This Brasstech facility is located in a CalEPA identified ‘Disadvantaged Community'. CalEnviroScreen labels the community this facility is located in as being in the top 25% of disadvantaged communities. It is also directly adjacent to the Madison Park neighborhood which is another top 25% disadvantaged community.
Brasstech is a part of multiple regulatory programs that are led by multiple agencies within the California state government. The California Environmental Protection Agency oversees the site through the local CUP{A. The local Cupa in Santa Ana is the Orange County Health Care Agency (OCHCA), Division of Environmental Health. OCHCA is the lead agency on four of the regulatory programs this Brassetch facility is a part of. These regulatory programs include chemical storage facilities, hazardous waste generator, hazardous waste onsite treatment, RCRA LQ HW generator. All of which came into effect starting 04/19/2018.
The last regulatory program this facility is part of is the industrial facility stormwater program, in which the California State Water Resources Control Board is the lead agency. This program came into effect for this facility on 06/30/2021.
The environmental legacies left behind by industrial production are pervasive in the air, the soil, and the water. This elemental elixer surrounds us.
In the field of STS, it is perhaps obvious to suggest that institutions have cultures, norms, standards, and professional ways of being. Yet, what are we to make of the results of industry telling its own past publically. The corporate origin story could be a footnote in Joseph's Campbells work. The allure of the lone individual working tirelessly until an innovation is produced and the market takes over.
Yet, the Wood River Refinery tells a different story. One about place, about people, about the terrible minutia of life lived within bureaucracy. Yes, the story told is glossy and teleological, but the question emerges. What can be learned about the stories industry tells about itself? What do these artifacts contribute to histories and what weight do we give to these stories within the Anthropocene?
The factory at Wood River is both a place where labor is maximized for profit, but also where worker devote 40 precious hours of their week. Lives persist and even thrive in the factory. Are the stories of these lives at Wood River?