As Tenth Anniversary of 9/11 Approaches, Memories are Stirred

Lauren Bird has worked at the Valero Benicia Refinery for 25 years. He started his career with Exxon at its Baytown, Texas, facility, then was transferred to Benicia. When Valero bought the refinery Bird stayed on and today is the operations director.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Bird was in Houston attending meetings at a hotel located at the Houston Intercontinental Airport. “It was kind of eerie,” said Bird. “The hotel was in the middle of the airport and I remember looking out and not seeing a plane in the sky.”

After various plans to get home fell through, Bird and four others loaded into a van and drove from Houston to the Bay Area in 32 hours.

Since the events of 9/11 Bird has seen major changes at the Valero Benicia Refinery. Anyone entering the refinery to work has to have a Transportation Workers Identity Card, better known as TWIC.  Contractors do a lot of the maintenance and repair work at oil refineries. When the TWIC program was instituted, some of the contractors suddenly found they weren’t able to pass background checks preformed by the federal government.

“Prior to 9/11 we looked to our contractors to manage their people,” said Bird. “With the post 9/11 Homeland Security programs, it’s the federal government that says who is allowed into a refinery.”