Contra Costa County residents raised questions and concerns at a public meeting Monday on the hazardous materials released from the Martinez Refinery last year.
After the Nov. 24 release, which sent 24 tons of chemical waste into the area, people saw dust on their cars and were worried about their health.
County health officials recently unveiled a toxicology report and said the study focused on metals detected in the soil and did not increase people's health risk.
"If this keeps happening, then clearly the background levels are going to just … anytime there's a release, it's just going to fall within the background levels. I'm not interested in that. I want to know what we should be at if we didn't have all of those releases all the time,” said Martinez resident, Heidi Taylor.
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Contra Costa County says the next phase of their investigation will focus on what caused the incident in the first place.
