Refinery Smoke Sends Smoke Over East Bay

RICHMOND, CA — The Chevron Richmond Refinery issued a community warning as a tall plume of black smoke rose from the refinery and above the East Bay Friday afternoon.

The warning was level one, the lowest on the scale, and was issued because the smoke was visible, Chevron Richmond said in a Facebook post.

The post said the smoke was from "flaring activity due to an upset at a process unit."

Flares are important to the refinery's safe operations, the announcement said, and are used in refineries to relieve pressure during refining processes.

There was no information immediately available about how long the flaring was expected to continue.

Residents were advised to go to www.richmondairmonitoring.org to keep track of current air quality data.

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--Bay City News