Waste Workers at Nancy Pelosi and Gavin Newsom’s Napa Vineyards Seek $300M After Claiming Exposure to Toxic Chemicals While Cleaning Up Wildfire Devastation

Wineries in Calistoga getting doused with fire retardant from a plane during Napa Valley’s wildfires. (Photo: AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

Waste workers in California are suing a Napa Valley landfill site and waste management company after alleging that they were exposed to toxins when forced to work during and shortly after Napa Valley’s Glass Fire in 2020. The group was employed by former U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and California Governor Gavin Newsom to service their vineyards, according the Daily Mail.

Members of the group claim they were exposed to methane and contaminated water leaking from an area known as the Clover Flat Landfill. The Glass Fire is what triggered the release of the contaminants.

According to Fox Business, the former mayor of St. Helena issued warnings about toxic runoff to both Newsom and Pelosi regarding the landfill situated at the top of the hill for years. The landfill had the potential to pollute water and vineyard land in the valley below, in addition to causing health problems for people breathing air already contaminated by wildfires. The warnings were ignored.

The group of 15 workers, including Jose Garibay Jr.,  is suing the landfill and Upper Valley Disposal Services, seeking $300 million in damages.

They claim they were not properly trained in disposing of hazardous materials and were given no specialized equipment barring N95 respirator masks.

“We didn’t have the experience at all with these situations,” Garibay Jr. said to Fox Business. “We didn’t have protocol for what happens in a fire, what happens in an emergency. We had no training whatsoever.”

Despite the lack of training, the group was sent by their superiors to clean the area before state legislators showed up. The group alleges that they were exposed to methane and contaminated water at the time.

Two other employees, Gary and Ricky Hernandez, allege that they were forced to work during an evacuation order, with raging fires nearby, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m working with COVID, over there servicing Nancy Pelosi’s house, and she’s out there getting her hair done,” Gary Hernandez told Fox Business.

Garibay was fired in 2022 and claims he was wrongfully terminated after he took his complaints to court.

“There’s a machine politic thing going on here — this is the backyard of San Francisco, and people have their second homes and their wine businesses,” said former Mayor Ellsworth according to The Daily Mail. “But it doesn’t absolve them from taking responsibility for the laws in the area and the treatment of people working here.”

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