Hydrofluoric Acid.

Refineries pose the threat of a chemical disaster to communities because they us and store tons of dangerous chemicals at their facilities. Ultramar/Valero is the only refinery in California to use pure Hydrofluoric acid at its refinery. HF is extremely hazardous and deadly.

These refineries surround the Long Beach and Wilmington area. Wilmington is extremely clustered with these refineries as they surround the entire community. These refineries exist only a block away from Elementary schools and peoples homes. You can look outside your window or walk outside your door and see the smoke puffing into the very air you breathe.

The Ultramar/Valero Wilmington Refinery has proposed a project to expand its operations in Wilmington, installing new equipment at its refinery and tank farms. The project will increase cancer-causing and toxic air pollution. SCAQMD's own documents show the project will exceed health standards. Wilmington is over 86% Latino and 92% people of color. The cancer risk is already over 1,500 million exposed - 1,500 times greater than the federal goal of 1 in one million. Increasing cancer and health risks in already over-polluted communities of color like Wilmington is environmental racism!

On Weds, June 19 approximately 45 community residents held a protest in front of the Ultramar/Valero Wilmington Refinery. The community is demanding that deadly chemicals like HF be banned from polluting their environment and their air. Because of the refineries, people in the community have suffered sickness with unexplainable symptoms, asthma, cancer, headaches, and even death.

How long will we allow corporations to destroy our environment? Forget our "constitutional rights" because we don't even have our basic human rights to breathe clean air and live in a clean environment. How long will we allow corporate america to poisin our communities with deadly chemicals and deny us the basic human right for clean air and clean environment? If we wait too long then it will be too late to do anything about it. The earth can live without us, but we cannot live without earth. Environmental justice is inevitable. It's crucial that we protect the environment by any means otherwise the fate of our future, and the fate of our planet will become a reality.

I live in wilmington and the air quality is below California's health standards according to the Air District. You don't even need especial scientific test to can tell the air quality is really bad. Just try to take a deep breath, especially once your barely entering the city, the stench makes a weird feeling in your lungs sometimes. The really scary part is that many of my neighbors do have cancer, asthma, and other diseases related to the pollution. My mother had a unexplained tumor in her stomach, a few months later our neighbor had the same thing. Weird part was that this happened a short while after an "accidental explosion" at a nearby refinery; which there are 5 sorrounding Wilmington. If I had the choice to move I would, but I don't have such a luxury.