Richmond residents “live within a ring of five major oil refineries, three chemical companies, eight Superfund sites, dozens of other toxic waste sites, highways, two rail yards, ports and marine terminals where tankers dock”—some 350 toxic sites in all. The polluter that’s most synonymous with Richmond, however, is the one-hundred-plus-year-old Chevron refinery, also the dominant player in Richmond politics. Today, North Richmond is 97 percent black, Latino, or Asian and, amazingly, still unincorporated.
