The right to know what's in the air we breathe and what we're being exposed to from our neighbors - whether resident, business or industry - is a fundamental human right. This right isn't easy to exercise and vanishes without action.

The recent fire at Chevron's Richmond refinery makes the strongest case for a community's right to know, yet Richmond, North Richmond and San Pablo residents have been denied their right by local government and industry. We protest this denial and call for environmental justice.

We join the Richmond community to demand that a public access, real-time air monitoring system be established for the educational benefit and early alert advantages such technologies offer. Residents affected by the toxics released by Chevron's fire deserved to know what was in the air as the fire raged.

Two years ago, Chevron committed itself to supplying air monitoring equipment that would detect gases crossing the refinery fence line and also to establishing community-based air-monitoring stations. These procurements were part of an agreement with the city of Richmond that granted the refinery utility-tax concessions. Chevron, however, never installed the equipment.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District operates ground-level monitoring stations throughout the Bay Area, and previously offered to make the results public, but this valuable information has yet to be openly provided in real time. Experience has shown that these systems can detect gases around the refineries where they are installed, and also gases from other pollution sources. For example, when Valero's Benicia refinery had a big hydrogen sulfide release last year, the event showed up on the ground-level monitoring systems in Rodeo and Crockett.

Why does it take a Freedom of Information Act request for citizens to get this data after the fact?

The Chevron fire is part of a history of refinery incidents that dump airborne toxics into Bay Area neighborhoods. We all breathe toxic pollution from multiple sources every day. Chronic respiratory distress and asthma are on the rise.

It's time for Bay Area citizens whose communities host industrial polluters to unite and force industrial leaders, elected officials and regulators to stop their foot-dragging and live up to their commitments to safeguard our neighborhoods from the ever-present danger these facilities pose.

Air quality monitor

When the refinery in Rodeo had a major release that remained undisclosed for days, residents forced the refinery to install state-of-the-science air-monitoring equipment to detect and measure gases as they crossed the industrial fence line. A similar program is under development in Benicia.

Real-time data appears at www.fenceline.org/xfence.php