Opinion ID: 4536539
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Health and Safety Impacts on West Oakland

Text: Residents On June 24, 2016, City staff published a detailed agenda report that analyzed the public comments received during months of public review. The report recommended that the City Council adopt an ordinance to prohibit storage and handling of coal at bulk material facilities and terminals in Oakland, and a resolution applying the ordinance to the Project Site. The agenda report described and attached the ESA report. It also discussed the Chafe report, the Public Health Advisory Panel report, and other evidence submitted to the City—including OBOT’s Basis of Design. OBOT V. CITY OF OAKLAND 41 All three major reports agreed that terminal activities would generate fugitive coal dust. The dust would include significant amounts of the harmful and sometimes deadly air pollutant PM2.5. Further, the Chafe and Public Health Advisory Panel reports found that coal dust emissions would contain toxic components like mercury and arsenic. All three reports discussed the enhanced risks of fire or explosion at OBOT’s proposed terminal, given coal’s potential to spontaneously combust. Finally, the three reports warned that these health and safety risks were even more consequential because of the terminal’s proximity to West Oakland—where residents were already disproportionately burdened with high levels of pollution, elevated cancer risks, poor birth outcomes, frequent emergency room visits for asthmatic children, and shorter lifespans. A study cited by the agenda report found that individuals born in West Oakland have a life expectancy that is 15 years less than individuals born in the more affluent neighborhoods within Oakland Hills.