Posted on 08/09/2012 12:54:43 PM PDT by SmithL
Two days after toxic black smoke from the Chevron refinery fire enveloped Richmond, a second phenomenon swept through the city: the rush for money.
More than 1,000 residents claiming to have coughs, nausea, scratchy throats and psychological trauma visited a downtown law office Wednesday in hopes of receiving a payout for their suffering.
Another 1,000 contacted Chevron directly. Chevron was so overwhelmed, it set up a storefront downtown to accommodate the claims and answer questions.
But what claimants are likely to receive - at the most, a few thousand dollars each - is not enough to buy a long-term solution to refinery pollution, which is a new home in a different city, they said.
"I want enough money so we can move someplace with clean air," . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
We'd all be better off.
America has become a nation of looters.
When I was a kid my uncle lived a couple of blocks from that plant.
Back then there was a constant acrid smell.
When I’ve passed through the area in the last several years there has been no detectable odor at all.
The wetlands in the area are also green and healthy, no oil sheen anymore.
No matter how clean the refinery is run, it will never be good enough for the “I wanta win a lawsuit lottery!” crowd.
"Why should we fight over nickels and dimes while they're making millions ?"
Share the wealth! Share the wealth! Share the wealth!
People no longer realize there is a correlation between productive effort and earned wealth. All they see is someone else has it and I wants it. Shameful.
They have to get in line behind the government of Ecuador, which has a kangaroo-court judgement for $18 Billion against Chevron for environmental damages, which they are trying to get enforced.
Richmond is so Black that you don’t dare get off the freeway while driving through. Richmond accounts for most of the welfare cost in Contra Costa County.
Last year I rode a shuttle bus in Emeryville to the BART Station there (going to Oakland Airport). A rider (race not to be mentioned) got off the bus at a stop and made a drug deal with a man waiting at the curb then got back on with the new passengers before the bus went on. Couldn't wait to catch the plane back to Lubbock.
My first job ( in 1965) was in Emeryville working for Shell. Emeryville had the best of everything. The High School had carpeted hallways, etc. The city of Oakland was trying to “annex” Emeryville because of it’s industrial tax base. That tax base is all gone now. the DelMonte cannery where I worked as a student has been torn down and replaced by PIxar which has nowhere near the employee level of the cannery. They’ve moved the Police HQ from across the street from the cannery location to the other side of I-80 along with city hall. So now the minorities are separated from the “upper class by ten lanes of highway. It’s like Anaheim on the Bay!
geez the refinery was there long before the city was even Incorporated”””
Absolutely!!
The politicians need to set up buffer zones around certain kinds of industries of, in the least, make suze zones a definiate area which must be “disclosed’ to any real estate buyer. That kind of mandatory disclosure & sign off by a property buyer is mandatory in N California counties applying to agricultural pursuits. Otherwise, the city people flocking to the country start nuisance lawsuits about ‘animal noise’ & ‘too many flies’ & my kitty got taken by some kind of predator”. I have actually seen county commissioner meetings where new residents wanted ALL WILD ANIMALS removed by the county because he didn’t feel safe!!!! He was almost laughed out of the meeting room. Where he had moved, there were large hawks, bobcats, coyotes & an occasional mountain lion & a black bear who sometimes visited. He bought 5 acres in the country & was apalled that he would have to watch his cts & dogs on his own!!
In Los Angeles, for YEARS, the best real estate scam was to buy a house near LAX and then sue within months about THE NOISE!!!
As though a person looking for a house didn’t have a clue how noisy a major International airport could be.
FOR YEARS the L A City council was paying out ‘claims’ until a newer member to the Council asked WHY?
There was no cohersion for anyone to buy in that area-—the City shouldn’t have to pay a thing for stupid.
The claims were thereafter denied.
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