Controversy Clouds Mobil Plant’s History

The Mobil Oil Corp. refinery occupies about 750 acres in northeast Torrance and is the city’s largest taxpayer and landholder. The plant has 800 full-time workers and a variety of contractors.

The refinery, which opened in 1929, was rebuilt in the late 1960s. It can process 125,000 barrels of crude oil and produce 75,000 barrels of gasoline daily, about 12% of the gasoline consumed in Southern California.

It is the only major refinery in the region that uses hydrofluoric acid to make unleaded gasoline. A 1,000-gallon spill of hydrofluoric acid, scientists say, could produce a toxic cloud lethal to all exposed within a range of five miles. Mobil typically stores an estimated 29,000 gallons of the acid at the plant.

The refinery has had two major fires in 10 years. Three people were killed, including a passing motorist, when a large cloud of butane gas exploded in 1979 at the refinery’s tank farm.

Two Injured

An explosion and two-day fire in November, 1987, injured two workers; about 100 gallons of hydrofluoric acid was released in the fire.

On July 15, 1988, a spark ignited hydrocarbon vapors, killing one worker and seriously burning two others. In an earlier explosion that day, eight workers were injured, two seriously.

Concerned about safety and repeated accidents, the City Council in May, 1988, hired an outside consultant to study the refinery and later ordered Mobil to write a risk-management prevention plan. City officials concluded that neither report was adequate.

In 1988, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration conducted two investigations at the plant. It found four “serious violations” of federal safety regulations in connection with the November, 1987, explosion.

Separate Probe

A separate OSHA investigation of the entire plant, which began last September, led to 35 citations of Mobil, including 12 serious violations. OSHA defines a serious violation as one “where there is a substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result and where the employer knew, or could have known, of the hazard.” Mobil is contesting the findings.

This week, Torrance City Councilman Dan Walker launched an initiative campaign to place on a ballot a measure that would sharply restrict storage of hydrofluoric acid at the refinery. The measure would limit storage of the chemical to 250 gallons on site.