Mobil, Air Quality District Develop Plan to Restart Torrance Refinery

Mobil Oil Corp. and the South Coast Air Quality Management District reached an agreement Friday that will allow the company to restart part of its refining operations in Torrance as early as next week.

The refinery unit, which accounts for 40% of the plant’s gasoline production, was shut down Feb. 6 for temporary repairs after the district charged that Mobil had knowingly discharged 1.3 million tons of pollutants into the air for at least six months and perhaps for more than a year.

The agreement, reached after six days of public hearings and behind-the-scenes negotiations, does not call for any financial penalties against the refiner.

District officials said they did not seek to assess penalties because they already have filed a suit in Los Angeles Superior Court that could result in Mobil having to pay fines of up to $1,000 a day for every day it was in violation of air quality rules.

Not on Back Burner

“This is not a matter on the back burner in any way, shape or form,” said William Freedman, deputy counsel for the district.

The pollutants in question, particulates from the refinery’s fluid catalytic cracking unit, were vented into the atmosphere because a pollution control system called an electrostatic precipitator was malfunctioning. Oil is converted to gasoline through the cracking unit.

Mobil said Friday it expects to complete $500,000 in repairs to the precipitator today. The company said that it will take another five to nine days to return to full gasoline production.

Throughout the hearings, Mobil challenged the accuracy of the district’s methods of measuring the amount of particulates being vented from the refinery.

Significantly, a key provision of the agreement stipulates that a test developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency--and not the district’s test method--be used to monitor Mobil’s compliance with air quality laws during the start-up and operation of the refinery until October.

Test Methods

Attorneys for both sides were reluctant to characterize the decision as an admission by the district that it now has doubts about its own test methods.

Nonetheless, Ed Camarina, chief of the district’s enforcement division, has ordered a complete evaluation of the district’s testing methods. He said greater attention will be given to the calibration of test equipment to better assure accurate tests.

In addition, district officials said Friday that if the EPA method proves more reliable, the district will be willing to switch to that test.

Mobil attorney Jack Fudge said the refiner sought the EPA test because Mobil believes it to be “more accurate.”

But Jeb Stuart, the district’s executive officer, said that even if the EPA method had been employed when the district was running its tests on Mobil, the refiner still would have have been found in violation of air quality rules.

“I really and truly believe they would be in violation--I mean considerably out of compliance, not just a little bit,” Stuart said.

‘Not to Quibble’

Freedman, the district’s deputy counsel, added, “The goal is not to quibble over a pound or two of particulates per hour. This was reasonable in terms of testing the results and being able to cross a hurdle.”

The agreement calls for air monitoring tests to begin no later than nine days after Mobil resumes its suspended refining operation, and to be conducted weekly for the first six weeks after start-up.

The agreement also spells out various conditions for changing the frequency of testing. The district could order Mobil to shut down the equipment if tests show it is still violating air quality rules.

While Mobil has pegged the cost of the temporary repairs at $500,000, company spokesman Thomas Collins said that when the cost of lost product and profits are taken into consideration, the cost of the shutdown will run to $2.5 million.

Mobil has said it plans to completely replace the electrostatic precipitator in October, at a cost of $5 million.