If Big West of California really wants approval for its Rosedale Highway refinery expansion, it needs to come out of the closet, so to speak.

The old-school attitude of “the less the public knows the less they’ll bother us” doesn’t work anymore.

Pssst — everyone KNOWS you’ve got some bad chemicals over there. It’s not a secret.

The real mystery is why Big West doesn’t understand that cluing in the public about what’s happening at the refinery — and I mean every little thing — is the only way to gain our trust.

If we don’t trust you, why should we allow you to build a bigger operation, bring in more toxic stuff (as if Kern isn’t already Chemical County) and endanger our lives and environment even more? For a few extra gallons of gas? Uh-uh.

You gotta do better than that.

A perfect example of what NOT to do is the bungled response to last Sunday’s “little leak” of anhydrous ammonia.

An off-duty cop who heard the refinery alarm urging employees to evacuate is the ONLY reason county authorities knew anything about it. Makes me wonder what else we don’t know about.

It was only a cup of ammonia and the refinery said everything worked as it should.  I don’t care if it was a teaspoon, when alarms go off the public needs to know what’s happening.

The refinery initially told the paper they had called local authorities, then said they hadn’t and then quoted California government codes saying they weren’t required to report the leak to anyone.

Seriously, someone at Big West needs to put together these two words: “public” and “relations.”

If this is the response when they’re under intense public scrutiny, what can we expect if the expansion’s approved and they don’t need our good graces any more?

At this point, you probably think I’m against the expansion. Wrong. I actually favor it for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that many of our local independent oil producers rely on Big West.

But the expansion can only come after Big West proves it will operate safely, as cleanly as possible and without all the hush-hush of previous years.

So far, I don’t see that happening.

When I asked about the ammonia leak, Big West Health, Safety and Environmental Director Bill Chadick said the refinery has a strong safety record and is eager to share information with the public.

In fact, he said they’re building a public website which will detail leaks or gas releases and will even have real time video feeds from around the site. He said the idea started with Environmental Health but now, “We’re doing that on our own,” Chadick said.

Not exactly.

Two years ago, Kern County Environmental Health Director Matt Constantine proposed the website after Big West belched out 3,700 tons of hydrogen sulfide (the rotten egg smelling stuff).

Constantine told Big West that instead of paying a fine, they could set up a public website where every leak, spill or release was noted, including real-time video. He also wanted Big West to put sensors at surrounding businesses that would feed unfiltered, real-time information to the website so people would know if anything was wafting their way.

The cameras would also help pinpoint problems on the large property when responders, such as the Kern County Fire Department, have to rush to an incident.

“That way we wouldn’t spend precious time trying to figure out where the problem is, as happened last Sunday,” Constantine told me.

But Big West officials didn’t like the cost and dragged their feet. Eventually Environmental Health gave up and slapped them with a $20,000 fine, which they promptly paid.

The website idea is one now of Environmental Health’s many proposed mitigation measures in the environmental impact report on the proposed expansion.

I’m glad Big West is proceeding with the website, but I wouldn’t characterize it as “doing it on our own.” More like, “rammed down our throats.”

No wonder Constantine has such a jaded view of the refinery.

Big West’s disregard for public communication is all the more galling when you learn that their parent company, Flying J Inc., has another refinery in Utah that operates under a host of public notification requirements, said Kern County Planner Lorelei Oviatt who’s been working on Big West’s environmental documents seeking the expansion.

“Why not here?” she asked. “This is not rocket science.”

No, it’s not. And I would also urge the Board of Supervisors to pass a countywide ordinance establishing public notification methods for the other 187 facilities in Kern that work with hazardous chemicals.

Oviatt used public notification requirements from the Utah operation and those she gleaned from refineries in places like Torrance and Contra Costa County to create a list of similar requirements for Big West in its upcoming EIR, which will be recirculated for public review likely by mid-June.

When I started researching this column, my goal was to find some empirical way to determine if Big West is a “good” or a “bad” operator. Where do they rank in comparison with other refineries?

I learned there’s no industry standard and while a legion of agencies regulate refineries, there’s no one agency that gathers all that info so it can watch for patterns or benchmark it.

In Torrance, the Fire Department has become that clearinghouse because of a lawsuit filed by the city against the ExxonMobil refinery in 1989. It resulted from a string of accidents and the company’s use of hydrofluoric acid, or HF; it was settled in 1990 when the refinery agreed to use modified HF. The settlement also included a consent decree ordering the refinery to be more upfront with the city.

Now, ExxonMobil reports everything to the fire department. EVERYTHING.

“You name it, they call us,” said Torrance Fire Operations Division Chief David Dumais. “Spills, leaks, releases. If someone breaks a leg or cuts their fingers, they call us. If the wind shifts and someone offsite smells something, they come out with their combustible gas meters. We have joint notification drills. Education programs. If they hear the chimes, the public knows to shelter in place.”
 

He went on and on about the ways the refinery now respects the community’s needs and works to earn the public’s trust.

Given how we’ve been treated so far by Big West, I’d say we need a whole lot more respect before we can trust them with this expansion.

Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her  column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com