">Angelo Quinto, who Antioch police officers killed in 2020\u003c/a>, told KQED after the hearing. “It was extremely entitled of Hall, who has been remorseless from the get-go, to even request an early release from a parole that was only two years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Arboleda had led officers on a nine-minute-long car chase on Nov. 3, 2018, before Hall arrived on scene and attempted to block Arboleda’s car at the intersection of Diablo and Front streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hall got out of his car and stepped in front of Arboleda’s car before firing into the windshield, according to footage from a police car’s dashcam. Arboleda was shot nine times and died at the scene.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "news_12051263",
"hero": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250530-DublinEmployees-60-BL_qed.jpg",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton said, “given the severity of the offense and its impact on the community,” that her office opposed Hall’s request.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office remains steadfast in its commitment to protecting victims’ rights and ensuring justice for the Arboleda family and the community at large,” Becton said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hall was initially charged with assault with a deadly weapon and voluntary manslaughter. But the voluntary manslaughter charge was dismissed after the jury deadlocked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hall’s early release from prison months ago also drew criticism from Leong, sparking a similar rally outside the Sheriff’s Office in Martinez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in March said Hall had completed his prison sentence after earning credits for good behavior and participation in rehabilitative programs. Leong, who was notified by the CDCR’s Office of Victim and Survivor Rights and Services of the release that month, later only learned Hall had been released that morning by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Upon Hall’s release, Contra Costa County Sheriff David Livingston, who’s backed Hall since he was first charged in Arboleda’s death, said Hall “never should have been in prison in the first place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jlara\">\u003cem>Juan Carlos Lara\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/news/12051261/former-contra-costa-deputy-released-early-from-prison-denied-release-from-parole",
"authors": [
"11935"
],
"categories": [
"news_34167",
"news_6188",
"news_28250",
"news_8"
],
"tags": [
"news_1386",
"news_18538",
"news_17725",
"news_227",
"news_17835",
"news_116"
],
"featImg": "news_12051269",
"label": "news"
},
"news_12042387": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "news_12042387",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "12042387",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1748961051000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "massive-martinez-refinery-fire-in-february-caused-by-human-error-investigation-finds",
"title": "Massive Martinez Refinery Fire in February Caused by Human Error, Investigation Finds",
"publishDate": 1748961051,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "Massive Martinez Refinery Fire in February Caused by Human Error, Investigation Finds | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"site": "news"
},
"content": "\u003cp>Human error, worker inexperience and lack of supervision were at the root of early February’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026572/10-days-after-martinez-refinery-fire-new-details-toxic-chemicals-released\">massive fire at the PBF Energy refinery\u003c/a> in Martinez, according to an independent investigation commissioned by Contra Costa County health officials that will be presented to the refinery’s oversight committee on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After starting on Feb. 1, the blaze burned for days, prompting a shelter-in-place advisory for surrounding neighborhoods. The subsequent two-month shutdown of the refinery, which produces more than 156,000 barrels of crude oil per day and accounts for \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/energy-almanac/californias-petroleum-market/californias-oil-refineries\">nearly 10% of California’s total production\u003c/a>, led to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/news/2025-02/californias-petroleum-watchdog-issues-market-update-and-consumer-advisory\">surge in gas prices\u003c/a> throughout the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cchealth.org/home/showpublisheddocument/31810/638839587286590004\">21-page report\u003c/a> by consulting firm JEM Advisors, the fire ignited when two contract union workers mistakenly loosened the bolts on a flange full of hot hydrocarbons during a routine but hazardous procedure called a turnaround, in which a piece of equipment or a processing unit is taken offline to be cleaned, inspected and repaired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The workers fled the unit as the fluid started leaking and pooling on the ground, igniting within a minute and rapidly intensifying as other pipe systems failed, according to the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The main culprit, the investigation determined, was the “inadequate” supervision and training of the contract workers tasked with completing the critical operation. The report’s authors blame that deficit, in part, on “regulatory issues impacting contractor skill sets, selection and training,” noting that “there are few options to address the gaps brought about by the regulatory policies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In particular, the investigation singled out \u003ca href=\"http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/13-14/bill/sen/sb_0051-0100/sb_54_cfa_20130911_104104_sen_floor.html#:~:text=Qualified%20journeypersons%20must%20be%20graduates,state's%20transportation%20and%20fuel%20supplies.\">SB 54\u003c/a>, a 2013 California law that requires refineries to hire many of their contractors from local union halls and ensure they are enrolled in or graduates of approved apprenticeship programs. As a result, the report said, the Martinez refinery is often unable to rehire the most experienced workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12032370\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1440px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12032370\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1440\" height=\"996\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621-800x553.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621-1020x706.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621-160x111.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Contra Costa County Fire Department firefighters outside the Martinez Refining Company as smoke billows from the refinery on Feb. 2, 2025, in Martinez. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Contra Costa County Fire Department)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Past resources that included ‘professional shutdown execution’ personnel from other locations are no longer available for PBF to use on turnarounds,” the report said. “There is no confirmation that contract workers understand the most significant process hazards and simultaneous operation hazards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contra Costa County health officials declined to comment on the report ahead of Tuesday’s hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>JEM Advisors, which did not respond to requests for comment, is a private national firm of oil industry experts, many of whom previously worked for Chevron and other major oil companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report additionally faulted California’s co-employment rules, in which two entities have some degree of control over the same workers — in this case, PBF Energy and TIMEC, the Texas-based company that employed the two contractors. Those regulations, the report said, preclude the refinery from directly approving contractor safety plans and providing critical safety training to those workers.[aside postID=news_12031389 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7-1020x680.jpg']“As a result of these two regulations, there is now a higher likelihood for human errors entering into maintenance work performed by contractor resources,” the report said, also noting that one team of contract workers created the maintenance operation plan, while a different team executed it, without the necessary supervision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TIMEC did not return a request for comment by publication.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after the Martinez refinery resumed operations in April, Valero announced it \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12036242/oil-giant-valero-announces-plans-to-shutter-troubled-benicia-refinery\">planned to close down\u003c/a> its Benicia refinery, just across the Carquinez Strait, within a year, citing burdensome state regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report on the Martinez fire also emphasized that, despite these restrictions, PBF Energy must do more to ensure its operations are conducted safely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report noted that “operational presence from start of job until work is in a safe state is required but not always enforced, and was not in place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As owners of the facility, operations cannot allow the poor performance of others to impact the safety and performance of the refinery,” it said, recommending that the refinery increase oversight of such operations and ensure that workers understand hazard risks before starting projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The February fire, which started around 1:30 p.m. on a Saturday, was the third major incident at the Martinez refinery since Shell sold it to PBF Energy in 2020 — including \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952517/martinez-refinery-chemical-release-poses-no-long-term-hazard-tests-find\">the release\u003c/a> of nearly 50,000 pounds of powdered industrial chemicals into the air in 2022. The incident prompted a growing number of nearby residents to demand greater oversight of the facility, with some calling for it to be shut down altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just seems like this kind of stuff is happening more and more, which is really scary,” Samantha Viano, who has lived in Martinez for 30 years, told KQED after the February fire. “How are they going to stop this from happening? Because I think the whole community is really scared now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/kdebenedetti\">\u003cem>Katie DeBenedetti\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "The Feb. 1 blaze at the PBF Energy facility in Martinez ignited when two contract workers mistakenly loosened the bolts on a flange full of hot hydrocarbons during a routine operation. ",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1748972376,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 20,
"wordCount": 860
},
"headData": {
"title": "Massive Martinez Refinery Fire in February Caused by Human Error, Investigation Finds | KQED",
"description": "The Feb. 1 blaze at the PBF Energy facility in Martinez ignited when two contract workers mistakenly loosened the bolts on a flange full of hot hydrocarbons during a routine operation. ",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "NewsArticle",
"headline": "Massive Martinez Refinery Fire in February Caused by Human Error, Investigation Finds",
"datePublished": "2025-06-03T07:30:51-07:00",
"dateModified": "2025-06-03T10:39:36-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"isAccessibleForFree": "True",
"publisher": {
"@type": "NewsMediaOrganization",
"@id": "https://www.kqed.org/#organization",
"name": "KQED",
"logo": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"url": "https://www.kqed.org",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/KQED",
"https://twitter.com/KQED",
"https://www.instagram.com/kqed/",
"https://www.tiktok.com/@kqedofficial",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/kqed",
"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeC0IOo7i1P_61zVUWbJ4nw"
]
}
}
},
"sticky": false,
"nprStoryId": "kqed-12042387",
"templateType": "standard",
"featuredImageType": "standard",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/news/12042387/massive-martinez-refinery-fire-in-february-caused-by-human-error-investigation-finds",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Human error, worker inexperience and lack of supervision were at the root of early February’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026572/10-days-after-martinez-refinery-fire-new-details-toxic-chemicals-released\">massive fire at the PBF Energy refinery\u003c/a> in Martinez, according to an independent investigation commissioned by Contra Costa County health officials that will be presented to the refinery’s oversight committee on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After starting on Feb. 1, the blaze burned for days, prompting a shelter-in-place advisory for surrounding neighborhoods. The subsequent two-month shutdown of the refinery, which produces more than 156,000 barrels of crude oil per day and accounts for \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/energy-almanac/californias-petroleum-market/californias-oil-refineries\">nearly 10% of California’s total production\u003c/a>, led to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/news/2025-02/californias-petroleum-watchdog-issues-market-update-and-consumer-advisory\">surge in gas prices\u003c/a> throughout the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cchealth.org/home/showpublisheddocument/31810/638839587286590004\">21-page report\u003c/a> by consulting firm JEM Advisors, the fire ignited when two contract union workers mistakenly loosened the bolts on a flange full of hot hydrocarbons during a routine but hazardous procedure called a turnaround, in which a piece of equipment or a processing unit is taken offline to be cleaned, inspected and repaired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The workers fled the unit as the fluid started leaking and pooling on the ground, igniting within a minute and rapidly intensifying as other pipe systems failed, according to the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The main culprit, the investigation determined, was the “inadequate” supervision and training of the contract workers tasked with completing the critical operation. The report’s authors blame that deficit, in part, on “regulatory issues impacting contractor skill sets, selection and training,” noting that “there are few options to address the gaps brought about by the regulatory policies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In particular, the investigation singled out \u003ca href=\"http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/13-14/bill/sen/sb_0051-0100/sb_54_cfa_20130911_104104_sen_floor.html#:~:text=Qualified%20journeypersons%20must%20be%20graduates,state's%20transportation%20and%20fuel%20supplies.\">SB 54\u003c/a>, a 2013 California law that requires refineries to hire many of their contractors from local union halls and ensure they are enrolled in or graduates of approved apprenticeship programs. As a result, the report said, the Martinez refinery is often unable to rehire the most experienced workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12032370\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1440px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12032370\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1440\" height=\"996\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621-800x553.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621-1020x706.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621-160x111.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Contra Costa County Fire Department firefighters outside the Martinez Refining Company as smoke billows from the refinery on Feb. 2, 2025, in Martinez. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Contra Costa County Fire Department)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Past resources that included ‘professional shutdown execution’ personnel from other locations are no longer available for PBF to use on turnarounds,” the report said. “There is no confirmation that contract workers understand the most significant process hazards and simultaneous operation hazards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contra Costa County health officials declined to comment on the report ahead of Tuesday’s hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>JEM Advisors, which did not respond to requests for comment, is a private national firm of oil industry experts, many of whom previously worked for Chevron and other major oil companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report additionally faulted California’s co-employment rules, in which two entities have some degree of control over the same workers — in this case, PBF Energy and TIMEC, the Texas-based company that employed the two contractors. Those regulations, the report said, preclude the refinery from directly approving contractor safety plans and providing critical safety training to those workers.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "news_12031389",
"hero": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7-1020x680.jpg",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“As a result of these two regulations, there is now a higher likelihood for human errors entering into maintenance work performed by contractor resources,” the report said, also noting that one team of contract workers created the maintenance operation plan, while a different team executed it, without the necessary supervision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>TIMEC did not return a request for comment by publication.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after the Martinez refinery resumed operations in April, Valero announced it \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12036242/oil-giant-valero-announces-plans-to-shutter-troubled-benicia-refinery\">planned to close down\u003c/a> its Benicia refinery, just across the Carquinez Strait, within a year, citing burdensome state regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report on the Martinez fire also emphasized that, despite these restrictions, PBF Energy must do more to ensure its operations are conducted safely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report noted that “operational presence from start of job until work is in a safe state is required but not always enforced, and was not in place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As owners of the facility, operations cannot allow the poor performance of others to impact the safety and performance of the refinery,” it said, recommending that the refinery increase oversight of such operations and ensure that workers understand hazard risks before starting projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The February fire, which started around 1:30 p.m. on a Saturday, was the third major incident at the Martinez refinery since Shell sold it to PBF Energy in 2020 — including \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952517/martinez-refinery-chemical-release-poses-no-long-term-hazard-tests-find\">the release\u003c/a> of nearly 50,000 pounds of powdered industrial chemicals into the air in 2022. The incident prompted a growing number of nearby residents to demand greater oversight of the facility, with some calling for it to be shut down altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just seems like this kind of stuff is happening more and more, which is really scary,” Samantha Viano, who has lived in Martinez for 30 years, told KQED after the February fire. “How are they going to stop this from happening? Because I think the whole community is really scared now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/kdebenedetti\">\u003cem>Katie DeBenedetti\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/news/12042387/massive-martinez-refinery-fire-in-february-caused-by-human-error-investigation-finds",
"authors": [
"6625",
"1263"
],
"categories": [
"news_19906",
"news_28250",
"news_8"
],
"tags": [
"news_2036",
"news_1467",
"news_18352",
"news_31830",
"news_27626",
"news_18543",
"news_227",
"news_20455",
"news_29527",
"news_19960"
],
"featImg": "news_12036969",
"label": "news"
},
"news_12031389": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "news_12031389",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "12031389",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1742509702000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "martinez-residents-call-for-delayed-reopening-of-refinery-after-massive-fire",
"title": "Martinez Residents Call for Delayed Reopening of Refinery After Massive Fire",
"publishDate": 1742509702,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "Martinez Residents Call for Delayed Reopening of Refinery After Massive Fire | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"site": "news"
},
"content": "\u003cp>Martinez residents used words like “traumatized” and “terrorized” to describe living through \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025377/huge-martinez-refinery-fire-renews-neighbors-fear-frustration\">the East Bay refinery fire\u003c/a> that broke out on Feb. 1, sending a column of black smoke hundreds of feet above the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a town hall meeting last week, residents recounted watching from their driveways as flames and smoke licked over pipelines at the Martinez Refining Co. amid a roar that sounded like a jet taking off. Some who feared a catastrophic explosion or \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026572/10-days-after-martinez-refinery-fire-new-details-toxic-chemicals-released\">toxic release\u003c/a> said they fled the city with their families and pets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those worst-case scenarios didn’t materialize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the March 13 meeting, regulators told around 200 residents who attended that first responders and refinery crews contained the fire within several hours; that six workers who received first aid hadn’t sustained serious injuries; that the smoke that contained hazardous and cancer-causing chemicals blew away from densely populated neighborhoods and that preliminary air, water and soil testing detected no excessive levels of toxic chemicals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But those preliminary findings did little to assuage residents’ anger over the fire, leading some to question the refinery’s plan to reopen in April before investigations into the fire’s cause and the consequences for workers, residents and the environment are complete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire was the latest in a series of major incidents since 2020 that have fueled widespread criticism and fostered mistrust in the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Nov. 24, 2022, the refinery released a cloud of spent catalyst that blanked the town in a powdery white substance that looked like ash. The refinery operator failed to notify regulators on time and issued conflicting information about the material released.[aside postID=news_12026572 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-46-1020x680.jpg']On July 11, 2023, and Oct. 6, 2023, the refinery unintentionally released petroleum coke dust — a refining byproduct that looks like soot and is made up of particulate matter that can irritate lungs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Clearly, the refinery does not care about any of the penalties associated with their violations if these types of situations keep happening,” said Elizabeth Butler, who has lived in Martinez for more than a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What if there was an explosion? Martinez would be gone,” Butler continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How is anyone in this room supposed to have any amount of hope moving forward?” said Justin Gomez, an activist with local watchdog group Healthy Martinez. “The policies as they exist now, whether it’s the industrial safety ordinance, whether it’s the state investigations — it doesn’t seem like there’s any lever that can be pulled that will disincentivize this insanity that’s happening over and over again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Martinez Refining Co. took over operations in 2020 after New Jersey-based parent company PBF Energy purchased the facility from Shell. The Bay Area Air District has issued 173 notice of violation tickets to the refinery since MRC began operations and is working with the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office on an enforcement case for “nearly all” of the outstanding violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Refinery manager Dan Ingram told town hall attendees that the company prioritizes worker and community safety and that it has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in environmental and safety compliance and other regulatory requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have lots of policies, procedures, things to prevent accidents like this from occurring,” Ingram said. “We need to finish the root-cause investigation so we can understand exactly what took place here, so we can work to prevent it in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added, “That is our commitment to this community: to work night and day until we understand it and we can work to prevent it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ingram said only the refinery units undamaged by the fire will resume fuel production next month. Damaged units will require an estimated $30 million to repair but should be running again in September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Community advocates say the reopening of the refinery should be contingent upon the completion of all the investigations into the root cause of the fire, whether any safety regulations were violated and whether toxicology reports point to any long-term health effects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company said its root-cause investigation should be completed by the end of March.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nicole Heath, the county’s director of Hazardous Materials Programs, said the agency hopes to hire a company to complete an independent investigation into the cause of the fire by the end of April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contra Costa Health will retain oversight of the refinery and ensure that the company conducts a pre-startup safety review for each production unit they plan to restart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a\u003ca href=\"https://www.cchealth.org/home/showpublisheddocument/31645/638779686790030000\"> letter\u003c/a> to refinery officials earlier this week, Heath said oversight will continue “until safe startup of the refinery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heath said her agency is giving added scrutiny to the refinery’s recovery due to the severity of the Feb. 1 incident and past safety incidents at the facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fire was classified as a major chemical accident or release, posing a serious threat to workers, residents and the environment,” Heath added. “Given the refinery’s history of safety incidents, Contra Costa Health is taking proactive steps to ensure compliance with all state and local regulations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area Air District has issued three notices of violation to PBF Energy in connection with the fire, citing it as a public nuisance and for excessive smoke and soot fallout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ This was a serious event, but it was not captured by nearby air pollution monitors because of the favorable meteorological conditions,” air district senior spokesperson Viet Tran said at the town hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tran emphasized that the number of notices does not indicate the level of fines likely to be issued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ We consider the extent, duration, harm and other factors in assessing penalties,” he said. “We are continuing to investigate, and additional violations are possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The air board will have final results from air samples by the end of March.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA declined to comment on its ongoing investigation into the Feb. 1 fire. The agency has up to six months to issue citations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve had numerous town halls, numerous meetings, both big public meetings and small meetings, asking for change and improvement,” Martinez Mayor Brianne Zorn told KQED after the town hall, noting that moving the needle will require county regulators to exercise their full oversight powers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The industrial safety ordinance gives them quite a few powers to do quite a few things after incidents and major chemical releases that they may not have taken advantage of after the spent catalyst release or the coke dust incidents,” Zorn said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shanelle Scales-Preston, a Contra Costa Board of Supervisors member whose district includes Martinez, convened last week’s town hall. She told residents she’s identified one power the county hasn’t used in relation to the Martinez refinery: a full facility audit that would allow the county to assess the safety and compliance of every unit in the facility, as well as safety procedures and training.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ We’re going to make sure we’re on-site and make sure they’re doing everything they need to do,” Scales said. “ We want to make sure you’re safe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "At a community meeting, Martinez residents and officials clashed with East Bay refinery chiefs, who plan to reopen undamaged units in April. ",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1742597023,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 34,
"wordCount": 1260
},
"headData": {
"title": "Martinez Residents Call for Delayed Reopening of Refinery After Massive Fire | KQED",
"description": "At a community meeting, Martinez residents and officials clashed with East Bay refinery chiefs, who plan to reopen undamaged units in April. ",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "NewsArticle",
"headline": "Martinez Residents Call for Delayed Reopening of Refinery After Massive Fire",
"datePublished": "2025-03-20T15:28:22-07:00",
"dateModified": "2025-03-21T15:43:43-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"isAccessibleForFree": "True",
"publisher": {
"@type": "NewsMediaOrganization",
"@id": "https://www.kqed.org/#organization",
"name": "KQED",
"logo": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"url": "https://www.kqed.org",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/KQED",
"https://twitter.com/KQED",
"https://www.instagram.com/kqed/",
"https://www.tiktok.com/@kqedofficial",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/kqed",
"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeC0IOo7i1P_61zVUWbJ4nw"
]
}
}
},
"sticky": false,
"nprStoryId": "kqed-12031389",
"templateType": "standard",
"featuredImageType": "standard",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/news/12031389/martinez-residents-call-for-delayed-reopening-of-refinery-after-massive-fire",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Martinez residents used words like “traumatized” and “terrorized” to describe living through \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025377/huge-martinez-refinery-fire-renews-neighbors-fear-frustration\">the East Bay refinery fire\u003c/a> that broke out on Feb. 1, sending a column of black smoke hundreds of feet above the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a town hall meeting last week, residents recounted watching from their driveways as flames and smoke licked over pipelines at the Martinez Refining Co. amid a roar that sounded like a jet taking off. Some who feared a catastrophic explosion or \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026572/10-days-after-martinez-refinery-fire-new-details-toxic-chemicals-released\">toxic release\u003c/a> said they fled the city with their families and pets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those worst-case scenarios didn’t materialize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the March 13 meeting, regulators told around 200 residents who attended that first responders and refinery crews contained the fire within several hours; that six workers who received first aid hadn’t sustained serious injuries; that the smoke that contained hazardous and cancer-causing chemicals blew away from densely populated neighborhoods and that preliminary air, water and soil testing detected no excessive levels of toxic chemicals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But those preliminary findings did little to assuage residents’ anger over the fire, leading some to question the refinery’s plan to reopen in April before investigations into the fire’s cause and the consequences for workers, residents and the environment are complete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire was the latest in a series of major incidents since 2020 that have fueled widespread criticism and fostered mistrust in the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Nov. 24, 2022, the refinery released a cloud of spent catalyst that blanked the town in a powdery white substance that looked like ash. The refinery operator failed to notify regulators on time and issued conflicting information about the material released.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "news_12026572",
"hero": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-46-1020x680.jpg",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>On July 11, 2023, and Oct. 6, 2023, the refinery unintentionally released petroleum coke dust — a refining byproduct that looks like soot and is made up of particulate matter that can irritate lungs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Clearly, the refinery does not care about any of the penalties associated with their violations if these types of situations keep happening,” said Elizabeth Butler, who has lived in Martinez for more than a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What if there was an explosion? Martinez would be gone,” Butler continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How is anyone in this room supposed to have any amount of hope moving forward?” said Justin Gomez, an activist with local watchdog group Healthy Martinez. “The policies as they exist now, whether it’s the industrial safety ordinance, whether it’s the state investigations — it doesn’t seem like there’s any lever that can be pulled that will disincentivize this insanity that’s happening over and over again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Martinez Refining Co. took over operations in 2020 after New Jersey-based parent company PBF Energy purchased the facility from Shell. The Bay Area Air District has issued 173 notice of violation tickets to the refinery since MRC began operations and is working with the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office on an enforcement case for “nearly all” of the outstanding violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Refinery manager Dan Ingram told town hall attendees that the company prioritizes worker and community safety and that it has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in environmental and safety compliance and other regulatory requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have lots of policies, procedures, things to prevent accidents like this from occurring,” Ingram said. “We need to finish the root-cause investigation so we can understand exactly what took place here, so we can work to prevent it in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added, “That is our commitment to this community: to work night and day until we understand it and we can work to prevent it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ingram said only the refinery units undamaged by the fire will resume fuel production next month. Damaged units will require an estimated $30 million to repair but should be running again in September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Community advocates say the reopening of the refinery should be contingent upon the completion of all the investigations into the root cause of the fire, whether any safety regulations were violated and whether toxicology reports point to any long-term health effects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company said its root-cause investigation should be completed by the end of March.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nicole Heath, the county’s director of Hazardous Materials Programs, said the agency hopes to hire a company to complete an independent investigation into the cause of the fire by the end of April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contra Costa Health will retain oversight of the refinery and ensure that the company conducts a pre-startup safety review for each production unit they plan to restart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a\u003ca href=\"https://www.cchealth.org/home/showpublisheddocument/31645/638779686790030000\"> letter\u003c/a> to refinery officials earlier this week, Heath said oversight will continue “until safe startup of the refinery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heath said her agency is giving added scrutiny to the refinery’s recovery due to the severity of the Feb. 1 incident and past safety incidents at the facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fire was classified as a major chemical accident or release, posing a serious threat to workers, residents and the environment,” Heath added. “Given the refinery’s history of safety incidents, Contra Costa Health is taking proactive steps to ensure compliance with all state and local regulations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area Air District has issued three notices of violation to PBF Energy in connection with the fire, citing it as a public nuisance and for excessive smoke and soot fallout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ This was a serious event, but it was not captured by nearby air pollution monitors because of the favorable meteorological conditions,” air district senior spokesperson Viet Tran said at the town hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tran emphasized that the number of notices does not indicate the level of fines likely to be issued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ We consider the extent, duration, harm and other factors in assessing penalties,” he said. “We are continuing to investigate, and additional violations are possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The air board will have final results from air samples by the end of March.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA declined to comment on its ongoing investigation into the Feb. 1 fire. The agency has up to six months to issue citations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve had numerous town halls, numerous meetings, both big public meetings and small meetings, asking for change and improvement,” Martinez Mayor Brianne Zorn told KQED after the town hall, noting that moving the needle will require county regulators to exercise their full oversight powers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The industrial safety ordinance gives them quite a few powers to do quite a few things after incidents and major chemical releases that they may not have taken advantage of after the spent catalyst release or the coke dust incidents,” Zorn said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shanelle Scales-Preston, a Contra Costa Board of Supervisors member whose district includes Martinez, convened last week’s town hall. She told residents she’s identified one power the county hasn’t used in relation to the Martinez refinery: a full facility audit that would allow the county to assess the safety and compliance of every unit in the facility, as well as safety procedures and training.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ We’re going to make sure we’re on-site and make sure they’re doing everything they need to do,” Scales said. “ We want to make sure you’re safe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/news/12031389/martinez-residents-call-for-delayed-reopening-of-refinery-after-massive-fire",
"authors": [
"6625"
],
"categories": [
"news_31795",
"news_19906",
"news_8"
],
"tags": [
"news_2036",
"news_31830",
"news_18543",
"news_227",
"news_20455",
"news_19960",
"news_22456"
],
"featImg": "news_12025560",
"label": "news"
},
"news_12026572": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "news_12026572",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "12026572",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1739317373000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "10-days-after-martinez-refinery-fire-new-details-toxic-chemicals-released",
"title": "10 Days After Martinez Refinery Fire, New Details of Toxic Chemicals Released",
"publishDate": 1739317373,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "10 Days After Martinez Refinery Fire, New Details of Toxic Chemicals Released | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"site": "news"
},
"content": "\u003cp>Ten days after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025377/huge-martinez-refinery-fire-renews-neighbors-fear-frustration\">a refinery fire\u003c/a> injured six employees and prompted a shelter-in-place order for thousands of Martinez residents, Contra Costa County health officials released new details on Tuesday about toxic chemicals released during the four days it took to put the fire out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county said in \u003ca href=\"https://www.cchealth.org/Home/Components/News/News/886/415\">a statement \u003c/a>on the incident that the Martinez Refining Co., which operates the facility where the Feb. 1 fire occurred, reported that the cloud of thick black smoke that billowed over the East Bay community contained petroleum products at various stages of refinement and several other hazardous chemicals, including benzene, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide and xylene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Health officials said some of the substances that were released can cause cancer and heart and lung disease, but they also noted that weather conditions at the time of the fire may have limited local exposure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>County Health Director Dr. Ori Tzvieli said the wind blew most of the smoke away from populated areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This could have been much worse,” Tzvieli said. “We got lucky this time. But our community shouldn’t have to rely on luck.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuesday’s disclosure marks the first time health authorities have gotten a detailed look at what was in the plume that wafted over the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12025394\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12025394\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/230921-PBF-MARTINEZ-REFINERY-MD-04_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/230921-PBF-MARTINEZ-REFINERY-MD-04_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/230921-PBF-MARTINEZ-REFINERY-MD-04_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/230921-PBF-MARTINEZ-REFINERY-MD-04_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/230921-PBF-MARTINEZ-REFINERY-MD-04_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/230921-PBF-MARTINEZ-REFINERY-MD-04_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/230921-PBF-MARTINEZ-REFINERY-MD-04_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Martinez Refinery Co., owned by PBF Energy in Martinez, California, touches residential neighborhoods on Sept. 21, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fifteen minutes after the fire started on Feb. 1, a refinery employee told the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services that a flaring incident had released more than 500 pounds of sulfur dioxide. The report also noted that it was “unknown if any other material is releasing due to the fire other than sulfur dioxide.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sulfur dioxide has adverse health effects on humans and animals, and high-level exposure can result in heart problems and an increased risk of death, according to studies cited by the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/sulfur-dioxide-and-health#:~:text=Sulfur%20dioxide%20(SO2)%20is,sulfur%20oxides%20(SOX).\">California Air Resources Board\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The actual effects on residents, refinery workers and first responders depended on how much sulfur dioxide they were exposed to and for how long.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12024233 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/ElkhornSlough-1020x765.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A day after the fire started, Contra Costa Health hazardous materials employees who were investigating reports of a sulfur smell near the refinery reported feeling dizzy and left the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seventy-two hours after the start of the fire, the refinery company filed a report with the county, attributing the fire to an incident involving two workers who tried to restart an idle unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While opening the equipment, hydrocarbon material \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025273/martinez-refining-company-investigating-if-leak-during-maintenance-contributed-to-fire\">started to leak\u003c/a>,” the report said. “The two workers immediately evacuated the area, and the material subsequently caught fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the report lacked any new information about what substances might have burned during the fire. The report also lacked chemical safety data sheets required by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>County health officials responded last Wednesday with a \u003ca href=\"https://www.cchealth.org/home/showpublisheddocument/31494\">letter\u003c/a> to the company requesting a list of everything inside the refinery that might have burned and giving the company until Monday to respond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The information being requested has been deemed essential for assessing health impacts that may have occurred as a result of that incident,” the letter said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12025560\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12025560\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Martinez Refining Company in Martinez, California, on Feb. 3, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In its response, the refinery reported that the fire released several substances produced in the refining process, including naphtha and petroleum distillates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The combustion byproducts from the fire — including benzene, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide and xylene — pose the greatest public health concern, Contra Costa Health’s statement said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It added that the department is assessing whether there may be any long-term health effects from the chemicals, including potential impacts to soil and water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The refinery is scheduled to provide a 30-day follow-up report in early March. The county said it would hire an outside firm to investigate how the incident happened and what steps can be taken to prevent it from happening again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area Air District and Contra Costa Health have each launched an investigation into the fire and have restricted access to the area where the fire burned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12025294\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1440px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12025294\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1440\" height=\"996\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621-800x553.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621-1020x706.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621-160x111.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Contra Costa County Fire Department firefighters outside the Martinez Refining Company as smoke billows from the refinery on Saturday in Martinez. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the city of Martinez)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The refinery, which operates as the Martinez Refining Co., also has an incident investigation into the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are working urgently and thoroughly to identify the root cause(s) and take appropriate corrective actions,” an update on the company’s website reads. “Personnel continue to monitor the scene of the recent incident to assess equipment and ensure the safety of the general area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly all of the refinery’s operating units have been shut down, but MRC warned there could be more flaring over the next several weeks as workers drain operating units.[aside postID=news_11998887 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/ShellRefineryMartinez-1020x765.jpg']The Martinez refinery, which is more than a century old, was owned by Shell until 2020 when it was acquired by the current owners, New Jersey’s PBF Energy. The company describes itself as “one of the largest independent petroleum refiners and suppliers of unbranded transportation fuels, heating oil, petrochemical feedstocks, lubricants and other petroleum products in the United States.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PBF owns six refineries, including one in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company describes its Martinez refinery as “one of the most complex refineries in the United States” in statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The refinery has had a series of incidents that have drawn widespread criticism in the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Nov. 24, 2022, the refinery released a cloud of spent catalyst that blanked the town in a powdery white substance that looked like ash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On July 11, 2023, and Oct. 6, 2023, the refinery unintentionally released petroleum coke dust — a refining byproduct that looks like soot and is made up of particulate matter that can irritate lungs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "Contra Costa County says a range of harmful chemicals were released, including some that pose risks for cancer and cardiovascular disease. ",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1739319506,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 31,
"wordCount": 1044
},
"headData": {
"title": "10 Days After Martinez Refinery Fire, New Details of Toxic Chemicals Released | KQED",
"description": "Contra Costa County says a range of harmful chemicals were released, including some that pose risks for cancer and cardiovascular disease. ",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "NewsArticle",
"headline": "10 Days After Martinez Refinery Fire, New Details of Toxic Chemicals Released",
"datePublished": "2025-02-11T15:42:53-08:00",
"dateModified": "2025-02-11T16:18:26-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"isAccessibleForFree": "True",
"publisher": {
"@type": "NewsMediaOrganization",
"@id": "https://www.kqed.org/#organization",
"name": "KQED",
"logo": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"url": "https://www.kqed.org",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/KQED",
"https://twitter.com/KQED",
"https://www.instagram.com/kqed/",
"https://www.tiktok.com/@kqedofficial",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/kqed",
"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeC0IOo7i1P_61zVUWbJ4nw"
]
}
}
},
"sticky": false,
"nprStoryId": "kqed-12026572",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/news/12026572/10-days-after-martinez-refinery-fire-new-details-toxic-chemicals-released",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Ten days after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025377/huge-martinez-refinery-fire-renews-neighbors-fear-frustration\">a refinery fire\u003c/a> injured six employees and prompted a shelter-in-place order for thousands of Martinez residents, Contra Costa County health officials released new details on Tuesday about toxic chemicals released during the four days it took to put the fire out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county said in \u003ca href=\"https://www.cchealth.org/Home/Components/News/News/886/415\">a statement \u003c/a>on the incident that the Martinez Refining Co., which operates the facility where the Feb. 1 fire occurred, reported that the cloud of thick black smoke that billowed over the East Bay community contained petroleum products at various stages of refinement and several other hazardous chemicals, including benzene, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide and xylene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Health officials said some of the substances that were released can cause cancer and heart and lung disease, but they also noted that weather conditions at the time of the fire may have limited local exposure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>County Health Director Dr. Ori Tzvieli said the wind blew most of the smoke away from populated areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This could have been much worse,” Tzvieli said. “We got lucky this time. But our community shouldn’t have to rely on luck.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuesday’s disclosure marks the first time health authorities have gotten a detailed look at what was in the plume that wafted over the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12025394\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12025394\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/230921-PBF-MARTINEZ-REFINERY-MD-04_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/230921-PBF-MARTINEZ-REFINERY-MD-04_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/230921-PBF-MARTINEZ-REFINERY-MD-04_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/230921-PBF-MARTINEZ-REFINERY-MD-04_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/230921-PBF-MARTINEZ-REFINERY-MD-04_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/230921-PBF-MARTINEZ-REFINERY-MD-04_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/230921-PBF-MARTINEZ-REFINERY-MD-04_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Martinez Refinery Co., owned by PBF Energy in Martinez, California, touches residential neighborhoods on Sept. 21, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fifteen minutes after the fire started on Feb. 1, a refinery employee told the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services that a flaring incident had released more than 500 pounds of sulfur dioxide. The report also noted that it was “unknown if any other material is releasing due to the fire other than sulfur dioxide.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sulfur dioxide has adverse health effects on humans and animals, and high-level exposure can result in heart problems and an increased risk of death, according to studies cited by the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/sulfur-dioxide-and-health#:~:text=Sulfur%20dioxide%20(SO2)%20is,sulfur%20oxides%20(SOX).\">California Air Resources Board\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The actual effects on residents, refinery workers and first responders depended on how much sulfur dioxide they were exposed to and for how long.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "news_12024233",
"hero": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/ElkhornSlough-1020x765.jpg",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A day after the fire started, Contra Costa Health hazardous materials employees who were investigating reports of a sulfur smell near the refinery reported feeling dizzy and left the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seventy-two hours after the start of the fire, the refinery company filed a report with the county, attributing the fire to an incident involving two workers who tried to restart an idle unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While opening the equipment, hydrocarbon material \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025273/martinez-refining-company-investigating-if-leak-during-maintenance-contributed-to-fire\">started to leak\u003c/a>,” the report said. “The two workers immediately evacuated the area, and the material subsequently caught fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the report lacked any new information about what substances might have burned during the fire. The report also lacked chemical safety data sheets required by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>County health officials responded last Wednesday with a \u003ca href=\"https://www.cchealth.org/home/showpublisheddocument/31494\">letter\u003c/a> to the company requesting a list of everything inside the refinery that might have burned and giving the company until Monday to respond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The information being requested has been deemed essential for assessing health impacts that may have occurred as a result of that incident,” the letter said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12025560\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12025560\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/20250203_MartinezRefineryFolo_GC-7-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Martinez Refining Company in Martinez, California, on Feb. 3, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In its response, the refinery reported that the fire released several substances produced in the refining process, including naphtha and petroleum distillates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The combustion byproducts from the fire — including benzene, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide and xylene — pose the greatest public health concern, Contra Costa Health’s statement said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It added that the department is assessing whether there may be any long-term health effects from the chemicals, including potential impacts to soil and water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The refinery is scheduled to provide a 30-day follow-up report in early March. The county said it would hire an outside firm to investigate how the incident happened and what steps can be taken to prevent it from happening again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area Air District and Contra Costa Health have each launched an investigation into the fire and have restricted access to the area where the fire burned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12025294\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1440px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12025294\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1440\" height=\"996\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621-800x553.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621-1020x706.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621-160x111.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Contra Costa County Fire Department firefighters outside the Martinez Refining Company as smoke billows from the refinery on Saturday in Martinez. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the city of Martinez)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The refinery, which operates as the Martinez Refining Co., also has an incident investigation into the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are working urgently and thoroughly to identify the root cause(s) and take appropriate corrective actions,” an update on the company’s website reads. “Personnel continue to monitor the scene of the recent incident to assess equipment and ensure the safety of the general area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly all of the refinery’s operating units have been shut down, but MRC warned there could be more flaring over the next several weeks as workers drain operating units.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "news_11998887",
"hero": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/ShellRefineryMartinez-1020x765.jpg",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The Martinez refinery, which is more than a century old, was owned by Shell until 2020 when it was acquired by the current owners, New Jersey’s PBF Energy. The company describes itself as “one of the largest independent petroleum refiners and suppliers of unbranded transportation fuels, heating oil, petrochemical feedstocks, lubricants and other petroleum products in the United States.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PBF owns six refineries, including one in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company describes its Martinez refinery as “one of the most complex refineries in the United States” in statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The refinery has had a series of incidents that have drawn widespread criticism in the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Nov. 24, 2022, the refinery released a cloud of spent catalyst that blanked the town in a powdery white substance that looked like ash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On July 11, 2023, and Oct. 6, 2023, the refinery unintentionally released petroleum coke dust — a refining byproduct that looks like soot and is made up of particulate matter that can irritate lungs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/news/12026572/10-days-after-martinez-refinery-fire-new-details-toxic-chemicals-released",
"authors": [
"6625"
],
"categories": [
"news_31795",
"news_19906",
"news_8"
],
"tags": [
"news_18538",
"news_18352",
"news_20023",
"news_31830",
"news_27626",
"news_18543",
"news_227",
"news_20455",
"news_19960"
],
"featImg": "news_12025559",
"label": "news"
},
"news_12026058": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "news_12026058",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "12026058",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1738926030000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "we-deserve-better-fear-and-anger-in-martinez-after-another-refinery-incident",
"title": "'We Deserve Better': Fear and Anger in Martinez After Another Refinery Incident",
"publishDate": 1738926030,
"format": "audio",
"headTitle": "‘We Deserve Better’: Fear and Anger in Martinez After Another Refinery Incident | KQED",
"labelTerm": {},
"content": "\u003cp>On February 1, 2025 a massive fire broke out at the Martinez Refinery Company’s petroleum refinery leading to unsafe air conditions and a shelter in place order. It’s the third major incident at the refinery in the past five years. KQED’s Julie Small explains what led to the fire and how residents are responding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Links:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025377/huge-martinez-refinery-fire-renews-neighbors-fear-frustration\">Huge Martinez Fire Renews Neighbors’ Fear and Frustration\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC8386428121&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:01:24] So, Julie, you met with Martinez resident Lizzie Lara. Tell me a little bit about her. Where did you meet her?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:01:31] Well, I met her at her home. She lives in a neighborhood that’s on a hillside kind of above the Martinez refinery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:01:41] She was at home with her two girls on a Saturday when she noticed a message on Facebook about a fire at the refinery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Lara \u003c/strong>[00:01:52] I kind of looked outside because we can see it from the front of our house and it looked like there was some smoke coming up, but nothing out of the ordinary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:02:00] Then she got a notice from County Health warning that the air could be dangerous for people with asthma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Lara \u003c/strong>[00:02:06] And so I said, okay. I turned on our air purifiers and, you know, just decided to kind of monitor it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:02:14] She wasn’t particularly afraid at that point. So she went upstairs. She was watching TV. But then she started hearing strange noises coming from the direction of the refinery that she’s never heard in all the years that she lived there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Lara \u003c/strong>[00:02:28] It’s like pop, pop, pop. And I was, like, concerning, but okay. And then all of a sudden, it sounded like almost like a military jet taking off. And then I looked out the window and you could see fire and just like a huge black cloud coming from the refinery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:02:47] So she put her daughter’s and she grabbed her two dogs in the car and left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:02:57] It’s been some days now since the incident. What have we learned about the cause?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:03:03] Well, the company thinks that the fire started when a couple of their workers were doing maintenance. While they were opening the equipment, hydrocarbon material started to leak and the two workers immediately evacuated the area. And then that material just caught fire and and it spread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:03:21] Julie, the county waited three hours before issuing a shelter in place order to residents. Days later, that was downgraded to a health advisory. What kind of risks were residents facing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:03:35] Well, we know that the company said what burned is hydrocarbons, which are basically the fuel that they refine at Martinez. That caught on fire and it released sulfur dioxide into the air. That creates typically the smell like rotten eggs. According to the California Air Resources Board, a lot of studies have shown that sulfur dioxide has adverse health effects on humans and animals. And if it and if people are exposed at high levels, that can include risks to your to your heart, cardiac arrest, you know, some kinds of heart diseases and an increased risk of death. The effects on people in Martinez and the folks working at the refinery and the first responders, you know, we’ll have to see. It depends on how much of the stuff actually got released and for how long. We do know that six employees were treated and examined for injuries. They’ve all been released. The company reported that at least 500 pounds of this stuff was released, but probably is a lot more. We won’t know until the various regulators complete their investigation of the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:04:42] Well, Julie, let’s take a step back a little bit, because I’m curious to just learn more about this facility itself. Tell me what it produces and what do we know about its owners?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:04:53] Well, this refinery is over 100 years old. It used to belong to Shell Company, but they sold it to the current owners of PBF Energy in 2020. That company is actually based in New Jersey, but it owns a few refineries across the nation, including here in California. At this Martinez refinery, they produce about 30% of the jet fuel used in California, along with diesel and other fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:05:23] So, Julie, you spoke to some residents in Martinez, and this fire has certainly revived some long term concerns from community members. Tell me why and what are they worried about?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:05:35] Bottom line, they’re worried about history repeating itself. In 2022 right after Thanksgiving dinner, and people woke up the next morning in Martinez to a blanket of white powder. It looked like ash. Nobody knew what it was. There was no warning issued. It took the company a week to notify them that the substance was spent catalyst, basically a byproduct of refining. And then in 2023, there were two more releases of petroleum coke. That’s also a refining byproduct that looks a lot like coal. It’s made of particulate matter and it can irritate the lungs. But, you know, it’s just one thing after another as far as residents are concerned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:06:18] And I understand truly that residents have taken it upon themselves to do something to try to keep their community safe. Tell me more about those efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:06:27] That released that happened in 2022 of the spent catalysts where it like rained ash over the city of Martinez, that was a wake up call for residents. And a number of them got together and formed this nonprofit grassroots group called Healthy Martinez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:06:53] Two of the members of Healthy Martinez showed up at the Air District Board meeting this week. Alicia Gide spoke first and then Heidi Taylor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Heidi Taylor \u003c/strong>[00:07:02] I just want to say for the last two years, I’ve been to hundreds of meetings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:07:06] They’re seeking answers. They want accountability for the releases. They want the company held accountable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Heidi Taylor \u003c/strong>[00:07:12] They have asked me and our community trust them. And I tell you this, we will never trust them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:07:24] They want more information. They say there’s no public information about what’s being released in the air. And they’re really looking to regulators to get much more aggressive in their monitoring and in finding the company and restricting the operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:07:44] Well, Julie, I wonder what has been the reaction from city leaders and other public officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:07:51] Well, our congressman Mark DeSaulnier, this is his district. He called for a temporary closure of the refinery while this fire is being investigated. The mayor, Brianne Zorn, wants to see the company do more to create a safe work environment to improve the safety of the facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brianne Zorn \u003c/strong>[00:08:12] We’ve had coke dust releases. We’ve had hydrogen sulfide releases. There’s a lot of different chemicals associated with the refinery that we have had to learn about, the community has had to learn about and become aware of what those impacts might be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:08:26] She says she doesn’t have the authority to call for the shut down of the refinery. But she is pushing to make sure that the regulatory agencies do their jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brianne Zorn \u003c/strong>[00:08:37] It’s important to remember that the Martinez Refining company has Martinez in the name, but it’s not in Martinez. It’s in Contra Costa County. We are simply advocating for our communities, but the decisions are in the hands of other folks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:08:52] And she didn’t say it explicitly, but I think she thinks they should be doing a lot more and being more aggressive with the company to ensure that they are running their operations safely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:09:06] And how has the Martinez Refining Company responded to these concerns and these community reactions?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:09:13] Well, the company has responded by making itself available to the public. They set up a 24 hour phone bank where residents can call in. They say they’re ready to help people make claims for damages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brandon Matson \u003c/strong>[00:09:25] As you’re aware, we had a fire that we’ve been responding to at the refinery this past weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:09:30] Brandon Mattson, the spokesperson for MRC, has made a point to show up at a number of public forums this week following the fire. Here he is addressing the Bay Area Quality Board on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brandon Matson \u003c/strong>[00:09:41] I know there’s a lot of anger and frustration from the community about the incident. And I know there’s nothing that I can say to alleviate that. I’m here to just be present.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:09:51] He apologized for the incidents and promised to be forthcoming and cooperative with all the investigations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:10:02] Well, Julie, even with that presence from the company, are there still questions that are left unanswered for Martina’s residents?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:10:10] Well, there’s so many questions that are left unanswered for them. I mean, how did this fire spread so quickly? Why did it take the county three hours to call for shelter in place after the fire broke out, after they were notified? How much of this these hydrocarbons were released into the atmosphere? For how long? What are the long term effects on residents and workers? Probably one of the biggest questions they have is what is the company going to do different and what are regular just going to do different to prevent this from happening again?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:10:43] And Julie, there’s also the accountability question, too, right? I mean, we know that this facility sits in an unincorporated part of the county. So who is ultimately responsible for making sure that something like this doesn’t happen again?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:10:58] Well, the responsibility ultimately lies with the company, of course, but there are a lot of county and state regulators who are also looking at this and have some jurisdiction over various aspects of the refinery. But I think people are really looking to the Air Board, which monitors refinery emissions for toxicity and pollutants, and has taken a much more aggressive stance recently towards refineries in the Bay Area. And they’re investigating this fire and people will be looking to see what they find and what they do to hold the company accountable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:11:31] So an investigation is underway. But, you know, thinking about Lizzie Lara and other Martinez residents you spoke to, what are they need right now in order to feel safe living so close to this refinery?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:11:44] They want to see greater oversight. They want an improvement in the warning system. Residents really felt like it didn’t match what they were seeing. And they’re asking for an investigation by the Chemical Safety Board. Ultimately, though, a lot of people like Lizzie Lara, say they’re just not going to feel comfortable until this refinery is shut down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Lara \u003c/strong>[00:12:05] I love Martinez, we’re a really tight knit community like very family focused. It’s really sad to see this happen to our community and hopefully something will be done this time.\u003c/p>\n\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "Martinez residents call for more oversight of a nearby refinery where a recent fire released toxic smoke into the skies.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1738958767,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": true,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 49,
"wordCount": 2100
},
"headData": {
"title": "'We Deserve Better': Fear and Anger in Martinez After Another Refinery Incident | KQED",
"description": "Martinez residents call for more oversight of a nearby refinery where a recent fire released toxic smoke into the skies.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "NewsArticle",
"headline": "'We Deserve Better': Fear and Anger in Martinez After Another Refinery Incident",
"datePublished": "2025-02-07T03:00:30-08:00",
"dateModified": "2025-02-07T12:06:07-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"isAccessibleForFree": "True",
"publisher": {
"@type": "NewsMediaOrganization",
"@id": "https://www.kqed.org/#organization",
"name": "KQED",
"logo": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"url": "https://www.kqed.org",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/KQED",
"https://twitter.com/KQED",
"https://www.instagram.com/kqed/",
"https://www.tiktok.com/@kqedofficial",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/kqed",
"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeC0IOo7i1P_61zVUWbJ4nw"
]
}
}
},
"source": "The Bay",
"sourceUrl": "https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/thebay",
"audioUrl": "https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/chrt.fm/track/G6C7C3/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC8386428121.mp3?updated=1738896658",
"sticky": false,
"nprStoryId": "kqed-12026058",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/news/12026058/we-deserve-better-fear-and-anger-in-martinez-after-another-refinery-incident",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On February 1, 2025 a massive fire broke out at the Martinez Refinery Company’s petroleum refinery leading to unsafe air conditions and a shelter in place order. It’s the third major incident at the refinery in the past five years. KQED’s Julie Small explains what led to the fire and how residents are responding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Links:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025377/huge-martinez-refinery-fire-renews-neighbors-fear-frustration\">Huge Martinez Fire Renews Neighbors’ Fear and Frustration\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC8386428121&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:01:24] So, Julie, you met with Martinez resident Lizzie Lara. Tell me a little bit about her. Where did you meet her?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:01:31] Well, I met her at her home. She lives in a neighborhood that’s on a hillside kind of above the Martinez refinery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:01:41] She was at home with her two girls on a Saturday when she noticed a message on Facebook about a fire at the refinery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Lara \u003c/strong>[00:01:52] I kind of looked outside because we can see it from the front of our house and it looked like there was some smoke coming up, but nothing out of the ordinary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:02:00] Then she got a notice from County Health warning that the air could be dangerous for people with asthma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Lara \u003c/strong>[00:02:06] And so I said, okay. I turned on our air purifiers and, you know, just decided to kind of monitor it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:02:14] She wasn’t particularly afraid at that point. So she went upstairs. She was watching TV. But then she started hearing strange noises coming from the direction of the refinery that she’s never heard in all the years that she lived there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Lara \u003c/strong>[00:02:28] It’s like pop, pop, pop. And I was, like, concerning, but okay. And then all of a sudden, it sounded like almost like a military jet taking off. And then I looked out the window and you could see fire and just like a huge black cloud coming from the refinery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:02:47] So she put her daughter’s and she grabbed her two dogs in the car and left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:02:57] It’s been some days now since the incident. What have we learned about the cause?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:03:03] Well, the company thinks that the fire started when a couple of their workers were doing maintenance. While they were opening the equipment, hydrocarbon material started to leak and the two workers immediately evacuated the area. And then that material just caught fire and and it spread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:03:21] Julie, the county waited three hours before issuing a shelter in place order to residents. Days later, that was downgraded to a health advisory. What kind of risks were residents facing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:03:35] Well, we know that the company said what burned is hydrocarbons, which are basically the fuel that they refine at Martinez. That caught on fire and it released sulfur dioxide into the air. That creates typically the smell like rotten eggs. According to the California Air Resources Board, a lot of studies have shown that sulfur dioxide has adverse health effects on humans and animals. And if it and if people are exposed at high levels, that can include risks to your to your heart, cardiac arrest, you know, some kinds of heart diseases and an increased risk of death. The effects on people in Martinez and the folks working at the refinery and the first responders, you know, we’ll have to see. It depends on how much of the stuff actually got released and for how long. We do know that six employees were treated and examined for injuries. They’ve all been released. The company reported that at least 500 pounds of this stuff was released, but probably is a lot more. We won’t know until the various regulators complete their investigation of the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:04:42] Well, Julie, let’s take a step back a little bit, because I’m curious to just learn more about this facility itself. Tell me what it produces and what do we know about its owners?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:04:53] Well, this refinery is over 100 years old. It used to belong to Shell Company, but they sold it to the current owners of PBF Energy in 2020. That company is actually based in New Jersey, but it owns a few refineries across the nation, including here in California. At this Martinez refinery, they produce about 30% of the jet fuel used in California, along with diesel and other fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:05:23] So, Julie, you spoke to some residents in Martinez, and this fire has certainly revived some long term concerns from community members. Tell me why and what are they worried about?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:05:35] Bottom line, they’re worried about history repeating itself. In 2022 right after Thanksgiving dinner, and people woke up the next morning in Martinez to a blanket of white powder. It looked like ash. Nobody knew what it was. There was no warning issued. It took the company a week to notify them that the substance was spent catalyst, basically a byproduct of refining. And then in 2023, there were two more releases of petroleum coke. That’s also a refining byproduct that looks a lot like coal. It’s made of particulate matter and it can irritate the lungs. But, you know, it’s just one thing after another as far as residents are concerned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:06:18] And I understand truly that residents have taken it upon themselves to do something to try to keep their community safe. Tell me more about those efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:06:27] That released that happened in 2022 of the spent catalysts where it like rained ash over the city of Martinez, that was a wake up call for residents. And a number of them got together and formed this nonprofit grassroots group called Healthy Martinez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:06:53] Two of the members of Healthy Martinez showed up at the Air District Board meeting this week. Alicia Gide spoke first and then Heidi Taylor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Heidi Taylor \u003c/strong>[00:07:02] I just want to say for the last two years, I’ve been to hundreds of meetings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:07:06] They’re seeking answers. They want accountability for the releases. They want the company held accountable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Heidi Taylor \u003c/strong>[00:07:12] They have asked me and our community trust them. And I tell you this, we will never trust them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:07:24] They want more information. They say there’s no public information about what’s being released in the air. And they’re really looking to regulators to get much more aggressive in their monitoring and in finding the company and restricting the operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:07:44] Well, Julie, I wonder what has been the reaction from city leaders and other public officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:07:51] Well, our congressman Mark DeSaulnier, this is his district. He called for a temporary closure of the refinery while this fire is being investigated. The mayor, Brianne Zorn, wants to see the company do more to create a safe work environment to improve the safety of the facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brianne Zorn \u003c/strong>[00:08:12] We’ve had coke dust releases. We’ve had hydrogen sulfide releases. There’s a lot of different chemicals associated with the refinery that we have had to learn about, the community has had to learn about and become aware of what those impacts might be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:08:26] She says she doesn’t have the authority to call for the shut down of the refinery. But she is pushing to make sure that the regulatory agencies do their jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brianne Zorn \u003c/strong>[00:08:37] It’s important to remember that the Martinez Refining company has Martinez in the name, but it’s not in Martinez. It’s in Contra Costa County. We are simply advocating for our communities, but the decisions are in the hands of other folks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:08:52] And she didn’t say it explicitly, but I think she thinks they should be doing a lot more and being more aggressive with the company to ensure that they are running their operations safely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:09:06] And how has the Martinez Refining Company responded to these concerns and these community reactions?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:09:13] Well, the company has responded by making itself available to the public. They set up a 24 hour phone bank where residents can call in. They say they’re ready to help people make claims for damages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brandon Matson \u003c/strong>[00:09:25] As you’re aware, we had a fire that we’ve been responding to at the refinery this past weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:09:30] Brandon Mattson, the spokesperson for MRC, has made a point to show up at a number of public forums this week following the fire. Here he is addressing the Bay Area Quality Board on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brandon Matson \u003c/strong>[00:09:41] I know there’s a lot of anger and frustration from the community about the incident. And I know there’s nothing that I can say to alleviate that. I’m here to just be present.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:09:51] He apologized for the incidents and promised to be forthcoming and cooperative with all the investigations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:10:02] Well, Julie, even with that presence from the company, are there still questions that are left unanswered for Martina’s residents?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:10:10] Well, there’s so many questions that are left unanswered for them. I mean, how did this fire spread so quickly? Why did it take the county three hours to call for shelter in place after the fire broke out, after they were notified? How much of this these hydrocarbons were released into the atmosphere? For how long? What are the long term effects on residents and workers? Probably one of the biggest questions they have is what is the company going to do different and what are regular just going to do different to prevent this from happening again?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:10:43] And Julie, there’s also the accountability question, too, right? I mean, we know that this facility sits in an unincorporated part of the county. So who is ultimately responsible for making sure that something like this doesn’t happen again?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:10:58] Well, the responsibility ultimately lies with the company, of course, but there are a lot of county and state regulators who are also looking at this and have some jurisdiction over various aspects of the refinery. But I think people are really looking to the Air Board, which monitors refinery emissions for toxicity and pollutants, and has taken a much more aggressive stance recently towards refineries in the Bay Area. And they’re investigating this fire and people will be looking to see what they find and what they do to hold the company accountable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:11:31] So an investigation is underway. But, you know, thinking about Lizzie Lara and other Martinez residents you spoke to, what are they need right now in order to feel safe living so close to this refinery?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:11:44] They want to see greater oversight. They want an improvement in the warning system. Residents really felt like it didn’t match what they were seeing. And they’re asking for an investigation by the Chemical Safety Board. Ultimately, though, a lot of people like Lizzie Lara, say they’re just not going to feel comfortable until this refinery is shut down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Lara \u003c/strong>[00:12:05] I love Martinez, we’re a really tight knit community like very family focused. It’s really sad to see this happen to our community and hopefully something will be done this time.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/news/12026058/we-deserve-better-fear-and-anger-in-martinez-after-another-refinery-incident",
"authors": [
"8617",
"6625",
"234",
"11831",
"11939"
],
"programs": [
"news_28779"
],
"categories": [
"news_8"
],
"tags": [
"news_33812",
"news_227",
"news_20455",
"news_22598"
],
"featImg": "news_12025560",
"label": "source_news_12026058"
},
"news_12025377": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "news_12025377",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "12025377",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1738621007000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "huge-martinez-refinery-fire-renews-neighbors-fear-frustration",
"title": "Huge Martinez Refinery Fire Renews Neighbors’ Fear and Frustration",
"publishDate": 1738621007,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "Huge Martinez Refinery Fire Renews Neighbors’ Fear and Frustration | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"site": "news"
},
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 5:27 p.m. Monday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last weekend’s major \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025273/martinez-refining-company-investigating-if-leak-during-maintenance-contributed-to-fire\">fire at an East Bay refinery\u003c/a>, which caused dangerous air conditions and spurred a shelter-in-place order, has reignited concern from community members over the facility’s rocky few years and impact on their neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The blaze at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/martinez-refinery\">Martinez Refining Co.’s petroleum refinery\u003c/a> was reported by the company around 1:45 p.m. Saturday, hours after the Bay Area Air District began receiving complaints of odors in the area. It sent plumes of black smoke into the air for hours and forced much of Martinez and the surrounding communities of Pacheco and Clyde to shelter in place until late Saturday night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire officials mostly extinguished the fire by 11 a.m. Sunday and Martinez Refining Co. said it was fully contained to the refinery site. However, dangerous airborne chemicals released by the fire could spread much farther and linger for days, adding to the burden already faced by neighboring communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s a constant issue with the refinery that people are concerned about — what’s escaping the stacks?” asked Dawn Elton, who manages an ACE Hardware store less than a mile from the refinery. She shut down her store Saturday afternoon after seeing the huge black cloud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday afternoon, the Bay Area Air District issued two notices of violation to the Martinez refinery for public nuisance, excessive smoke and soot fallout. The agency said more violations are possible as it continues to investigate. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire started after two workers discovered a leak of hydrocarbon material while preparing for planned maintenance at one of the refinery’s process units. They evacuated the area before the material caught on fire and spread within the immediate vicinity, according to the company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11968800\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11968800\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/GettyImages-1467777894-e1738620843534.jpg\" alt=\"A view of two large industrial facilities — both refineries — each with many smokestacks - with hills in the background.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of the Martinez Refining Company in the foreground and the Marathon Refinery in the background, on Nov. 24, 2019, in Martinez, California. \u003ccite>(Michael R. Lopez/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At least six people have been treated for health concerns related to the fire, including three who were taken to hospitals with minor injuries. Workers who were taking air quality readings experienced dizziness, the company said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although most of the visible smoke had cleared by late Sunday and the shelter-in-place was downgraded to a health advisory — meaning conditions were mostly dangerous to elderly and immuno-compromised people — Elton is worried that there could also be longer-term effects for her and other locals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was raining, so did [rainwater] go into the soil? Was anything dangerous to us that will come back later to harm us in some way?” she asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Living near oil refineries like the one in Martinez is already hazardous, even without a fire or flaring incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12025273 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621-1020x706.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the Environmental Protection Agency, petroleum refineries can release thousands of pounds of BTEX compounds — benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene, as well as carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide — each year. Many of these are known or suspected to cause cancer and developmental or reproductive problems and worsen pre-existing respiratory conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There can be potentially more risk for people living nearby because they have chronic exposure to hazardous chemicals and then these spikes of exposure that could exacerbate many different types of health risks,” said David Gonzalez, an assistant professor at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. “This is something that people living near the refinery have been calling attention to for a long time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Saturday’s fire was the third major incident at the Martinez refinery since Shell sold it to PBF Energy in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022, the refinery released \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952517/martinez-refinery-chemical-release-poses-no-long-term-hazard-tests-find\">nearly 50,000 pounds of powdered industrial chemicals\u003c/a> into the air. There were also more than a dozen notices that hazardous materials were released or spilled by the site in 2023, and flaring occurred at least three times last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Martinez Refining Co. said in a statement that it would investigate the root cause of the fire and apologized “for the disruption and concern” it caused to the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, many residents want the site to be shut down, and some, like Samantha Viano, are hoping local officials will step in to make sure this trend doesn’t continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just seems like this kind of stuff is happening more and more, which is really scary,” said Viano.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of her extended family lives in Martinez, and she said in her 30 years in the city, there have been many spills, but only one other shelter-in-place order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How are they going to stop this from happening?” she said. “Because I think the whole community is really scared now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/shossaini\">\u003cem>Sara Hossaini\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "Last weekend’s East Bay refinery fire caused dangerous air conditions and led to a shelter-in-place order. People living nearby have long raised concerns about the facility.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1738632456,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 24,
"wordCount": 829
},
"headData": {
"title": "Huge Martinez Refinery Fire Renews Neighbors’ Fear and Frustration | KQED",
"description": "Last weekend’s East Bay refinery fire caused dangerous air conditions and led to a shelter-in-place order. People living nearby have long raised concerns about the facility.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "NewsArticle",
"headline": "Huge Martinez Refinery Fire Renews Neighbors’ Fear and Frustration",
"datePublished": "2025-02-03T14:16:47-08:00",
"dateModified": "2025-02-03T17:27:36-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"isAccessibleForFree": "True",
"publisher": {
"@type": "NewsMediaOrganization",
"@id": "https://www.kqed.org/#organization",
"name": "KQED",
"logo": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"url": "https://www.kqed.org",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/KQED",
"https://twitter.com/KQED",
"https://www.instagram.com/kqed/",
"https://www.tiktok.com/@kqedofficial",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/kqed",
"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeC0IOo7i1P_61zVUWbJ4nw"
]
}
}
},
"sticky": false,
"nprStoryId": "kqed-12025377",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/news/12025377/huge-martinez-refinery-fire-renews-neighbors-fear-frustration",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 5:27 p.m. Monday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last weekend’s major \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025273/martinez-refining-company-investigating-if-leak-during-maintenance-contributed-to-fire\">fire at an East Bay refinery\u003c/a>, which caused dangerous air conditions and spurred a shelter-in-place order, has reignited concern from community members over the facility’s rocky few years and impact on their neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The blaze at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/martinez-refinery\">Martinez Refining Co.’s petroleum refinery\u003c/a> was reported by the company around 1:45 p.m. Saturday, hours after the Bay Area Air District began receiving complaints of odors in the area. It sent plumes of black smoke into the air for hours and forced much of Martinez and the surrounding communities of Pacheco and Clyde to shelter in place until late Saturday night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire officials mostly extinguished the fire by 11 a.m. Sunday and Martinez Refining Co. said it was fully contained to the refinery site. However, dangerous airborne chemicals released by the fire could spread much farther and linger for days, adding to the burden already faced by neighboring communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s a constant issue with the refinery that people are concerned about — what’s escaping the stacks?” asked Dawn Elton, who manages an ACE Hardware store less than a mile from the refinery. She shut down her store Saturday afternoon after seeing the huge black cloud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday afternoon, the Bay Area Air District issued two notices of violation to the Martinez refinery for public nuisance, excessive smoke and soot fallout. The agency said more violations are possible as it continues to investigate. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire started after two workers discovered a leak of hydrocarbon material while preparing for planned maintenance at one of the refinery’s process units. They evacuated the area before the material caught on fire and spread within the immediate vicinity, according to the company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11968800\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11968800\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/GettyImages-1467777894-e1738620843534.jpg\" alt=\"A view of two large industrial facilities — both refineries — each with many smokestacks - with hills in the background.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of the Martinez Refining Company in the foreground and the Marathon Refinery in the background, on Nov. 24, 2019, in Martinez, California. \u003ccite>(Michael R. Lopez/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At least six people have been treated for health concerns related to the fire, including three who were taken to hospitals with minor injuries. Workers who were taking air quality readings experienced dizziness, the company said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although most of the visible smoke had cleared by late Sunday and the shelter-in-place was downgraded to a health advisory — meaning conditions were mostly dangerous to elderly and immuno-compromised people — Elton is worried that there could also be longer-term effects for her and other locals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was raining, so did [rainwater] go into the soil? Was anything dangerous to us that will come back later to harm us in some way?” she asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Living near oil refineries like the one in Martinez is already hazardous, even without a fire or flaring incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"postid": "news_12025273",
"hero": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/475966196_17941090172958161_4612211217959910985_n-e1738464480621-1020x706.jpg",
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the Environmental Protection Agency, petroleum refineries can release thousands of pounds of BTEX compounds — benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene, as well as carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide — each year. Many of these are known or suspected to cause cancer and developmental or reproductive problems and worsen pre-existing respiratory conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There can be potentially more risk for people living nearby because they have chronic exposure to hazardous chemicals and then these spikes of exposure that could exacerbate many different types of health risks,” said David Gonzalez, an assistant professor at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. “This is something that people living near the refinery have been calling attention to for a long time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Saturday’s fire was the third major incident at the Martinez refinery since Shell sold it to PBF Energy in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022, the refinery released \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952517/martinez-refinery-chemical-release-poses-no-long-term-hazard-tests-find\">nearly 50,000 pounds of powdered industrial chemicals\u003c/a> into the air. There were also more than a dozen notices that hazardous materials were released or spilled by the site in 2023, and flaring occurred at least three times last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Martinez Refining Co. said in a statement that it would investigate the root cause of the fire and apologized “for the disruption and concern” it caused to the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, many residents want the site to be shut down, and some, like Samantha Viano, are hoping local officials will step in to make sure this trend doesn’t continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just seems like this kind of stuff is happening more and more, which is really scary,” said Viano.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of her extended family lives in Martinez, and she said in her 30 years in the city, there have been many spills, but only one other shelter-in-place order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How are they going to stop this from happening?” she said. “Because I think the whole community is really scared now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/shossaini\">\u003cem>Sara Hossaini\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/news/12025377/huge-martinez-refinery-fire-renews-neighbors-fear-frustration",
"authors": [
"11913"
],
"categories": [
"news_31795",
"news_19906",
"news_457",
"news_8"
],
"tags": [
"news_2036",
"news_6145",
"news_1467",
"news_18352",
"news_31830",
"news_27626",
"news_18543",
"news_227",
"news_20455",
"news_19960",
"news_22456"
],
"featImg": "news_12025394",
"label": "news"
},
"news_12025273": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "news_12025273",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "12025273",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1738453511000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "martinez-refining-company-investigating-if-leak-during-maintenance-contributed-to-fire",
"title": "Martinez Refining Company Investigating If Leak During Maintenance Contributed to Fire",
"publishDate": 1738453511,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "Martinez Refining Company Investigating If Leak During Maintenance Contributed to Fire | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"site": "news"
},
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 3:00 p.m. Sunday: \u003c/strong>Officials with the Martinez Refining Co. say they’re investigating whether a leak that occurred during maintenance at the refinery may have contributed to the huge fire that ignited on Saturday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of 11:00 a.m. Sunday, Contra Costa County officials said the fire was almost entirely extinguished. The fire burned for hours, sending plumes of black smoke into the air and leading to a shelter-in-place alert for residents nearby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That alert was lifted Saturday night. An advisory remains in effect recommending people with respiratory sensitivities continue to stay inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regional and county regulators are also investigating the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 10 a.m. Sunday:\u003c/strong> Bay Area air regulators are investigating a fire at the Martinez Refinery that ignited Saturday, causing public health officials to issue a shelter-in-place alert for nearby residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The alert was lifted Saturday night, but a health advisory remains in effect. Public health officials advise people with respiratory sensitivities to consider remaining indoors until that is lifted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area Air District began receiving complaints of odors around 10:45 a.m. Saturday, \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/files/compliance-and-enforcement/incident-reports/2025/mrc-fire-2_1_25-pdf.pdf?rev=4e1e2b47ec72460bafafc5f44b4d95f1&sc_lang=en\">according to an incident report\u003c/a>. The Contra Costa County health department issued a shelter-in-place alert hours later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The concerns we are most worried about would be severe exposures that cause respiratory distress, lung distress, shortness of breath, or cardiac distress,” said Contra Costa County deputy health officer Sara Levin. “Should you experience any chest pain, shortness of breath, please do not hesitate to dial 911 and get emergency care.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire is still burning, but in a statement, company officials said it is “under their control,” adding that flaring could continue as a safety measure and residual smoke may continue to be visible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 10 p.m. Saturday: \u003c/strong>A shelter-in-place alert has been lifted for parts of Martinez north of the Martinez Refining Company’s refinery, as well as parts of the nearby communities of Pacheco and Clyde, according to Contra Costa County public health officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company reported the fire around 1:45 p.m. Saturday, sending thick black plumes of smoke into the air for hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a Saturday night \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/MartinezRefiningCompany/posts/pfbid02i6MooFCDrAr3y2VZSRPfh2qz1bwz3vLwnryZ1whHFo5wzrwCZkeppertt8FEjQPEl\">post on the company’s Facebook page\u003c/a>, officials said firefighters had made “significant progress on the fire at the refinery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public health officials said a lesser advisory for the same areas remains in effect, warning that individuals with respiratory sensitivities may experience irritation from smoke in the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 9 p.m. Saturday:\u003c/strong> Contra Costa County officials said Saturday evening that the fire at the Martinez Refining Company’s facility continues to burn despite efforts to extinguish it that have gone on for hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a press conference around 7 p.m. Saturday, officials said, so far, they have been unable to shut off the pipes or “lines” carrying chemicals as part of the refining process that are feeding the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials said there had been a total of six people treated as a result of the fire. Three were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, and three were released at the scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A shelter-in-place warning remains in effect for parts of Martinez north of the refinery due to impacts from smoke. Sirens will continue to go off in the area every half hour until the incident has ended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original story, 6 p.m. Saturday:\u003c/strong> Contra Costa officials have issued a shelter-in-place warning in response to a fire at the Martinez Refinery Company that has led to at least one injury and sent thick plumes of smoke into the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials are asking residents in parts of Martinez — in particular to the north of the refinery — to stay inside, close all windows, and turn off air conditioners or heaters to avoid smoke impacts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire is now classified as a \u003ca href=\"https://cwsalerts.com/?fbclid=IwY2xjawILrqVleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHQ2oOcP1dE4_W3AF0haJSfXFqbAshfIJHumshMmCY12V0k_El7lnxaQS6Q_aem_HI3oUqFr5IYD_WZAFiLrtA\">Level 3 Alert\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/AirDistrict/status/1885828450801619396\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a petroleum-based fire, so we are monitoring for aspects of that, and we also are working with the air district,” said Adam Springer, an assistant director with Contra Costa County Hazardous Materials Programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public health officials say anyone experiencing irritation should go inside and rinse any affected area of their body with water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Updates can be found at \u003ca href=\"http://cwsalerts.com\">CWSAlerts.com\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/MartinezRefiningCompany\">shared on social media\u003c/a> at 5:15 p.m. Saturday, company officials said the fire is “contained to the refinery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company said three people have been transported off-site, and one person has been treated and released, but no other information about injuries was provided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier Saturday afternoon, Brian Gonzalez said he was closing his restaurant, located just blocks away from the facility in Martinez, because he could see the flames.[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11988025,news_11975650,news_11968786\"]“Seems like it could be a tower or building, but for sure, inside the refinery, the flames are getting bigger and bigger.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contra Costa County firefighters are also responding to the scene. It’s unclear what started the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, community members are expressing fear as large amounts of black smoke was released into the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heidi Taylor, founding member of Healthy Martinez: Refinery Accountability Group, defined the fire as “terrifying” despite what she called assurances from health officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would challenge anybody to look at that plume of smoke and think, ‘Oh, it’s no big deal, I’ll just stay inside and watch a movie.’ That’s not how this works, this is scary as hell, get out!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Health Martinez began advocating for more accountability and transparency from the refinery after the company released nearly 50,000 pounds of powdered industrial chemicals into the air in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Juan Carlos Lara, Rachael Vasquez, and Dana Cronin contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "Bay Area and Contra Costa County regulators are also investigating the fire.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1738614390,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 34,
"wordCount": 992
},
"headData": {
"title": "Martinez Refining Company Investigating If Leak During Maintenance Contributed to Fire | KQED",
"description": "Bay Area and Contra Costa County regulators are also investigating the fire.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "NewsArticle",
"headline": "Martinez Refining Company Investigating If Leak During Maintenance Contributed to Fire",
"datePublished": "2025-02-01T15:45:11-08:00",
"dateModified": "2025-02-03T12:26:30-08:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"isAccessibleForFree": "True",
"publisher": {
"@type": "NewsMediaOrganization",
"@id": "https://www.kqed.org/#organization",
"name": "KQED",
"logo": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"url": "https://www.kqed.org",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/KQED",
"https://twitter.com/KQED",
"https://www.instagram.com/kqed/",
"https://www.tiktok.com/@kqedofficial",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/kqed",
"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeC0IOo7i1P_61zVUWbJ4nw"
]
}
}
},
"sticky": false,
"WpOldSlug": "1-person-injured-after-fire-breaks-out-at-martinez-refining-company",
"nprStoryId": "kqed-12025273",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/news/12025273/martinez-refining-company-investigating-if-leak-during-maintenance-contributed-to-fire",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 3:00 p.m. Sunday: \u003c/strong>Officials with the Martinez Refining Co. say they’re investigating whether a leak that occurred during maintenance at the refinery may have contributed to the huge fire that ignited on Saturday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of 11:00 a.m. Sunday, Contra Costa County officials said the fire was almost entirely extinguished. The fire burned for hours, sending plumes of black smoke into the air and leading to a shelter-in-place alert for residents nearby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That alert was lifted Saturday night. An advisory remains in effect recommending people with respiratory sensitivities continue to stay inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regional and county regulators are also investigating the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 10 a.m. Sunday:\u003c/strong> Bay Area air regulators are investigating a fire at the Martinez Refinery that ignited Saturday, causing public health officials to issue a shelter-in-place alert for nearby residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The alert was lifted Saturday night, but a health advisory remains in effect. Public health officials advise people with respiratory sensitivities to consider remaining indoors until that is lifted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area Air District began receiving complaints of odors around 10:45 a.m. Saturday, \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/files/compliance-and-enforcement/incident-reports/2025/mrc-fire-2_1_25-pdf.pdf?rev=4e1e2b47ec72460bafafc5f44b4d95f1&sc_lang=en\">according to an incident report\u003c/a>. The Contra Costa County health department issued a shelter-in-place alert hours later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The concerns we are most worried about would be severe exposures that cause respiratory distress, lung distress, shortness of breath, or cardiac distress,” said Contra Costa County deputy health officer Sara Levin. “Should you experience any chest pain, shortness of breath, please do not hesitate to dial 911 and get emergency care.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire is still burning, but in a statement, company officials said it is “under their control,” adding that flaring could continue as a safety measure and residual smoke may continue to be visible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 10 p.m. Saturday: \u003c/strong>A shelter-in-place alert has been lifted for parts of Martinez north of the Martinez Refining Company’s refinery, as well as parts of the nearby communities of Pacheco and Clyde, according to Contra Costa County public health officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company reported the fire around 1:45 p.m. Saturday, sending thick black plumes of smoke into the air for hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a Saturday night \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/MartinezRefiningCompany/posts/pfbid02i6MooFCDrAr3y2VZSRPfh2qz1bwz3vLwnryZ1whHFo5wzrwCZkeppertt8FEjQPEl\">post on the company’s Facebook page\u003c/a>, officials said firefighters had made “significant progress on the fire at the refinery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public health officials said a lesser advisory for the same areas remains in effect, warning that individuals with respiratory sensitivities may experience irritation from smoke in the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 9 p.m. Saturday:\u003c/strong> Contra Costa County officials said Saturday evening that the fire at the Martinez Refining Company’s facility continues to burn despite efforts to extinguish it that have gone on for hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a press conference around 7 p.m. Saturday, officials said, so far, they have been unable to shut off the pipes or “lines” carrying chemicals as part of the refining process that are feeding the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials said there had been a total of six people treated as a result of the fire. Three were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, and three were released at the scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A shelter-in-place warning remains in effect for parts of Martinez north of the refinery due to impacts from smoke. Sirens will continue to go off in the area every half hour until the incident has ended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original story, 6 p.m. Saturday:\u003c/strong> Contra Costa officials have issued a shelter-in-place warning in response to a fire at the Martinez Refinery Company that has led to at least one injury and sent thick plumes of smoke into the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials are asking residents in parts of Martinez — in particular to the north of the refinery — to stay inside, close all windows, and turn off air conditioners or heaters to avoid smoke impacts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire is now classified as a \u003ca href=\"https://cwsalerts.com/?fbclid=IwY2xjawILrqVleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHQ2oOcP1dE4_W3AF0haJSfXFqbAshfIJHumshMmCY12V0k_El7lnxaQS6Q_aem_HI3oUqFr5IYD_WZAFiLrtA\">Level 3 Alert\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "singleTwitterStatus",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"id": "1885828450801619396"
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>“It is a petroleum-based fire, so we are monitoring for aspects of that, and we also are working with the air district,” said Adam Springer, an assistant director with Contra Costa County Hazardous Materials Programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public health officials say anyone experiencing irritation should go inside and rinse any affected area of their body with water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Updates can be found at \u003ca href=\"http://cwsalerts.com\">CWSAlerts.com\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/MartinezRefiningCompany\">shared on social media\u003c/a> at 5:15 p.m. Saturday, company officials said the fire is “contained to the refinery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company said three people have been transported off-site, and one person has been treated and released, but no other information about injuries was provided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier Saturday afternoon, Brian Gonzalez said he was closing his restaurant, located just blocks away from the facility in Martinez, because he could see the flames.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "aside",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "Related Stories ",
"postid": "news_11988025,news_11975650,news_11968786"
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Seems like it could be a tower or building, but for sure, inside the refinery, the flames are getting bigger and bigger.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contra Costa County firefighters are also responding to the scene. It’s unclear what started the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, community members are expressing fear as large amounts of black smoke was released into the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heidi Taylor, founding member of Healthy Martinez: Refinery Accountability Group, defined the fire as “terrifying” despite what she called assurances from health officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would challenge anybody to look at that plume of smoke and think, ‘Oh, it’s no big deal, I’ll just stay inside and watch a movie.’ That’s not how this works, this is scary as hell, get out!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Health Martinez began advocating for more accountability and transparency from the refinery after the company released nearly 50,000 pounds of powdered industrial chemicals into the air in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Juan Carlos Lara, Rachael Vasquez, and Dana Cronin contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/news/12025273/martinez-refining-company-investigating-if-leak-during-maintenance-contributed-to-fire",
"authors": [
"236"
],
"categories": [
"news_34165",
"news_19906",
"news_457",
"news_8"
],
"tags": [
"news_27626",
"news_227",
"news_20455"
],
"featImg": "news_12025294",
"label": "news"
},
"news_12002191": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "news_12002191",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "12002191",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1724925638000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "for-a-taste-of-the-old-west-head-to-this-tiny-bay-area-town",
"title": "The Bay Area Wild West Port Town That Reinvented Itself",
"publishDate": 1724925638,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "The Bay Area Wild West Port Town That Reinvented Itself | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"term": 33523,
"site": "news"
},
"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Port Costa is a tiny, funky town on the Carquinez Strait that looks and feels like a time capsule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s way out at the end of a windy road. If you drive there, you won’t see anything along the way except oak trees and maybe a squirrel or some crows. It seems totally disconnected from the rest of the world. But if you could come by ship or by train — it would all make sense.[baycuriouspodcastinfo align=\"right\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tracks of the old transcontinental railroad run along the edge of town, and just offshore, the water is deep enough for merchant ships from Europe to have docked at what was once one of the busiest ports on the West Coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A Growing Port Town\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the late 1800s, California was exporting huge quantities of wheat and barley, and Port Costa was in the perfect location: right on the main waterway connecting the food markets of Europe to the farms of the Central Valley. Soon, warehouses and wharves lined the shore, almost from Crockett to Martinez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12002227\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12002227\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-56-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-56-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-56-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-56-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-56-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-56-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-56-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A train passes by the town of Port Costa in Contra Costa County on Aug. 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They worked like a buffet table. Trains could pull up to the warehouses on one side and ships and barges on the other to load and unload grain. Businesses sprang up in between as thousands of people flocked to the growing town.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1879, Port Costa became a major stop on the transcontinental railroad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The largest ferry in the world called the Solano, carried entire trains across the water between Benicia and Port Costa. It had four tracks on it and could fit 48 freight cars or 24 passenger cars. Trains drove onto the deck, and a team uncoupled them and pushed the remaining sections onboard with a switching engine. On the other side, the team put the trains back together and they drove off. The entire operation, including the journey across the strait, took less than half an hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1914, an even bigger ferry, called the Contra Costa, was added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Port Costa developed a reputation as a fun place to stop on the transcontinental route between New York and San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12002240\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12002240\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-72-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-72-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-72-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-72-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-72-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-72-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-72-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign for Port Costa outside the town in Contra Costa County on Aug. 27, 2024.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This place was kind of the classic Wild West,” said Suzanne Statler of the Port Costa Conservation Society. “You’d get off the ferry, and you’d turn right, and you’d have a hotel . . . and a saloon . . . and a place to cash your money . . . and a saloon . . .”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was quite the raucous scene! But it was short-lived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s wheat market dropped off at the beginning of the 20th century. Fires kept destroying the wooden waterfront, and shipworms ate into the pilings that held up the wharves. In 1930 came the final blow: a train bridge was built between Benicia and Martinez, shifting passenger and freight traffic inland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the activities around the trains, it all dried up,” Statler said. “The whole purpose of this town got kind of run over by time. So the town was dying.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12002238\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12002238\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-61-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-61-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-61-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-61-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-61-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-61-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-61-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The town of Port Costa in Contra Costa County on Aug. 27, 2024.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>The Town’s Next Chapter\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>By the 1960s, all that was left of the waterfront was rotting pilings stretched along the shore (you can still see them today). Only the inland part of town was still standing when a Coors delivery driver named Bill Rich first saw it. He thought it could make for a cool, eclectic place for artists. He bought the downtown for a cheap price and revived some of the old establishments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of them is the Burlington Hotel, a charming yellow three-story building from 1883. Each of its rooms has a lady’s name painted on the door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The urban legend is that these were sex workers in Port Costa’s wild heyday. But many of the townsfolk say these women were, in fact, Bill Rich’s artist friends who had little shops up here in the 1970s. Sarah Louise Humann, who owns the crystal shop next door to the hotel, thinks the place is too fancy to be a brothel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12002154\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12002154\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-13-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-13-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-13-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-13-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-13-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-13-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-13-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The ‘Peggy’ room at the Burlington Hotel, which closed in 2020, in Port Costa on Aug. 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The center of town was what you wanted the investors to see,” Humann said. “All the ill repute was probably done closer to the water. But they may have snuck gentlemen out the back door.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the hotel’s hallway is a big mirror full of shifting shadows that seem to lead back into misty dimensions. It’s old enough to have been made with real silver behind the glass, which tarnishes with age and creates a dark, dripping look.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This mirror is likely partially responsible for at least people’s illusion of ghosts in the hotel,” Humann said. “It’s extremely old and exudes that haunted ‘anything could be on the other side of it’ vibe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12002224\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12002224\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-04-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-04-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-04-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-04-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-04-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-04-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-04-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An antique mirror hangs on the third floor of the Burlington Hotel, which closed in 2020, in Port Costa on Aug. 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Humann says the rumor of haunting has attracted badly behaved ghost hunters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a little bit of a touchy subject for locals,” she said, “because there’s been vandalization and damage and disrespect done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Humann hasn’t seen any ghosts, but Barbara Williams, who bartends across the street in the Warehouse Cafe, says she has.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was in the bar. I was closing,” Williams said. “And I felt a breeze going past my face. And as I turned to tell the people that I was closed, I saw a woman look at me and walk through the door.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The door, she said, was closed and locked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12002158\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12002158\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-29-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-29-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-29-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-29-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-29-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-29-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-29-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Paintings hang above the entryway staircase at the Burlington Hotel in Port Costa on Aug. 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Port Costa Today\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>These days, the Warehouse is a popular weekend hangout for motorcycle clubs. Bands play out front in what used to be the train yard. And inside, dilapidated, festive relics and bits of art cover the walls and ceiling. In the corner, an almost 9-foot-tall taxidermied polar bear looms over a baby seal. There’s also a water buffalo, a metal Medusa sculpture, circus masks and life preservers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12002161\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12002161\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-39-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-39-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-39-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-39-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-39-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-39-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-39-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Warehouse Cafe, a bar and restaurant, in Port Costa on Aug. 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The collection has taken on a momentum of its own, bartender Lary Dameron says. Just a few years ago, someone donated a Kodiak bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12002159\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12002159\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-34-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-34-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-34-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-34-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-34-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-34-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-34-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A taxidermy polar bear and bear are on display at The Warehouse Cafe, a bar and restaurant, in Port Costa on Aug. 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“A guy who comes in on Sundays for music works at the wildlife museum, and they were cleaning out the basement, so he calls up, and he’s like, you guys interested in a Kodiak bear, you know, taxidermy?” Dameron said. “It’s like, ‘hell yeah, I want it.’ How often do people offer you a bear?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Port Costa still has the raucous character of its old port days. Only about 250 people live here now, and though \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/soleilho/article/california-san-francisco-bay-area-nimby-battle-19518620.php\">they don’t agree on everything\u003c/a>, they do share a devotion to this unique place along the Carquinez Strait.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12002162\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12002162\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-44-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-44-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-44-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-44-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-44-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-44-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-44-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lary Dameron stands behind the bar at the Warehouse Cafe in Port Costa on Aug. 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Marianne Hockenberry has vivid memories of being a teenager and going on long bike rides with her mom. They’d often start in Crockett, ride along the Carquinez Strait to Martinez. And sometimes continue on all the way to Danville, some 25 miles away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marianne Hockenberry:\u003c/strong> And then my dad would follow us in, in the VA, in the VW bus. So we had a camper bus, and he biked sometimes, but he wasn’t into it like my mom was. And so yeah, then he would follow along. And so when we got tired, we could just like take a break and get in the bus in the VW.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Along these journeys — Marianne and her mom passed through some of the rural, golden hills of the Bay Area. And the towns nestled in them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marianne Hockenberry:\u003c/strong> She liked to tell me stories about Port Costa when we would go through there. We’d be eating at the warehouse…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> The Warehouse … an iconic building in the small town of Port Costa, and just across the street is an old Victorian hotel. It’s weather-worn but still charming with its chipped yellow and blue paint…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marianne Hockenberry:\u003c/strong> … and, she would tell me this used to be, a brothel or used to be women of the night here like she would say, you know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Marianne isn’t totally sure about the truth behind her mom’s stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marianne Hockenberry:\u003c/strong> My mom was… she was a wonderful kind of crazy woman. And, you know, I don’t know, I, I pretty much take after her, I think. (laughs)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Marianne isn’t the only person curious about Port Costa. We’ve received a few questions over the years about this tiny, eclectic town sitting along the Carquinez Strait. Today, we’ll answer a slew of them! Did that old hotel used to be a brothel? Is it haunted? Was Port Costa once a port, as the name suggests?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> That’s all just ahead on Bay Curious. The show that explores the hidden true stories of the San Francisco Bay Area. I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor message\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> To answer the questions from Marianne and other listeners about Port Costa, we first have to get there! KQED’s Katherine Monahan got the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> If you drive to Port Costa, it’s pretty hard to understand why it’s here. It’s way out at the end of a windy road. You won’t see anything along the way except oak trees and maybe a squirrel or some crows. It seems totally disconnected from the rest of the world. But if you could come by ship or by train — it would all make sense. So we’re going to cross the tracks, look to the left, look to the right. No trains. Let’s go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Suzanne Statler with the Port Costa Conservation Society steps across the railroad tracks that run along the shoreline at the edge of town. She points out into the waters of the Carquinez Strait.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Suzanne Statler:\u003c/strong> If you go just out, 50 feet. It drops down to 50 feet there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> That’s deep enough for merchant ships from Europe to have docked here . . . at what was once one of the busiest ports on the West Coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>[Music]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> In the late 1800s, California was exporting huge quantities of wheat and barley. And a businessman named George W. McNear realized that Port Costa was in the perfect location: right on the main waterway connecting the food markets of Europe to the farms of the Central Valley. So he bought a stretch of shoreline and started building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Suzanne Statler:\u003c/strong> All along the Carquinez Straits, you had warehouses that were built and burned down and rebuilt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> It worked like a buffet table. Trains could pull up to the warehouses on one side and ships and barges on the other and load and unload grain. Businesses sprang up in between.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Suzanne Statler:\u003c/strong> All along the waterfront there, that is where downtown was located at Port Costa. And it was quite a bustling place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Thousands of people flocked to the growing town — stevedores, railroad workers, fishermen. McNear, who became known as “The Wheat King,” started building inland as well, up a narrow valley, away from the wildness of the wharves. Port Costa grew into kind of a T-shape, with the waterfront as the top of the T, and then along the stem …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Suzanne Statler:\u003c/strong> The modern town was where people lived. So your boarding houses were there, your individual family homes were there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> In 1879, it became a major stop on the transcontinental railroad. The largest ferry in the world carried entire trains across the water between Benicia and Port Costa — 24 hours a day. It was called the Solano.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Suzanne Statler:\u003c/strong> It was 425 feet long.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan (in tape):\u003c/strong> What!?\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Suzanne Statler:\u003c/strong> Four, four football fields. Plus.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan (in tape):\u003c/strong> That’s buck wild.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> The Solano could carry 48 freight cars or 24 passenger cars. It had four tracks on it. Trains drove right up onto the deck, and a team uncoupled them and pushed the remaining sections onboard with a switching engine. On the other side, the team put the trains back together again and they drove off. The entire operation — including the journey across the strait — took less than half an hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Port Costa developed a reputation as a fun place to stop on the transcontinental route, which ran between the East Coast and Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"margin: 0px;padding: 0px\">\u003cstrong>Suzanne Statler:\u003c/strong> This place was kind of the classic Wild West. You’d get off the ferry, and you’d turn right, and you’d have a hotel and a saloon and a place to cash your money and a saloon.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> It was quite the raucous scene! But it was short-lived. California’s wheat market dropped off at the beginning of the 20th century. Fires kept destroying the wooden waterfront, and shipworms — small wood-burrowing mollusks — ate into the pilings that held up the wharves. In 1930 came the final blow — a train bridge was built a little ways inland, between Benicia and Martinez, rendering the Solano train ferry obsolete\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Suzanne Statler:\u003c/strong> People coming in and out of Port Costa and all the activities around the trains, it all dried up. The whole purpose of this town that had been built on, got kind of run over by time. So the town was dying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Some thirty years passed, and by the 1960s, the place was almost a ghost town. The waterfront part, all the warehouses and saloons and such, was gone — just a bunch of rotting pilings stretched along the shore. Only the inland part was still standing when a man named Bill Rich first saw it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Suzanne Statler:\u003c/strong> He was a Coors delivery driver. And he said, you know what, this would be an awesome place to make into a really eclectic, funky, awesome place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> And he did it! Rich bought the downtown for cheap and revived some of the old establishments. One of them is the Burlington Hotel. It closed during the pandemic, but Sarah Humann, who owns a crystal shop next door, has the keys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>[Keys jingling]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Humann:\u003c/strong> So the doors to the Burlington Hotel are a very popular photo backdrop. Watch your step.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>[Door opening]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Oh. my. Goodness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Humann:\u003c/strong> Yeah, so everything in the hotel’s pretty creaky. Uh, we can head upstairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>[Stepping sounds]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Through the carved wooden doors, up past the painted portraits mounted on the velvet embossed wallpaper, are the hotel rooms. And each has a lady’s name painted on the door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Humann:\u003c/strong> So we have Hazel, Corrine, Victoria is a really pretty room. And I think I can get you in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> The urban legend is that these were sex workers in Port Costa’s wild heyday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Humann:\u003c/strong> So this is Ethel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>[Keys opening the door]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> But many of the townsfolk say these women were, in fact, Bill Rich’s artist friends who had little shops up here in the 70s. Which seems like a more probable fit. I mean, maybe Ethel was a sexy name back in the 1800s. But . . . Fanny?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Humann:\u003c/strong> Fanny is a room that has purple maroon furniture set against an olive green wall color. There’s definitely some porcelain kitty cats and some cotton candy, pink, floral decorated lamps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Humann thinks this hotel was too fancy to be a brothel, and besides, it was in the more straight-laced, residential section.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Humann:\u003c/strong> Just understanding how these old towns worked is, the center of town was what you wanted the investors to see. All the ill-repute was probably done closer to the water. But they may have snuck gentlemen out the back door. (laughs)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Down the hallway, Humann points out the probable source of another popular rumor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Humann:\u003c/strong> This mirror is likely partially responsible for at least people’s illusion of ghosts in the hotel. It’s extremely old and exudes that haunted, anything could be on the other side of it, vibe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> It’s about 4 feet tall and wide and full of shifting shadows that seem to lead back into misty dimensions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Humann:\u003c/strong> The old mirrors have an actual layer of silver on the other side of the glass. And so, over time, that silver has tarnished. And you can kind of see how it all drips down. It’s very cool looking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> The hotel is old and creaky and has actual bats living in the walls. Humann says it’s not surprising that people like to think it’s haunted. But that the rumor has attracted badly behaved ghost hunters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Humann:\u003c/strong> It is a little bit of a touchy subject for locals, because there’s been vandalization and damage and disrespect done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Humann hasn’t seen any ghosts. But Barbara Williams, who works across the street, says she has. She bartends in the Warehouse Cafe. It’s on the first floor of the last of the town’s grain warehouses, built in 1886.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Barbara Williams:\u003c/strong> I was in the bar. I was closing. And I felt a breeze going past my face, and as I turned to tell the people that I was closed, I saw a woman look at me and walk through the door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan (in tape):\u003c/strong> And when you say walk through the door, was the door open?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Barbara Williams:\u003c/strong> The door was locked. It was closed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Another night, she says, she saw a man go into the back of the bar, and she went to tell him he wasn’t allowed there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Barbara Williams:\u003c/strong> Got up, looked around. No one was here. So, I told the other bartender the next day about what happened. And she said you described Bill Rich.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Bill Rich, the guy who bought the town in the 1960s, had passed away some years before that. But he used to own the Warehouse bar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>[Music of band playing outside Warehouse Cafe]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> These days, the Warehouse is a popular weekend hangout for motorcycle clubs. Bands play out front in what used to be the train yard. And daytrippers, along with some of the town’s 250 residents, come here to drink and chat. It’s nice. It’s sunny. A few cats are walking around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> And inside, it is seriously funky, with dilapidated, festive relics and bits of art all over the walls and ceiling. Lary Dameron has been bartending here for close to 20 years. He points to a taxidermied polar bear in a glass case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lary Dameron:\u003c/strong> He’s 8 foot, 8 inches tall. He’s standing up like he’s gonna swipe at you or something. But, um, the dead baby seal at his feet is unique.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> The polar bear is too weird and majestic to call the bar’s mascot, but it’s certainly part of its soul.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lary Dameron:\u003c/strong> It was payment for some work that Bill, the guy who bought the town … he did some work for this guy and that was how he paid him back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan (in tape):\u003c/strong> With a polar bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lary Dameron:\u003c/strong> Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> There’s also a water buffalo, a metal medusa sculpture, circus masks and giant candelabras and life preservers. And the collection has taken on a momentum of its own. Just a few years ago, someone donated a Kodiak bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lary Dameron:\u003c/strong> A guy who comes in on Sundays for music works at the wildlife museum and they were cleaning out the basement. So he calls up, and he’s like, “You guys interested in a Kodiak bear, you know, taxidermy?” I was like, “For free?” He’s like, “Yeah.” (sarcastically) I’m like, “No, no, I don’t want that…” It’s like, “hell yeah. I want it!” It’s like, how often do people offer you a bear?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Port Costa is a unique place. And the people who know about it really treasure it. Dameron walks outside to where the band is packing up at the end of their set, and a few residents and bikers are just enjoying the evening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lary Dameron:\u003c/strong> You know, when the sun goes down, it’s kind of like this. It’s really nice. And you get, you know, boats go by, and ships go by, and trains and stuff. And it’s kind of cool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> It’s a time capsule. It’s still got that raucous character that it had in the beginning. And as Dameron points out, Port Costa is surrounded by designated parkland, so it won’t be growing any time soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lary Dameron:\u003c/strong> If the town doesn’t just disintegrate or something, it’ll be exactly how it is today because it’s not going to change. I mean, it can’t really change; as long as people maintain it and live here, it’ll be just like it is now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>[Sound of train going by]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> That was KQED’s Katherine Monahan. Thanks to Marianne Hockenberry for asking the question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> We won’t be dropping an episode next week because the Bay Curious team is off for Labor Day (and I really hope you are, too.) We need all the rest we can get because when we return, we start work on Prop Fest — our podcast series that explains all those confuddling props on the statewide ballot. If there’s one on your radar you’ve got questions about, send ‘em our way! There’s a question box to fill out at BayCurious.org.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Are you a longtime listener who hasn’t gotten around to leaving us a rating and review? I get it — but please, do us a solid and take a few minutes today. Those ahem, five-star reviews keep us going and help other listeners find us, too!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marianne Hockenberry:\u003c/strong> Bay Curious is made in SF at member-supported KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Our show is produced by Amanda Font, Christopher Beale, Ana De Almeida Amaral and me, Olivia Allen-Price. Extra support from Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED Family. I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a good one!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "Port Costa, sitting along the Carquinez Strait, is an eclectic town with a raucous history.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1725217210,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": true,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 113,
"wordCount": 4048
},
"headData": {
"title": "The Bay Area Wild West Port Town That Reinvented Itself | KQED",
"description": "Port Costa, sitting along the Carquinez Strait, is an eclectic town with a raucous history.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "NewsArticle",
"headline": "The Bay Area Wild West Port Town That Reinvented Itself",
"datePublished": "2024-08-29T03:00:38-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-09-01T12:00:10-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"isAccessibleForFree": "True",
"publisher": {
"@type": "NewsMediaOrganization",
"@id": "https://www.kqed.org/#organization",
"name": "KQED",
"logo": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"url": "https://www.kqed.org",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/KQED",
"https://twitter.com/KQED",
"https://www.instagram.com/kqed/",
"https://www.tiktok.com/@kqedofficial",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/kqed",
"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeC0IOo7i1P_61zVUWbJ4nw"
]
}
}
},
"audioUrl": "https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/chrt.fm/track/G6C7C3/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC1283441206.mp3",
"sticky": false,
"nprStoryId": "kqed-12002191",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"showOnAuthorArchivePages": "No",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/news/12002191/for-a-taste-of-the-old-west-head-to-this-tiny-bay-area-town",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Port Costa is a tiny, funky town on the Carquinez Strait that looks and feels like a time capsule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s way out at the end of a windy road. If you drive there, you won’t see anything along the way except oak trees and maybe a squirrel or some crows. It seems totally disconnected from the rest of the world. But if you could come by ship or by train — it would all make sense.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a> is a podcast that answers your questions about the Bay Area.\n Subscribe on \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>,\n \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR One\u003c/a> or your favorite podcast platform.\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tracks of the old transcontinental railroad run along the edge of town, and just offshore, the water is deep enough for merchant ships from Europe to have docked at what was once one of the busiest ports on the West Coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A Growing Port Town\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the late 1800s, California was exporting huge quantities of wheat and barley, and Port Costa was in the perfect location: right on the main waterway connecting the food markets of Europe to the farms of the Central Valley. Soon, warehouses and wharves lined the shore, almost from Crockett to Martinez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12002227\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12002227\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-56-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-56-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-56-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-56-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-56-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-56-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-56-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A train passes by the town of Port Costa in Contra Costa County on Aug. 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They worked like a buffet table. Trains could pull up to the warehouses on one side and ships and barges on the other to load and unload grain. Businesses sprang up in between as thousands of people flocked to the growing town.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1879, Port Costa became a major stop on the transcontinental railroad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The largest ferry in the world called the Solano, carried entire trains across the water between Benicia and Port Costa. It had four tracks on it and could fit 48 freight cars or 24 passenger cars. Trains drove onto the deck, and a team uncoupled them and pushed the remaining sections onboard with a switching engine. On the other side, the team put the trains back together and they drove off. The entire operation, including the journey across the strait, took less than half an hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1914, an even bigger ferry, called the Contra Costa, was added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Port Costa developed a reputation as a fun place to stop on the transcontinental route between New York and San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12002240\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12002240\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-72-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-72-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-72-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-72-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-72-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-72-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-72-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign for Port Costa outside the town in Contra Costa County on Aug. 27, 2024.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This place was kind of the classic Wild West,” said Suzanne Statler of the Port Costa Conservation Society. “You’d get off the ferry, and you’d turn right, and you’d have a hotel . . . and a saloon . . . and a place to cash your money . . . and a saloon . . .”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was quite the raucous scene! But it was short-lived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s wheat market dropped off at the beginning of the 20th century. Fires kept destroying the wooden waterfront, and shipworms ate into the pilings that held up the wharves. In 1930 came the final blow: a train bridge was built between Benicia and Martinez, shifting passenger and freight traffic inland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the activities around the trains, it all dried up,” Statler said. “The whole purpose of this town got kind of run over by time. So the town was dying.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12002238\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12002238\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-61-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-61-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-61-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-61-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-61-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-61-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-61-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The town of Port Costa in Contra Costa County on Aug. 27, 2024.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>The Town’s Next Chapter\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>By the 1960s, all that was left of the waterfront was rotting pilings stretched along the shore (you can still see them today). Only the inland part of town was still standing when a Coors delivery driver named Bill Rich first saw it. He thought it could make for a cool, eclectic place for artists. He bought the downtown for a cheap price and revived some of the old establishments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of them is the Burlington Hotel, a charming yellow three-story building from 1883. Each of its rooms has a lady’s name painted on the door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The urban legend is that these were sex workers in Port Costa’s wild heyday. But many of the townsfolk say these women were, in fact, Bill Rich’s artist friends who had little shops up here in the 1970s. Sarah Louise Humann, who owns the crystal shop next door to the hotel, thinks the place is too fancy to be a brothel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12002154\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12002154\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-13-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-13-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-13-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-13-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-13-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-13-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-13-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The ‘Peggy’ room at the Burlington Hotel, which closed in 2020, in Port Costa on Aug. 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The center of town was what you wanted the investors to see,” Humann said. “All the ill repute was probably done closer to the water. But they may have snuck gentlemen out the back door.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the hotel’s hallway is a big mirror full of shifting shadows that seem to lead back into misty dimensions. It’s old enough to have been made with real silver behind the glass, which tarnishes with age and creates a dark, dripping look.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This mirror is likely partially responsible for at least people’s illusion of ghosts in the hotel,” Humann said. “It’s extremely old and exudes that haunted ‘anything could be on the other side of it’ vibe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12002224\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12002224\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-04-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-04-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-04-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-04-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-04-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-04-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PortCosta-04-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An antique mirror hangs on the third floor of the Burlington Hotel, which closed in 2020, in Port Costa on Aug. 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Humann says the rumor of haunting has attracted badly behaved ghost hunters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a little bit of a touchy subject for locals,” she said, “because there’s been vandalization and damage and disrespect done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Humann hasn’t seen any ghosts, but Barbara Williams, who bartends across the street in the Warehouse Cafe, says she has.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was in the bar. I was closing,” Williams said. “And I felt a breeze going past my face. And as I turned to tell the people that I was closed, I saw a woman look at me and walk through the door.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The door, she said, was closed and locked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12002158\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12002158\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-29-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-29-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-29-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-29-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-29-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-29-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-29-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Paintings hang above the entryway staircase at the Burlington Hotel in Port Costa on Aug. 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Port Costa Today\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>These days, the Warehouse is a popular weekend hangout for motorcycle clubs. Bands play out front in what used to be the train yard. And inside, dilapidated, festive relics and bits of art cover the walls and ceiling. In the corner, an almost 9-foot-tall taxidermied polar bear looms over a baby seal. There’s also a water buffalo, a metal Medusa sculpture, circus masks and life preservers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12002161\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12002161\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-39-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-39-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-39-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-39-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-39-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-39-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-39-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Warehouse Cafe, a bar and restaurant, in Port Costa on Aug. 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The collection has taken on a momentum of its own, bartender Lary Dameron says. Just a few years ago, someone donated a Kodiak bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12002159\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12002159\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-34-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-34-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-34-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-34-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-34-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-34-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-34-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A taxidermy polar bear and bear are on display at The Warehouse Cafe, a bar and restaurant, in Port Costa on Aug. 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“A guy who comes in on Sundays for music works at the wildlife museum, and they were cleaning out the basement, so he calls up, and he’s like, you guys interested in a Kodiak bear, you know, taxidermy?” Dameron said. “It’s like, ‘hell yeah, I want it.’ How often do people offer you a bear?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Port Costa still has the raucous character of its old port days. Only about 250 people live here now, and though \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/soleilho/article/california-san-francisco-bay-area-nimby-battle-19518620.php\">they don’t agree on everything\u003c/a>, they do share a devotion to this unique place along the Carquinez Strait.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12002162\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12002162\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-44-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-44-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-44-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-44-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-44-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-44-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240827-PORTCOSTA-44-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lary Dameron stands behind the bar at the Warehouse Cafe in Port Costa on Aug. 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "baycuriousquestion",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": ""
},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Marianne Hockenberry has vivid memories of being a teenager and going on long bike rides with her mom. They’d often start in Crockett, ride along the Carquinez Strait to Martinez. And sometimes continue on all the way to Danville, some 25 miles away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marianne Hockenberry:\u003c/strong> And then my dad would follow us in, in the VA, in the VW bus. So we had a camper bus, and he biked sometimes, but he wasn’t into it like my mom was. And so yeah, then he would follow along. And so when we got tired, we could just like take a break and get in the bus in the VW.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Along these journeys — Marianne and her mom passed through some of the rural, golden hills of the Bay Area. And the towns nestled in them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marianne Hockenberry:\u003c/strong> She liked to tell me stories about Port Costa when we would go through there. We’d be eating at the warehouse…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> The Warehouse … an iconic building in the small town of Port Costa, and just across the street is an old Victorian hotel. It’s weather-worn but still charming with its chipped yellow and blue paint…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marianne Hockenberry:\u003c/strong> … and, she would tell me this used to be, a brothel or used to be women of the night here like she would say, you know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Marianne isn’t totally sure about the truth behind her mom’s stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marianne Hockenberry:\u003c/strong> My mom was… she was a wonderful kind of crazy woman. And, you know, I don’t know, I, I pretty much take after her, I think. (laughs)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Marianne isn’t the only person curious about Port Costa. We’ve received a few questions over the years about this tiny, eclectic town sitting along the Carquinez Strait. Today, we’ll answer a slew of them! Did that old hotel used to be a brothel? Is it haunted? Was Port Costa once a port, as the name suggests?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> That’s all just ahead on Bay Curious. The show that explores the hidden true stories of the San Francisco Bay Area. I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor message\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> To answer the questions from Marianne and other listeners about Port Costa, we first have to get there! KQED’s Katherine Monahan got the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> If you drive to Port Costa, it’s pretty hard to understand why it’s here. It’s way out at the end of a windy road. You won’t see anything along the way except oak trees and maybe a squirrel or some crows. It seems totally disconnected from the rest of the world. But if you could come by ship or by train — it would all make sense. So we’re going to cross the tracks, look to the left, look to the right. No trains. Let’s go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Suzanne Statler with the Port Costa Conservation Society steps across the railroad tracks that run along the shoreline at the edge of town. She points out into the waters of the Carquinez Strait.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Suzanne Statler:\u003c/strong> If you go just out, 50 feet. It drops down to 50 feet there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> That’s deep enough for merchant ships from Europe to have docked here . . . at what was once one of the busiest ports on the West Coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>[Music]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> In the late 1800s, California was exporting huge quantities of wheat and barley. And a businessman named George W. McNear realized that Port Costa was in the perfect location: right on the main waterway connecting the food markets of Europe to the farms of the Central Valley. So he bought a stretch of shoreline and started building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Suzanne Statler:\u003c/strong> All along the Carquinez Straits, you had warehouses that were built and burned down and rebuilt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> It worked like a buffet table. Trains could pull up to the warehouses on one side and ships and barges on the other and load and unload grain. Businesses sprang up in between.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Suzanne Statler:\u003c/strong> All along the waterfront there, that is where downtown was located at Port Costa. And it was quite a bustling place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Thousands of people flocked to the growing town — stevedores, railroad workers, fishermen. McNear, who became known as “The Wheat King,” started building inland as well, up a narrow valley, away from the wildness of the wharves. Port Costa grew into kind of a T-shape, with the waterfront as the top of the T, and then along the stem …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Suzanne Statler:\u003c/strong> The modern town was where people lived. So your boarding houses were there, your individual family homes were there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> In 1879, it became a major stop on the transcontinental railroad. The largest ferry in the world carried entire trains across the water between Benicia and Port Costa — 24 hours a day. It was called the Solano.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Suzanne Statler:\u003c/strong> It was 425 feet long.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan (in tape):\u003c/strong> What!?\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Suzanne Statler:\u003c/strong> Four, four football fields. Plus.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan (in tape):\u003c/strong> That’s buck wild.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> The Solano could carry 48 freight cars or 24 passenger cars. It had four tracks on it. Trains drove right up onto the deck, and a team uncoupled them and pushed the remaining sections onboard with a switching engine. On the other side, the team put the trains back together again and they drove off. The entire operation — including the journey across the strait — took less than half an hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Port Costa developed a reputation as a fun place to stop on the transcontinental route, which ran between the East Coast and Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"margin: 0px;padding: 0px\">\u003cstrong>Suzanne Statler:\u003c/strong> This place was kind of the classic Wild West. You’d get off the ferry, and you’d turn right, and you’d have a hotel and a saloon and a place to cash your money and a saloon.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> It was quite the raucous scene! But it was short-lived. California’s wheat market dropped off at the beginning of the 20th century. Fires kept destroying the wooden waterfront, and shipworms — small wood-burrowing mollusks — ate into the pilings that held up the wharves. In 1930 came the final blow — a train bridge was built a little ways inland, between Benicia and Martinez, rendering the Solano train ferry obsolete\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Suzanne Statler:\u003c/strong> People coming in and out of Port Costa and all the activities around the trains, it all dried up. The whole purpose of this town that had been built on, got kind of run over by time. So the town was dying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Some thirty years passed, and by the 1960s, the place was almost a ghost town. The waterfront part, all the warehouses and saloons and such, was gone — just a bunch of rotting pilings stretched along the shore. Only the inland part was still standing when a man named Bill Rich first saw it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Suzanne Statler:\u003c/strong> He was a Coors delivery driver. And he said, you know what, this would be an awesome place to make into a really eclectic, funky, awesome place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> And he did it! Rich bought the downtown for cheap and revived some of the old establishments. One of them is the Burlington Hotel. It closed during the pandemic, but Sarah Humann, who owns a crystal shop next door, has the keys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>[Keys jingling]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Humann:\u003c/strong> So the doors to the Burlington Hotel are a very popular photo backdrop. Watch your step.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>[Door opening]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Oh. my. Goodness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Humann:\u003c/strong> Yeah, so everything in the hotel’s pretty creaky. Uh, we can head upstairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>[Stepping sounds]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Through the carved wooden doors, up past the painted portraits mounted on the velvet embossed wallpaper, are the hotel rooms. And each has a lady’s name painted on the door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Humann:\u003c/strong> So we have Hazel, Corrine, Victoria is a really pretty room. And I think I can get you in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> The urban legend is that these were sex workers in Port Costa’s wild heyday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Humann:\u003c/strong> So this is Ethel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>[Keys opening the door]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> But many of the townsfolk say these women were, in fact, Bill Rich’s artist friends who had little shops up here in the 70s. Which seems like a more probable fit. I mean, maybe Ethel was a sexy name back in the 1800s. But . . . Fanny?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Humann:\u003c/strong> Fanny is a room that has purple maroon furniture set against an olive green wall color. There’s definitely some porcelain kitty cats and some cotton candy, pink, floral decorated lamps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Humann thinks this hotel was too fancy to be a brothel, and besides, it was in the more straight-laced, residential section.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Humann:\u003c/strong> Just understanding how these old towns worked is, the center of town was what you wanted the investors to see. All the ill-repute was probably done closer to the water. But they may have snuck gentlemen out the back door. (laughs)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Down the hallway, Humann points out the probable source of another popular rumor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Humann:\u003c/strong> This mirror is likely partially responsible for at least people’s illusion of ghosts in the hotel. It’s extremely old and exudes that haunted, anything could be on the other side of it, vibe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> It’s about 4 feet tall and wide and full of shifting shadows that seem to lead back into misty dimensions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Humann:\u003c/strong> The old mirrors have an actual layer of silver on the other side of the glass. And so, over time, that silver has tarnished. And you can kind of see how it all drips down. It’s very cool looking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> The hotel is old and creaky and has actual bats living in the walls. Humann says it’s not surprising that people like to think it’s haunted. But that the rumor has attracted badly behaved ghost hunters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Humann:\u003c/strong> It is a little bit of a touchy subject for locals, because there’s been vandalization and damage and disrespect done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Humann hasn’t seen any ghosts. But Barbara Williams, who works across the street, says she has. She bartends in the Warehouse Cafe. It’s on the first floor of the last of the town’s grain warehouses, built in 1886.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Barbara Williams:\u003c/strong> I was in the bar. I was closing. And I felt a breeze going past my face, and as I turned to tell the people that I was closed, I saw a woman look at me and walk through the door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan (in tape):\u003c/strong> And when you say walk through the door, was the door open?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Barbara Williams:\u003c/strong> The door was locked. It was closed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Another night, she says, she saw a man go into the back of the bar, and she went to tell him he wasn’t allowed there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Barbara Williams:\u003c/strong> Got up, looked around. No one was here. So, I told the other bartender the next day about what happened. And she said you described Bill Rich.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Bill Rich, the guy who bought the town in the 1960s, had passed away some years before that. But he used to own the Warehouse bar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>[Music of band playing outside Warehouse Cafe]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> These days, the Warehouse is a popular weekend hangout for motorcycle clubs. Bands play out front in what used to be the train yard. And daytrippers, along with some of the town’s 250 residents, come here to drink and chat. It’s nice. It’s sunny. A few cats are walking around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> And inside, it is seriously funky, with dilapidated, festive relics and bits of art all over the walls and ceiling. Lary Dameron has been bartending here for close to 20 years. He points to a taxidermied polar bear in a glass case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lary Dameron:\u003c/strong> He’s 8 foot, 8 inches tall. He’s standing up like he’s gonna swipe at you or something. But, um, the dead baby seal at his feet is unique.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> The polar bear is too weird and majestic to call the bar’s mascot, but it’s certainly part of its soul.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lary Dameron:\u003c/strong> It was payment for some work that Bill, the guy who bought the town … he did some work for this guy and that was how he paid him back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan (in tape):\u003c/strong> With a polar bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lary Dameron:\u003c/strong> Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> There’s also a water buffalo, a metal medusa sculpture, circus masks and giant candelabras and life preservers. And the collection has taken on a momentum of its own. Just a few years ago, someone donated a Kodiak bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lary Dameron:\u003c/strong> A guy who comes in on Sundays for music works at the wildlife museum and they were cleaning out the basement. So he calls up, and he’s like, “You guys interested in a Kodiak bear, you know, taxidermy?” I was like, “For free?” He’s like, “Yeah.” (sarcastically) I’m like, “No, no, I don’t want that…” It’s like, “hell yeah. I want it!” It’s like, how often do people offer you a bear?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> Port Costa is a unique place. And the people who know about it really treasure it. Dameron walks outside to where the band is packing up at the end of their set, and a few residents and bikers are just enjoying the evening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lary Dameron:\u003c/strong> You know, when the sun goes down, it’s kind of like this. It’s really nice. And you get, you know, boats go by, and ships go by, and trains and stuff. And it’s kind of cool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katherine Monahan:\u003c/strong> It’s a time capsule. It’s still got that raucous character that it had in the beginning. And as Dameron points out, Port Costa is surrounded by designated parkland, so it won’t be growing any time soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lary Dameron:\u003c/strong> If the town doesn’t just disintegrate or something, it’ll be exactly how it is today because it’s not going to change. I mean, it can’t really change; as long as people maintain it and live here, it’ll be just like it is now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>[Sound of train going by]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> That was KQED’s Katherine Monahan. Thanks to Marianne Hockenberry for asking the question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> We won’t be dropping an episode next week because the Bay Curious team is off for Labor Day (and I really hope you are, too.) We need all the rest we can get because when we return, we start work on Prop Fest — our podcast series that explains all those confuddling props on the statewide ballot. If there’s one on your radar you’ve got questions about, send ‘em our way! There’s a question box to fill out at BayCurious.org.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Are you a longtime listener who hasn’t gotten around to leaving us a rating and review? I get it — but please, do us a solid and take a few minutes today. Those ahem, five-star reviews keep us going and help other listeners find us, too!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marianne Hockenberry:\u003c/strong> Bay Curious is made in SF at member-supported KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Our show is produced by Amanda Font, Christopher Beale, Ana De Almeida Amaral and me, Olivia Allen-Price. Extra support from Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED Family. I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a good one!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/news/12002191/for-a-taste-of-the-old-west-head-to-this-tiny-bay-area-town",
"authors": [
"11842"
],
"programs": [
"news_33523"
],
"categories": [
"news_31795",
"news_8"
],
"tags": [
"news_18426",
"news_20902",
"news_5037",
"news_26838",
"news_227"
],
"featImg": "news_12002164",
"label": "news_33523"
}
},
"programsReducer": {
"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/possible/id1677184070",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
}
},
"1a": {
"id": "1a",
"title": "1A",
"info": "1A is home to the national conversation. 1A brings on great guests and frames the best debate in ways that make you think, share and engage.",
"airtime": "MON-THU 11pm-12am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/1a.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://the1a.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/1a",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/RBrW",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=1188724250&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/1A-p947376/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510316/podcast.xml"
}
},
"all-things-considered": {
"id": "all-things-considered",
"title": "All Things Considered",
"info": "Every weekday, \u003cem>All Things Considered\u003c/em> hosts Robert Siegel, Audie Cornish, Ari Shapiro, and Kelly McEvers present the program's trademark mix of news, interviews, commentaries, reviews, and offbeat features. Michel Martin hosts on the weekends.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 1pm-2pm, 4:30pm-6:30pm\u003cbr />SAT-SUN 5pm-6pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/All-Things-Considered-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/all-things-considered/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/all-things-considered"
},
"american-suburb-podcast": {
"id": "american-suburb-podcast",
"title": "American Suburb: The Podcast",
"tagline": "The flip side of gentrification, told through one town",
"info": "Gentrification is changing cities across America, forcing people from neighborhoods they have long called home. Call them the displaced. Now those priced out of the Bay Area are looking for a better life in an unlikely place. American Suburb follows this migration to one California town along the Delta, 45 miles from San Francisco. But is this once sleepy suburb ready for them?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/American-Suburb-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/news/series/american-suburb-podcast",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 19
},
"link": "/news/series/american-suburb-podcast/",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/RBrW",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?mt=2&id=1287748328",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/American-Suburb-p1086805/",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/series/american-suburb-podcast/feed/podcast",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkMzMDExODgxNjA5"
}
},
"baycurious": {
"id": "baycurious",
"title": "Bay Curious",
"tagline": "Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time",
"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bay-Curious-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "\"KQED Bay Curious",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/news/series/baycurious",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 4
},
"link": "/podcasts/baycurious",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/category/bay-curious-podcast/feed/podcast",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvbmV3cy9jYXRlZ29yeS9iYXktY3VyaW91cy1wb2RjYXN0L2ZlZWQvcG9kY2FzdA",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/bay-curious",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/6O76IdmhixfijmhTZLIJ8k"
}
},
"bbc-world-service": {
"id": "bbc-world-service",
"title": "BBC World Service",
"info": "The day's top stories from BBC News compiled twice daily in the week, once at weekends.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9pm-10pm, TUE-FRI 1am-2am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BBC-World-Service-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_world_service",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "BBC World Service"
},
"link": "/radio/program/bbc-world-service",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/global-news-podcast/id135067274?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/BBC-World-Service-p455581/",
"rss": "https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0gn.rss"
}
},
"code-switch-life-kit": {
"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
"airtime": "SUN 9pm-10pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Code-Switch-Life-Kit-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/code-switch-life-kit",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/1112190608?mt=2&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/3bExJ9JQpkwNhoHvaIIuyV",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510312/podcast.xml"
}
},
"commonwealth-club": {
"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.commonwealthclub.org/podcasts",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/commonwealth-club-of-california-podcast/id976334034?mt=2",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Commonwealth-Club-of-California-p1060/"
}
},
"forum": {
"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/forum",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 10
},
"link": "/forum",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kqeds-forum/id73329719",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432307980/forum",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqedfm-kqeds-forum-podcast",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC9557381633"
}
},
"freakonomics-radio": {
"id": "freakonomics-radio",
"title": "Freakonomics Radio",
"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/4s8b",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
}
},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 7pm-8pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Fresh-Air-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/4s8b",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Fresh-Air-p17/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
}
},
"here-and-now": {
"id": "here-and-now",
"title": "Here & Now",
"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
"airtime": "MON-THU 11am-12pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Here-And-Now-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/here-and-now",
"subsdcribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?mt=2&id=426698661",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Here--Now-p211/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
}
},
"how-i-built-this": {
"id": "how-i-built-this",
"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts--Culture-Podcasts/How-I-Built-This-p910896/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
}
},
"inside-europe": {
"id": "inside-europe",
"title": "Inside Europe",
"info": "Inside Europe, a one-hour weekly news magazine hosted by Helen Seeney and Keith Walker, explores the topical issues shaping the continent. No other part of the globe has experienced such dynamic political and social change in recent years.",
"airtime": "SAT 3am-4am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Inside-Europe-Podcast-Tile-300x300-1.jpg",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Deutsche Welle"
},
"link": "/radio/program/inside-europe",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inside-europe/id80106806?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Inside-Europe-p731/",
"rss": "https://partner.dw.com/xml/podcast_inside-europe"
}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/xtTd",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Latino-USA-p621/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"live-from-here-highlights": {
"id": "live-from-here-highlights",
"title": "Live from Here Highlights",
"info": "Chris Thile steps to the mic as the host of Live from Here (formerly A Prairie Home Companion), a live public radio variety show. Download Chris’s Song of the Week plus other highlights from the broadcast. Produced by American Public Media.",
"airtime": "SAT 6pm-8pm, SUN 11am-1pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Live-From-Here-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.livefromhere.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "american public media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/live-from-here-highlights",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1167173941",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Live-from-Here-Highlights-p921744/",
"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/a-prairie-home-companion-highlights/rss/rss"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=201853034&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/APM-Marketplace-p88/",
"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 13
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindshift-podcast/id1078765985",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/0MxSpNYZKNprFLCl7eEtyx"
}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/onourwatch",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/0OLWoyizopu6tY1XiuX70x",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-Our-Watch-p1436229/",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"our-body-politic": {
"id": "our-body-politic",
"title": "Our Body Politic",
"info": "Presented by KQED, KCRW and KPCC, and created and hosted by award-winning journalist Farai Chideya, Our Body Politic is unapologetically centered on reporting on not just how women of color experience the major political events of today, but how they’re impacting those very issues.",
"airtime": "SAT 6pm-7pm, SUN 1am-2am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Our-Body-Politic-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://our-body-politic.simplecast.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kcrw"
},
"link": "/radio/program/our-body-politic",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/our-body-politic/id1533069868",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9feGFQaHMxcw",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/4ApAiLT1kV153TttWAmqmc",
"rss": "https://feeds.simplecast.com/_xaPhs1s",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/News--Politics-Podcasts/Our-Body-Politic-p1369211/"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 15
},
"link": "/perspectives",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id73801135",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"
}
},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/M4f5",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Planet-Money-p164680/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
}
},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Political Breakdown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 6
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/political-breakdown/id1327641087",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5Nzk2MzI2MTEx",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/572155894/political-breakdown",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/political-breakdown",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/07RVyIjIdk2WDuVehvBMoN",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/political-breakdown/feed/podcast"
}
},
"pri-the-world": {
"id": "pri-the-world",
"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pri.org/programs/the-world",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "PRI"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pri-the-world",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pris-the-world-latest-edition/id278196007?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/News--Politics-Podcasts/PRIs-The-World-p24/",
"rss": "http://feeds.feedburner.com/pri/theworld"
}
},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
"airtime": "SUN 12am-1am, SAT 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/radiolab1400.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/radiolab/",
"meta": {
"site": "science",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/radiolab",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/radiolab/id152249110?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/RadioLab-p68032/",
"rss": "https://feeds.wnyc.org/radiolab"
}
},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
"airtime": "SAT 4pm-5pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/reveal300px.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/reveal",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/reveal/id886009669",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Reveal-p679597/",
"rss": "http://feeds.revealradio.org/revealpodcast"
}
},
"says-you": {
"id": "says-you",
"title": "Says You!",
"info": "Public radio's game show of bluff and bluster, words and whimsy. The warmest, wittiest cocktail party - it's spirited and civil, brainy and boisterous, peppered with musical interludes. Fast paced and playful, it's the most fun you can have with language without getting your mouth washed out with soap. Our motto: It's not important to know the answers, it's important to like the answers!",
"airtime": "SUN 4pm-5pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Says-You-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://www.saysyouradio.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "comedy",
"source": "Pipit and Finch"
},
"link": "/radio/program/says-you",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/says-you!/id1050199826",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Says-You-p480/",
"rss": "https://saysyou.libsyn.com/rss"
}
},
"science-friday": {
"id": "science-friday",
"title": "Science Friday",
"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
"airtime": "FRI 11am-1pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Science-Friday-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/science-friday",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/science-friday",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=73329284&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Science-Friday-p394/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/science-friday"
}
},
"selected-shorts": {
"id": "selected-shorts",
"title": "Selected Shorts",
"info": "Spellbinding short stories by established and emerging writers take on a new life when they are performed by stars of the stage and screen.",
"airtime": "SAT 8pm-9pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Selected-Shorts-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pri.org/programs/selected-shorts",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "pri"
},
"link": "/radio/program/selected-shorts",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=253191824&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Selected-Shorts-p31792/",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/selectedshorts"
}
},
"snap-judgment": {
"id": "snap-judgment",
"title": "Snap Judgment",
"tagline": "Real stories with killer beats",
"info": "The Snap Judgment radio show and podcast mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic radio. Snap's musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. This is storytelling... with a BEAT!! Snap first aired on public radio stations nationwide in July 2010. Today, Snap Judgment airs on over 450 public radio stations and is brought to the airwaves by KQED & PRX.",
"airtime": "SAT 1pm-2pm, 9pm-10pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Snap-Judgment-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://snapjudgment.org",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 5
},
"link": "https://snapjudgment.org",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/snap-judgment/id283657561",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/449018144/snap-judgment",
"stitcher": "https://www.pandora.com/podcast/snap-judgment/PC:241?source=stitcher-sunset",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/3Cct7ZWmxHNAtLgBTqjC5v",
"rss": "https://snap.feed.snapjudgment.org/"
}
},
"soldout": {
"id": "soldout",
"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
"tagline": "A new future for housing",
"info": "Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Sold-Out-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/soldout",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/podcasts/soldout",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/911586047/s-o-l-d-o-u-t-a-new-future-for-housing",
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/introducing-sold-out-rethinking-housing-in-america/id1531354937",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/soldout",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/38dTBSk2ISFoPiyYNoKn1X",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/sold-out-rethinking-housing-in-america",
"tunein": "https://tunein.com/radio/SOLD-OUT-Rethinking-Housing-in-America-p1365871/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vc29sZG91dA"
}
},
"spooked": {
"id": "spooked",
"title": "Spooked",
"tagline": "True-life supernatural stories",
"info": "",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Spooked-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://spookedpodcast.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
"link": "https://spookedpodcast.org/",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spooked/id1279361017",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/549547848/snap-judgment-presents-spooked",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/76571Rfl3m7PLJQZKQIGCT",
"rss": "https://feeds.simplecast.com/TBotaapn"
}
},
"ted-radio-hour": {
"id": "ted-radio-hour",
"title": "TED Radio Hour",
"info": "The TED Radio Hour is a journey through fascinating ideas, astonishing inventions, fresh approaches to old problems, and new ways to think and create.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm, SAT 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/tedRadioHour.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/?showDate=2018-06-22",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/ted-radio-hour",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/8vsS",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=523121474&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/TED-Radio-Hour-p418021/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510298/podcast.xml"
}
},
"tech-nation": {
"id": "tech-nation",
"title": "Tech Nation Radio Podcast",
"info": "Tech Nation is a weekly public radio program, hosted by Dr. Moira Gunn. Founded in 1993, it has grown from a simple interview show to a multi-faceted production, featuring conversations with noted technology and science leaders, and a weekly science and technology-related commentary.",
"airtime": "FRI 10pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Tech-Nation-Radio-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://technation.podomatic.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "science",
"source": "Tech Nation Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/tech-nation",
"subscribe": {
"rss": "https://technation.podomatic.com/rss2.xml"
}
},
"thebay": {
"id": "thebay",
"title": "The Bay",
"tagline": "Local news to keep you rooted",
"info": "Host Devin Katayama walks you through the biggest story of the day with reporters and newsmakers.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Bay-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Bay",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/thebay",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 3
},
"link": "/podcasts/thebay",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bay/id1350043452",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM4MjU5Nzg2MzI3",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/586725995/the-bay",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-bay",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/4BIKBKIujizLHlIlBNaAqQ",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC8259786327"
}
},
"californiareport": {
"id": "californiareport",
"title": "The California Report",
"tagline": "California, day by day",
"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The California Report",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
"link": "/californiareport",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kqeds-the-california-report/id79681292",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1MDAyODE4NTgz",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432285393/the-california-report",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqedfm-kqeds-the-california-report-podcast-8838",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/tcram/feed/podcast"
}
},
"californiareportmagazine": {
"id": "californiareportmagazine",
"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Magazine-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The California Report Magazine",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/californiareportmagazine",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-california-report-magazine/id1314750545",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/564733126/the-california-report-magazine",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-california-report-magazine",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/tcrmag/feed/podcast"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
"title": "Close All Tabs",
"tagline": "Your irreverent guide to the trends redefining our world",
"info": "Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/CAT_2_Tile-scaled.jpg",
"imageAlt": "\"KQED Close All Tabs",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 2
},
"link": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/close-all-tabs/id214663465",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC6993880386",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/92d9d4ac-67a3-4eed-b10a-fb45d45b1ef2/close-all-tabs",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/6LAJFHnGK1pYXYzv6SIol6?si=deb0cae19813417c"
}
},
"thelatest": {
"id": "thelatest",
"title": "The Latest",
"tagline": "Trusted local news in real time",
"info": "",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/The-Latest-2025-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Latest",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/thelatest",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 7
},
"link": "/thelatest",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-latest-from-kqed/id1197721799",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/1257949365/the-latest-from-k-q-e-d",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/5KIIXMgM9GTi5AepwOYvIZ?si=bd3053fec7244dba",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC9137121918"
}
},
"theleap": {
"id": "theleap",
"title": "The Leap",
"tagline": "What if you closed your eyes, and jumped?",
"info": "Stories about people making dramatic, risky changes, told by award-winning public radio reporter Judy Campbell.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Leap-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Leap",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/theleap",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 17
},
"link": "/podcasts/theleap",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-leap/id1046668171",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM0NTcwODQ2MjY2",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/447248267/the-leap",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-leap",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/3sSlVHHzU0ytLwuGs1SD1U",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/programs/the-leap/feed/podcast"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"the-moth-radio-hour": {
"id": "the-moth-radio-hour",
"title": "The Moth Radio Hour",
"info": "Since its launch in 1997, The Moth has presented thousands of true stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. Moth storytellers stand alone, under a spotlight, with only a microphone and a roomful of strangers. The storyteller and the audience embark on a high-wire act of shared experience which is both terrifying and exhilarating. Since 2008, The Moth podcast has featured many of our favorite stories told live on Moth stages around the country. For information on all of our programs and live events, visit themoth.org.",
"airtime": "SAT 8pm-9pm and SUN 11am-12pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/theMoth.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://themoth.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "prx"
},
"link": "/radio/program/the-moth-radio-hour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-moth-podcast/id275699983?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/The-Moth-p273888/",
"rss": "http://feeds.themoth.org/themothpodcast"
}
},
"the-new-yorker-radio-hour": {
"id": "the-new-yorker-radio-hour",
"title": "The New Yorker Radio Hour",
"info": "The New Yorker Radio Hour is a weekly program presented by the magazine's editor, David Remnick, and produced by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. Each episode features a diverse mix of interviews, profiles, storytelling, and an occasional burst of humor inspired by the magazine, and shaped by its writers, artists, and editors. This isn't a radio version of a magazine, but something all its own, reflecting the rich possibilities of audio storytelling and conversation. Theme music for the show was composed and performed by Merrill Garbus of tUnE-YArDs.",
"airtime": "SAT 10am-11am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-New-Yorker-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/tnyradiohour",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/the-new-yorker-radio-hour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1050430296",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/New-Yorker-Radio-Hour-p803804/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/newyorkerradiohour"
}
},
"the-takeaway": {
"id": "the-takeaway",
"title": "The Takeaway",
"info": "The Takeaway is produced in partnership with its national audience. It delivers perspective and analysis to help us better understand the day’s news. Be a part of the American conversation on-air and online.",
"airtime": "MON-THU 12pm-1pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Takeaway-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/takeaway",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/the-takeaway",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-takeaway/id363143310?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "http://tunein.com/radio/The-Takeaway-p150731/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/takeawaypodcast"
}
},
"this-american-life": {
"id": "this-american-life",
"title": "This American Life",
"info": "This American Life is a weekly public radio show, heard by 2.2 million people on more than 500 stations. Another 2.5 million people download the weekly podcast. It is hosted by Ira Glass, produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media, delivered to stations by PRX The Public Radio Exchange, and has won all of the major broadcasting awards.",
"airtime": "SAT 12pm-1pm, 7pm-8pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/thisAmericanLife.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "wbez"
},
"link": "/radio/program/this-american-life",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=201671138&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"rss": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/podcast/rss.xml"
}
},
"truthbetold": {
"id": "truthbetold",
"title": "Truth Be Told",
"tagline": "Advice by and for people of color",
"info": "We’re the friend you call after a long day, the one who gets it. Through wisdom from some of the greatest thinkers of our time, host Tonya Mosley explores what it means to grow and thrive as a Black person in America, while discovering new ways of being that serve as a portal to more love, more healing, and more joy.",
"airtime": "",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Truth-Be-Told-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Truth Be Told with Tonya Mosley",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.kqed.ord/podcasts/truthbetold",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/podcasts/truthbetold",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/truth-be-told/id1462216572",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvbmV3cy9jYXRlZ29yeS90cnV0aC1iZS10b2xkLXBvZGNhc3QvZmVlZA",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/719210818/truth-be-told",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=398170&refid=stpr",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/587DhwTBxke6uvfwDfaV5N"
}
},
"wait-wait-dont-tell-me": {
"id": "wait-wait-dont-tell-me",
"title": "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!",
"info": "Peter Sagal and Bill Kurtis host the weekly NPR News quiz show alongside some of the best and brightest news and entertainment personalities.",
"airtime": "SUN 10am-11am, SAT 11am-12pm, SAT 6pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Wait-Wait-Podcast-Tile-300x300-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/wait-wait-dont-tell-me/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/wait-wait-dont-tell-me",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/Xogv",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=121493804&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Wait-Wait-Dont-Tell-Me-p46/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/344098539/podcast.xml"
}
},
"washington-week": {
"id": "washington-week",
"title": "Washington Week",
"info": "For 50 years, Washington Week has been the most intelligent and up to date conversation about the most important news stories of the week. Washington Week is the longest-running news and public affairs program on PBS and features journalists -- not pundits -- lending insight and perspective to the week's important news stories.",
"airtime": "SAT 1:30am-2am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/washington-week.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://www.pbs.org/weta/washingtonweek/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/washington-week",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/washington-week-audio-pbs/id83324702?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Current-Affairs/Washington-Week-p693/",
"rss": "http://feeds.pbs.org/pbs/weta/washingtonweek-audio"
}
},
"weekend-edition-saturday": {
"id": "weekend-edition-saturday",
"title": "Weekend Edition Saturday",
"info": "Weekend Edition Saturday wraps up the week's news and offers a mix of analysis and features on a wide range of topics, including arts, sports, entertainment, and human interest stories. The two-hour program is hosted by NPR's Peabody Award-winning Scott Simon.",
"airtime": "SAT 5am-10am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Weekend-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/weekend-edition-saturday/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/weekend-edition-saturday"
},
"weekend-edition-sunday": {
"id": "weekend-edition-sunday",
"title": "Weekend Edition Sunday",
"info": "Weekend Edition Sunday features interviews with newsmakers, artists, scientists, politicians, musicians, writers, theologians and historians. The program has covered news events from Nelson Mandela's 1990 release from a South African prison to the capture of Saddam Hussein.",
"airtime": "SUN 5am-10am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Weekend-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/weekend-edition-sunday/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/weekend-edition-sunday"
},
"world-affairs": {
"id": "world-affairs",
"title": "World Affairs",
"info": "The world as we knew it is undergoing a rapid transformation…so what's next? Welcome to WorldAffairs, your guide to a changing world. We give you the context you need to navigate across borders and ideologies. Through sound-rich stories and in-depth interviews, we break down what it means to be a global citizen on a hot, crowded planet. Our hosts, Ray Suarez, Teresa Cotsirilos and Philip Yun help you make sense of an uncertain world, one story at a time.",
"airtime": "MON 10pm, TUE 1am, SAT 3am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/World-Affairs-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.worldaffairs.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "World Affairs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/world-affairs",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/world-affairs/id101215657?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/WorldAffairs-p1665/",
"rss": "https://worldaffairs.libsyn.com/rss"
}
},
"on-shifting-ground": {
"id": "on-shifting-ground",
"title": "On Shifting Ground with Ray Suarez",
"info": "Geopolitical turmoil. A warming planet. Authoritarians on the rise. We live in a chaotic world that’s rapidly shifting around us. “On Shifting Ground with Ray Suarez” explores international fault lines and how they impact us all. Each week, NPR veteran Ray Suarez hosts conversations with journalists, leaders and policy experts to help us read between the headlines – and give us hope for human resilience.",
"airtime": "MON 10pm, TUE 1am, SAT 3am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/2022/12/onshiftingground-600x600-1.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://worldaffairs.org/radio-podcast/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "On Shifting Ground"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-shifting-ground",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/on-shifting-ground/id101215657",
"rss": "https://feeds.libsyn.com/36668/rss"
}
},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/hiddenbrain.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hidden-brain/id1028908750?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Science-Podcasts/Hidden-Brain-p787503/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510308/podcast.xml"
}
},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
"imageAlt": "KQED Hyphenación",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 1
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hyphenaci%C3%B3n/id1191591838",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
"youtube": "https://www.youtube.com/c/kqedarts",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/6c3dd23c-93fb-4aab-97ba-1725fa6315f1/hyphenaci%C3%B3n",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
}
},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.cityarts.net/",
"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"white-lies": {
"id": "white-lies",
"title": "White Lies",
"info": "In 1965, Rev. James Reeb was murdered in Selma, Alabama. Three men were tried and acquitted, but no one was ever held to account. Fifty years later, two journalists from Alabama return to the city where it happened, expose the lies that kept the murder from being solved and uncover a story about guilt and memory that says as much about America today as it does about the past.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/White-Lies-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510343/white-lies",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/white-lies",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/whitelies",
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1462650519?mt=2&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM0My9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbA",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/12yZ2j8vxqhc0QZyRES3ft?si=LfWYEK6URA63hueKVxRLAw",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510343/podcast.xml"
}
},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rightnowish-Podcast-Tile-500x500-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Rightnowish with Pendarvis Harshaw",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/rightnowish",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 16
},
"link": "/podcasts/rightnowish",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/721590300/rightnowish",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/rightnowish/feed/podcast",
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rightnowish/id1482187648",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/rightnowish",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkMxMjU5MTY3NDc4",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/7kEJuafTzTVan7B78ttz1I"
}
},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/790253322/the-political-mind-of-jerry-brown",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/series/jerrybrown/feed/podcast/",
"tuneIn": "http://tun.in/pjGcK",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-political-mind-of-jerry-brown",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/54C1dmuyFyKMFttY6X2j6r?si=K8SgRCoISNK6ZbjpXrX5-w",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvbmV3cy9zZXJpZXMvamVycnlicm93bi9mZWVkL3BvZGNhc3Qv"
}
},
"tinydeskradio": {
"id": "tinydeskradio",
"title": "Tiny Desk Radio",
"info": "We're bringing the best of Tiny Desk to the airwaves, only on public radio.",
"airtime": "SUN 8pm and SAT 9pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/300x300-For-Member-Station-Logo-Tiny-Desk-Radio-@2x.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/g-s1-52030/tiny-desk-radio",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/tinydeskradio",
"subscribe": {
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/g-s1-52030/rss.xml"
}
},
"the-splendid-table": {
"id": "the-splendid-table",
"title": "The Splendid Table",
"info": "\u003cem>The Splendid Table\u003c/em> hosts our nation's conversations about cooking, sustainability and food culture.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Splendid-Table-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.splendidtable.org/",
"airtime": "SUN 10-11 pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/the-splendid-table"
}
},
"racesReducer": {},
"racesGenElectionReducer": {},
"radioSchedulesReducer": {},
"listsReducer": {
"posts/news?tag=martinez": {
"isFetching": false,
"latestQuery": {
"from": 0,
"postsToRender": 9
},
"tag": null,
"vitalsOnly": true,
"totalRequested": 9,
"isLoading": false,
"isLoadingMore": true,
"total": {
"value": 33,
"relation": "eq"
},
"items": [
"news_12052204",
"news_12051261",
"news_12042387",
"news_12031389",
"news_12026572",
"news_12026058",
"news_12025377",
"news_12025273",
"news_12002191"
]
}
},
"recallGuideReducer": {
"intros": {},
"policy": {},
"candidates": {}
},
"savedArticleReducer": {
"articles": [],
"status": {}
},
"pfsSessionReducer": {},
"subscriptionsReducer": {},
"termsReducer": {
"about": {
"name": "About",
"type": "terms",
"id": "about",
"slug": "about",
"link": "/about",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"arts": {
"name": "Arts & Culture",
"grouping": [
"arts",
"pop",
"trulyca"
],
"description": "KQED Arts provides daily in-depth coverage of the Bay Area's music, art, film, performing arts, literature and arts news, as well as cultural commentary and criticism.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "arts",
"slug": "arts",
"link": "/arts",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"artschool": {
"name": "Art School",
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "artschool",
"slug": "artschool",
"link": "/artschool",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"bayareabites": {
"name": "KQED food",
"grouping": [
"food",
"bayareabites",
"checkplease"
],
"parent": "food",
"type": "terms",
"id": "bayareabites",
"slug": "bayareabites",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"bayareahiphop": {
"name": "Bay Area Hiphop",
"type": "terms",
"id": "bayareahiphop",
"slug": "bayareahiphop",
"link": "/bayareahiphop",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"campaign21": {
"name": "Campaign 21",
"type": "terms",
"id": "campaign21",
"slug": "campaign21",
"link": "/campaign21",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"checkplease": {
"name": "KQED food",
"grouping": [
"food",
"bayareabites",
"checkplease"
],
"parent": "food",
"type": "terms",
"id": "checkplease",
"slug": "checkplease",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"education": {
"name": "Education",
"grouping": [
"education"
],
"type": "terms",
"id": "education",
"slug": "education",
"link": "/education",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"elections": {
"name": "Elections",
"type": "terms",
"id": "elections",
"slug": "elections",
"link": "/elections",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"events": {
"name": "Events",
"type": "terms",
"id": "events",
"slug": "events",
"link": "/events",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"event": {
"name": "Event",
"alias": "events",
"type": "terms",
"id": "event",
"slug": "event",
"link": "/event",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"filmschoolshorts": {
"name": "Film School Shorts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "filmschoolshorts",
"slug": "filmschoolshorts",
"link": "/filmschoolshorts",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"food": {
"name": "KQED food",
"grouping": [
"food",
"bayareabites",
"checkplease"
],
"type": "terms",
"id": "food",
"slug": "food",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"forum": {
"name": "Forum",
"relatedContentQuery": "posts/forum?",
"parent": "news",
"type": "terms",
"id": "forum",
"slug": "forum",
"link": "/forum",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"futureofyou": {
"name": "Future of You",
"grouping": [
"science",
"futureofyou"
],
"parent": "science",
"type": "terms",
"id": "futureofyou",
"slug": "futureofyou",
"link": "/futureofyou",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"jpepinheart": {
"name": "KQED food",
"relatedContentQuery": "posts/food,bayareabites,checkplease",
"parent": "food",
"type": "terms",
"id": "jpepinheart",
"slug": "jpepinheart",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"liveblog": {
"name": "Live Blog",
"type": "terms",
"id": "liveblog",
"slug": "liveblog",
"link": "/liveblog",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"livetv": {
"name": "Live TV",
"parent": "tv",
"type": "terms",
"id": "livetv",
"slug": "livetv",
"link": "/livetv",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"lowdown": {
"name": "The Lowdown",
"relatedContentQuery": "posts/lowdown?",
"parent": "news",
"type": "terms",
"id": "lowdown",
"slug": "lowdown",
"link": "/lowdown",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"mindshift": {
"name": "Mindshift",
"parent": "news",
"description": "MindShift explores the future of education by highlighting the innovative – and sometimes counterintuitive – ways educators and parents are helping all children succeed.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift",
"slug": "mindshift",
"link": "/mindshift",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"news": {
"name": "News",
"grouping": [
"news",
"forum"
],
"type": "terms",
"id": "news",
"slug": "news",
"link": "/news",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"perspectives": {
"name": "Perspectives",
"parent": "radio",
"type": "terms",
"id": "perspectives",
"slug": "perspectives",
"link": "/perspectives",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"podcasts": {
"name": "Podcasts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "podcasts",
"slug": "podcasts",
"link": "/podcasts",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"pop": {
"name": "Pop",
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "pop",
"slug": "pop",
"link": "/pop",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"pressroom": {
"name": "Pressroom",
"type": "terms",
"id": "pressroom",
"slug": "pressroom",
"link": "/pressroom",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"quest": {
"name": "Quest",
"parent": "science",
"type": "terms",
"id": "quest",
"slug": "quest",
"link": "/quest",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"radio": {
"name": "Radio",
"grouping": [
"forum",
"perspectives"
],
"description": "Listen to KQED Public Radio – home of Forum and The California Report – on 88.5 FM in San Francisco, 89.3 FM in Sacramento, 88.3 FM in Santa Rosa and 88.1 FM in Martinez.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "radio",
"slug": "radio",
"link": "/radio",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"root": {
"name": "KQED",
"image": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"imageWidth": 1200,
"imageHeight": 630,
"headData": {
"title": "KQED | News, Radio, Podcasts, TV | Public Media for Northern California",
"description": "KQED provides public radio, television, and independent reporting on issues that matter to the Bay Area. We’re the NPR and PBS member station for Northern California."
},
"type": "terms",
"id": "root",
"slug": "root",
"link": "/root",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"science": {
"name": "Science",
"grouping": [
"science",
"futureofyou"
],
"description": "KQED Science brings you award-winning science and environment coverage from the Bay Area and beyond.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "science",
"slug": "science",
"link": "/science",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"stateofhealth": {
"name": "State of Health",
"parent": "science",
"type": "terms",
"id": "stateofhealth",
"slug": "stateofhealth",
"link": "/stateofhealth",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"support": {
"name": "Support",
"type": "terms",
"id": "support",
"slug": "support",
"link": "/support",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"thedolist": {
"name": "The Do List",
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "thedolist",
"slug": "thedolist",
"link": "/thedolist",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"trulyca": {
"name": "Truly CA",
"grouping": [
"arts",
"pop",
"trulyca"
],
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "trulyca",
"slug": "trulyca",
"link": "/trulyca",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"tv": {
"name": "TV",
"type": "terms",
"id": "tv",
"slug": "tv",
"link": "/tv",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"voterguide": {
"name": "Voter Guide",
"parent": "elections",
"alias": "elections",
"type": "terms",
"id": "voterguide",
"slug": "voterguide",
"link": "/voterguide",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"guiaelectoral": {
"name": "Guia Electoral",
"parent": "elections",
"alias": "elections",
"type": "terms",
"id": "guiaelectoral",
"slug": "guiaelectoral",
"link": "/guiaelectoral",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"news_227": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_227",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "227",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Martinez",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Martinez Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null,
"imageData": {
"ogImageSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"width": 1200,
"height": 630
},
"twImageSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
},
"twitterCard": "summary_large_image"
}
},
"ttid": 235,
"slug": "martinez",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/martinez"
},
"source_news_12026058": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "source_news_12026058",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"name": "The Bay",
"link": "https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/thebay",
"isLoading": false
},
"news_34165": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_34165",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "34165",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"name": "Climate",
"slug": "climate",
"taxonomy": "category",
"description": null,
"featImg": null,
"headData": {
"title": "Climate Archives | KQED News",
"description": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogDescription": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"twDescription": null,
"twImgId": null
},
"ttid": 34182,
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/category/climate"
},
"news_19906": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_19906",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "19906",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Environment",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Environment Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 19923,
"slug": "environment",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/category/environment"
},
"news_457": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_457",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "457",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Health",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Health Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 16998,
"slug": "health",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/category/health"
},
"news_28250": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_28250",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "28250",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Local",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Local Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 28267,
"slug": "local",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/category/local"
},
"news_8": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_8",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "8",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "News",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "News Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 8,
"slug": "news",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/category/news"
},
"news_32080": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_32080",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "32080",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"name": "air district",
"slug": "air-district",
"taxonomy": "tag",
"description": null,
"featImg": null,
"headData": {
"title": "air district | KQED News",
"description": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogDescription": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"twDescription": null,
"twImgId": null,
"metaRobotsNoIndex": "noindex"
},
"ttid": 32097,
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/air-district"
},
"news_2036": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_2036",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "2036",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "air pollution",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "air pollution Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 2051,
"slug": "air-pollution",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/air-pollution"
},
"news_2928": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_2928",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "2928",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "air quality",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "air quality Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 2946,
"slug": "air-quality",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/air-quality"
},
"news_1386": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_1386",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "1386",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Bay Area",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Bay Area Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 1398,
"slug": "bay-area",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/bay-area"
},
"news_20628": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_20628",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "20628",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Bay Area Air Quality Management District",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Bay Area Air Quality Management District Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20645,
"slug": "bay-area-air-quality-management-district",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/bay-area-air-quality-management-district"
},
"news_255": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_255",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "255",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "climate change",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "climate change Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 263,
"slug": "climate-change",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/climate-change"
},
"news_18352": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_18352",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "18352",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "East Bay",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "East Bay Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 18386,
"slug": "east-bay",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/east-bay"
},
"news_20023": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_20023",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "20023",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "environment",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "environment Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20040,
"slug": "environment",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/environment"
},
"news_31830": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_31830",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "31830",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "environmental pollution",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "environmental pollution Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 31847,
"slug": "environmental-pollution",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/environmental-pollution"
},
"news_35099": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_35099",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "35099",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"name": "landfills",
"slug": "landfills",
"taxonomy": "tag",
"description": null,
"featImg": null,
"headData": {
"title": "landfills | KQED News",
"description": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogDescription": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"twDescription": null,
"twImgId": null
},
"ttid": 35116,
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/landfills"
},
"news_21891": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_21891",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "21891",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "lawsuits",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "lawsuits Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 21908,
"slug": "lawsuits",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/lawsuits"
},
"news_19960": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_19960",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "19960",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "public health",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "public health Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 19977,
"slug": "public-health",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/public-health"
},
"news_33741": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_33741",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "33741",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "East Bay",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "interest",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "East Bay Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 33758,
"slug": "east-bay",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/interest/east-bay"
},
"news_33739": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_33739",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "33739",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Housing",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "interest",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Housing Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 33756,
"slug": "housing",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/interest/housing"
},
"news_33733": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_33733",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "33733",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "News",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "interest",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "News Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 33750,
"slug": "news",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/interest/news"
},
"news_34167": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_34167",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "34167",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"name": "Criminal Justice",
"slug": "criminal-justice",
"taxonomy": "category",
"description": null,
"featImg": null,
"headData": {
"title": "Criminal Justice Archives | KQED News",
"description": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogDescription": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"twDescription": null,
"twImgId": null
},
"ttid": 34184,
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/category/criminal-justice"
},
"news_6188": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_6188",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "6188",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Law and Justice",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Law and Justice Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 6212,
"slug": "law-and-justice",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/category/law-and-justice"
},
"news_18538": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_18538",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "18538",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "California",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "California Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 31,
"slug": "california",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/california"
},
"news_17725": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_17725",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "17725",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "criminal justice",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "criminal justice Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 17759,
"slug": "criminal-justice",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/criminal-justice"
},
"news_17835": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_17835",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "17835",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "parole",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "parole Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 17869,
"slug": "parole",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/parole"
},
"news_116": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_116",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "116",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "police",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "police Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 120,
"slug": "police",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/police"
},
"news_33745": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_33745",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "33745",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Criminal Justice",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "interest",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Criminal Justice Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 33762,
"slug": "criminal-justice",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/interest/criminal-justice"
},
"news_1467": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_1467",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "1467",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Contra Costa County",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Contra Costa County Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 1479,
"slug": "contra-costa-county",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/contra-costa-county"
},
"news_27626": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_27626",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "27626",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "featured-news",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "featured-news Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 27643,
"slug": "featured-news",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/featured-news"
},
"news_18543": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_18543",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "18543",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Health",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Health Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 466,
"slug": "health",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/health"
},
"news_20455": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_20455",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "20455",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Martinez Refinery",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Martinez Refinery Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20472,
"slug": "martinez-refinery",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/martinez-refinery"
},
"news_29527": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_29527",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "29527",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "PBF Energy",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "PBF Energy Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 29544,
"slug": "pbf-energy",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/pbf-energy"
},
"news_33747": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_33747",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "33747",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Health",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "interest",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Health Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 33764,
"slug": "health",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/interest/health"
},
"news_31795": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_31795",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "31795",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "California",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "California Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 31812,
"slug": "california",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/category/california"
},
"news_22456": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_22456",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "22456",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "public safety",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "public safety Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 22473,
"slug": "public-safety",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/public-safety"
},
"news_33750": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_33750",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "33750",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Climate",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "interest",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Climate Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 33767,
"slug": "climate",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/interest/climate"
},
"news_33738": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_33738",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "33738",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "California",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "interest",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "California Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 33755,
"slug": "california",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/interest/california"
},
"news_28779": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_28779",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "28779",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "The Bay",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "program",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": "The Bay is a daily news and culture program from KQED that covers the latest headlines, trends, and stories that matter to the Bay Area.",
"title": "The Bay Area Archives | KQED",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 28796,
"slug": "the-bay",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/program/the-bay"
},
"news_33812": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_33812",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "33812",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Interests",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Interests Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 33829,
"slug": "interests",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/interests"
},
"news_22598": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_22598",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "22598",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "The Bay",
"description": "\u003cimg class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-11638190\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/02/TheBay_1200x6301.png\" alt=\"\" />\r\n\u003cbr/>\r\n\r\nEvery good story starts local. So that’s where we start. \u003ci>The Bay\u003c/i> is storytelling for daily news. KQED host Devin Katayama talks with reporters to help us make sense of what’s happening in the Bay Area. One story. One conversation. One idea.\r\n\r\n\u003cstrong>Subscribe to The Bay:\u003c/strong>\r\n\r\n\u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bay/id1350043452?mt=2\">\u003cimg src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Listen_on_Apple_Podcasts_sRGB_US-e1515635079510.png\" />\u003c/a>",
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": "Every good story starts local. So that’s where we start. The Bay is storytelling for daily news. KQED host Devin Katayama talks with reporters to help us make sense of what’s happening in the Bay Area. One story. One conversation. One idea. Subscribe to The Bay:",
"title": "The Bay Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 22615,
"slug": "the-bay",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/the-bay"
},
"news_6145": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_6145",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "6145",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Cal-OSHA",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Cal-OSHA Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 6169,
"slug": "cal-osha",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/cal-osha"
},
"news_33743": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_33743",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "33743",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "North Bay",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "interest",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "North Bay Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 33760,
"slug": "north-bay",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/interest/north-bay"
},
"news_33523": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_33523",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "33523",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Bay Curious",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "program",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Bay Curious Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 33540,
"slug": "bay-curious",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/program/bay-curious"
},
"news_18426": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_18426",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "18426",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Bay Curious",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Bay Curious Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 18460,
"slug": "bay-curious",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/bay-curious"
},
"news_20902": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_20902",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "20902",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Benicia",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Benicia Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20919,
"slug": "benicia",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/benicia"
},
"news_5037": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_5037",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "5037",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"name": "Carquinez Bridge",
"slug": "carquinez-bridge",
"taxonomy": "tag",
"description": null,
"featImg": null,
"headData": {
"title": "Carquinez Bridge | KQED News",
"description": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogDescription": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"twDescription": null,
"twImgId": null,
"metaRobotsNoIndex": "noindex"
},
"ttid": 5056,
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/carquinez-bridge"
},
"news_26838": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_26838",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "26838",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "crockett",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "crockett Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 26855,
"slug": "crockett",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/tag/crockett"
},
"news_33736": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "news_33736",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "news",
"id": "33736",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Arts and Culture",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "interest",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Arts and Culture Archives | KQED News",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 33753,
"slug": "arts-and-culture",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/news/interest/arts-and-culture"
}
},
"userAgentReducer": {
"userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)",
"isBot": true
},
"userPermissionsReducer": {
"wpLoggedIn": false
},
"localStorageReducer": {},
"browserHistoryReducer": [],
"eventsReducer": {},
"fssReducer": {},
"tvDailyScheduleReducer": {},
"tvWeeklyScheduleReducer": {},
"tvPrimetimeScheduleReducer": {},
"tvMonthlyScheduleReducer": {},
"userAccountReducer": {
"user": {
"email": null,
"emailStatus": "EMAIL_UNVALIDATED",
"loggedStatus": "LOGGED_OUT",
"loggingChecked": false,
"articles": [],
"firstName": null,
"lastName": null,
"phoneNumber": null,
"fetchingMembership": false,
"membershipError": false,
"memberships": [
{
"id": null,
"startDate": null,
"firstName": null,
"lastName": null,
"familyNumber": null,
"memberNumber": null,
"memberSince": null,
"expirationDate": null,
"pfsEligible": false,
"isSustaining": false,
"membershipLevel": "Prospect",
"membershipStatus": "Non Member",
"lastGiftDate": null,
"renewalDate": null
}
]
},
"authModal": {
"isOpen": false,
"view": "LANDING_VIEW"
},
"error": null
},
"youthMediaReducer": {},
"checkPleaseReducer": {
"filterData": {},
"restaurantData": []
},
"location": {
"pathname": "/news/tag/martinez",
"previousPathname": "/"
}
}
