Torrance Asks Court to Declare Refinery a ‘Public Nuisance’

The city of Torrance, alleging the “potential for a massive disaster” at the Mobil Oil Corp. refinery, filed suit Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking to have the refinery declared a public nuisance and giving the city authority to regulate it.

The lawsuit alleges that an uncontrolled release of acutely toxic hydrofluoric acid from the refinery could threaten the lives or health of hundreds of thousands of South Bay residents.

Torrance, in its 40-page complaint, asked the court to declare the facility a nuisance, issue an injunction barring Mobil from polluting the air with the acid and other toxic chemicals and order the company to operate the refinery safely.

Torrance officials did not specify what action the city might take as a result of such a court order. Mayor Katy Geissert said the city might force Mobil to stop using hydrofluoric acid if the court gives Torrance such authority.

Mobil officials had not seen the lawsuit late Friday and refused to comment on its specific allegations. Spokesman Mark Cohen said the legal action was expected and “we will defend ourselves against it.”

Torrance City Atty. Kenneth L. Nelson said he does not underestimate the legal resources at Mobil’s disposal. “This doesn’t scare me. This doesn’t scare the City Council. We honestly think there is a safety problem,” Nelson said.

“There is no doubt that they could completely overwhelm us, but we think we have a good case and I have a lot of faith in the judicial system.”

The lawsuit signals that Torrance does not accept Mobil’s repeated assurances that the facility is operating safely. It also is designed to protect the city from being sued by Mobil for regulating the refinery, or by the public should an accident occur, city officials said privately.

It represents the latest step by the City Council to respond to a series of explosions, fires and accidents that have claimed three lives and caused more than a dozen serious injuries at Mobil since 1987. The suit alleges that there are “severe problems with safety conditions and procedures at the refinery.”

Nelson suggested that a month ago, Exxon would have argued to Alaskan fishermen that a massive oil spill in the pristine waters of the Prince William Sound could not occur.

‘Human Error’ Feared

“Yet it happened because of human error,” Nelson said.

The city’s lawsuit contends that a November, 1987, explosion and fire at the Mobil refinery was caused by human error. An estimated 100 pounds of hydrofluoric acid was released during the explosion, but authorities said none escaped the refinery grounds and no one was injured by the release.

“The potential for human error exists at the (Mobil) refinery and if one of the more devastating mistakes were made, we could have a really serious disaster,” Nelson said.

“This is not your modern refinery,” Nelson said. “This is an old refinery across the street from people’s homes and a quarter-mile from schools. It is not in the backwoods of Louisiana or the plains of Midland, Tex.”

‘We Are Concerned’

Cohen rejected the lawsuit’s contention that Mobil is operating the refinery in a “callous and indifferent” manner. “We are concerned about the safety of our employees and the safety of the people of Torrance,” he said.

The Mobil spokesman noted that the oil company “recently submitted a risk management prevention plan to the city of Torrance which shows the risks associated with our use of hydrofluoric acid to be insignificant. We plan to prove this in court.”

But in the lawsuit, Torrance alleges that the risk management plan released by Mobil last month contains “glaring deficiencies,” including the complete omission of a “worst-case scenario” of the life and health impacts of a hydrofluoric acid release.

The suit alleges that “if a 1,000-gallon release occurred at the refinery, hundreds of thousands of persons could be killed and double that number could be severely injured.”

Cloud Hugs Ground

Industry-sponsored tests conducted in the Nevada desert in 1986 showed that the release of 1,000 gallons of hydrofluoric acid forms a toxic gas cloud that hugs the ground and moves with the wind. The tests showed that the gas could be lethal to all exposed within five miles and immediately dangerous to the life and health of those within a 7 1/2-mile radius. An estimated 29,000 gallons of acid is stored at the refinery.

Mobil refinery Manager Wyman D. Robb, who was named in the complaint, has estimated that it could cost $100 million to convert the refinery to use sulfuric acid instead of hydrofluoric acid to boost the octane of unleaded gasoline. Mobil is the only major Southern California refinery that uses hydrofluoric acid.

Robb has said sulfuric acid has its hazards because much greater quantities are needed, which means more rail and truck transport. The sulfuric acid process is more costly and, unlike hydrofluoric acid, produces toxic wastes, he has said.

The lawsuit alleges that a hydrofluoric acid accident at the Mobil facility could lead to “a disaster of Bhopal-like proportions.”

More than 3,000 people died and tens of thousands of others were injured when a different chemical, methyl isocyanate, leaked from a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, in December, 1984. Chemical experts say hydrofluoric acid is as toxic as methyl isocyanate.

As Torrance officials have learned more about the refinery, council members have become concerned that the city could be liable for damages in an accident. Geissert said the lawsuit proves the city wants to protect the public.

The suit “puts on the record that we are mightily concerned about the potential for a catastrophic event,” she said.

Initiative Campaign

The lawsuit caps a week that saw Torrance City Councilman Dan Walker launch an initiative campaign to qualify for the city ballot a measure that would effectively ban the use of hydrofluoric acid at the refinery.

Council colleagues have denounced Walker’s ballot measure as a self-serving move to advance the councilman’s political career and instead filed the lawsuit.

The lawsuit retraces the history of 127 incidents at Mobil since December, 1979, when three people were killed, including a passing motorist, in an explosion and fire at a Mobil tank farm.

“The mere frequency of such incidents, many of which are attributable to human error, indicates severe problems with safety conditions and procedures at the refinery,” the suit said.

The suit also alleges that Mobil does not have adequate emergency equipment to contain an uncontrollable release and has failed to respond to the city’s inquiries about emergency preparedness