Power Loss Examined in Texaco Leak

In the aftermath of a sulfur dioxide release that almost forced the evacuation of 5,000 Carson residents during the Labor Day weekend, authorities are investigating why a backup power unit at a Texaco facility failed when the main power supply was cut off.

“We are looking into what happened with the power,” said William Kelly, a spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The five-hour incident began with the power failure at about 1:10 p.m. on Sunday at Texaco’s sulfur recovery plant on Alameda Street just north of Sepulveda Boulevard. The plant removes sulfur from petroleum after it is partly refined at Texaco’s refinery, which is about a mile and a half south.

Without power to run the sulfur removal units, automatic safety systems vented the sulfur-laden hot oil and gas to a flare, where combustion transformed dangerous hydrogen sulfide gas into the less-toxic but still-irritating sulfur dioxide, according to Randall Jewett, Texaco manager of environment and safety.

Sulfur odors prompted complaints to the Los Angeles County Fire Department from a junkyard and a trucking firm near the sulfur plant.

The gas formed a yellow cloud that threatened neighborhoods east of the plant and spurred city and county disaster officials to ready an evacuation plan. Jewett said Texaco officials set up a command system at the plant.

The area in Carson that was targeted for evacuation is a section of single-family homes stretching from the Long Beach city limit to Alameda Street and from Sepulveda Boulevard to 223rd Street.

Evacuation Recommended

Although plans for a neighborhood evacuation were quickly dropped when the cloud dispersed, Fire Department officials recommended that the two businesses evacuate their employees.

Allen Stone, president of Allco Auto Wrecking Inc., said the department’s urging was unnecessary.

“I saw (the cloud) as soon as it came up. It was 300 yards down the street. I just closed my shop and said, ‘Let’s go, boys.’ We took off for a bar.”

Stone said Texaco offered to pay for any lost business and employee time.

One junkyard employee who has emphysema was briefly hospitalized, Jewett said. He added that Texaco employees were not evacuated because the company did not think it was necessary.

Jewett said company investigators are still not certain why the backup power unit failed or why the plant lost its main power supply.

“We are still witch-hunting the electronics,” he said, adding that refinery officials suspect that hot weather caused sensitive switching equipment to malfunction. Sunday’s high was a record 110 degrees in downtown Los Angeles.

Jewett said the plant resumed partial operation about 3:30 p.m. Sunday when power was restored and was fully in operation by 6:30 p.m.

The AQMD does not plan to seek fines against Texaco because the breakdown does not appear to have been caused by negligence, Kelly said.

The Texaco outage was the second to hit Los Angeles oil refineries during the weekend’s record high temperatures.

In Santa Fe Springs, the Golden West Refining Co. had to shut down its entire refinery when a 12,000-volt transformer exploded about 3:20 p.m. Saturday.

“One blew and took another right next to it. . . . In a domino fashion, it ended up shutting the whole refinery down,” said John Miller, Golden West vice president for refining.

Miller said the transformer, which was rated as able to operate at 131 degrees Fahrenheit, was apparently affected by the heat of the sun and electricity.

“It was 106 degrees in the shade that day. The transformers are not in the shade,” he said. There is no backup power system to run the Golden West refinery.

After the power loss, safety equipment diverted partly refined petroleum in pressurized vessels to flares, which produced pillars of billowing black smoke.

“Fortunately we brought all the units down safely,” Miller said. “It is a very serious incident when a refinery loses total power.”

Miller said Wednesday the refinery was still bringing units back into service.