Bay Area

Sunday Afternoon at the Marin County Fair

The theme of the Marin County Fair 2024, which ran from July 3-7, was ‘Make a Splash!’ celebrating one of our most precious natural resources — water — and all things water-related, according to the Marin County news release. “Water is especially relevant and important in Marin County” says the website, “whether we use the water for recreation, conserve it during drought times, have concerns about sea level rise, or to care for the local marine life.”

Published

11 months ago

July 18, 2024

Oakland Post

A view across the lake to the Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium, the giant ferris wheel, and the global marketplace tents; the ball exhibit and paintings, the Star Wars exhibit, the Drum Heads, Chinese Lion Dancers, and Clave MC. Photo by Godfrey Lee.

By Godfrey Lee

“Water is especially relevant and important in Marin County” says the website, “whether we use the water for recreation, conserve it during drought times, have concerns about sea level rise, or to care for the local marine life.”

The fair educates and entertains the fair-goers with water-related exhibits and competitive exhibits categories. One exhibit displayed the many personal essays that people wrote and contributed on what water meant to them.

Water was also the dominant theme of much of the fine art, and the categories included “watercolors, sea, surf and sand, water birds, drip paintings, and marine mammals, just to name a few.”

According to the news release, community partners told of “the important role water plays in our local environment, from the source of our precious drinking water on Mount Tamalpais and the Novato Creek Watershed to the rising sea along our coast.”

Water-related activities at the fair taught people about watersheds, water conservation, and more.

Much of the fair was the same as years past with headline concerts and side performances, carnival rides and fireworks every night.

The community food booths were closed, which meant that food and drinks could only be brought from the specialty food vendors scattered around the fairgrounds. For dinner, this writer bought a huge barbeque, foot-long, turkey leg, complete with fries and coleslaw, that I could not completely finish eating.

The farm exhibits also seemed empty and a bit smaller without the chickens, due to the concern about Avian Influenza, which can also infect humans.

On Sunday, July 7, as part of Latin Heritage Day, the Community Stage featured local Latin talent from around the Bay including Raya Nova, Area Agresiva, Zazil Haa, Ballet Folklorico Netzahualcoyotl, and Clave MC.

I watched the last main concert, featuring Los Lonely Boys, and left the fair after the fireworks. I enjoyed the fair and will hope to visit again next year, even if I know it will still be more or less the same as before.

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The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 28 – June 3, 2025

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Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

Published

3 weeks ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.

The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.

“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”

“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”

The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.

Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.

“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.

Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.

Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.

For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.