Isabella grew up in Richmond, CA living roughly two miles away from the Richmond Chevron Refinery. Just one month after her high school graduation, on August 6, 2012, the refinery had a massive explosion that sent 15,000 residents to the hospital. This is when she knew work had to be done. Since then, her community-based organizing has taken her places near and far like attending the 2017 UNFCCC in Bonn, Germany where she was part of the Indigenous Delegation with Indigenous Environmental Network.
Now, she organizes with Stand.earth and joined us in our latest Wellhead to Tidewater webinar series.
Isabella shared:
“I grew up roughly two miles away from the Chevron refinery.” Following the big refinery explosion in 2012, “it sent these really huge black plumes straight up into the sky that covered the sun and myself and my family and my neighbors were all outside at the time and we instantly knew that this was not just a house fire. The explosion had sent myself and 15,000 other Bay Area residents to the hospital and a lot of us were dealing with nausea, headaches and resipiratory problems as well. My sister actually had to get an inhaler because it was hard for her to breathe after being outside to tell our neighbors to go inside. I had just turned 18 and realized that there’s more I need to do, I can’t just sit here and accept an explosion of a refinery.”
