Walker Files Petitions to Halt Acid Use at Mobil Oil

Capping an expensive direct-mail campaign that incurred the wrath of his colleagues, Torrance City Councilman Dan Walker filed about 10,000 signatures Thursday on an initiative to force Mobil Oil Corp. to stop using acutely toxic hydrofluoric acid at its Torrance refinery.

The veteran councilman walked into the City Clerk’s office at midday pulling a cart loaded with five cardboard boxes of petitions signed by Torrance residents.

“I have a present for you,” Walker told City Clerk John Bramhall.

Walker expressed confidence that he had collected more than enough signatures to place the initiative on the March, 1990, city ballot.

He said the response to his initiative campaign, financed by $56,000 in political contributions, was “overwhelming” and came from all areas of the city.

The measure, if passed, would effectively force Mobil to stop using hydrofluoric acid as a catalyst to boost the octane of unleaded gasoline.

‘Bhopal-Like Incident’

Walker said that continued use of the acid raises the “possibility of a Bhopal-like incident” in Torrance that could kill thousands. “The storage of massive quantities of hydrofluoric acid are incompatible with the community,” he said.

Mobil Refinery Manager Wyman D. Robb said in an interview that use of the chemical poses almost no risk to Torrance residents. And he said Mobil plans to use mailings to better educate the community about the refinery so voters can make a knowledgeable choice.

Walker’s initiative will qualify to appear on the ballot if 10% of Torrance’s 72,407 registered voters signed the petitions. After a preliminary check by the city clerk’s office, Bramhall said county election officials will have 30 days to compare signatures on the petitions against voter registration rolls.

The City Council then will have the option of adopting the initiative, a prospect considered highly unlikely since all six of Walker’s council colleagues have opposed the measure and urged voters not to sign the petitions.

Mayor Katy Geissert said she had “not heard any sentiment from anyone” on the council to adopt the measure.

Geissert said a lawsuit filed by the city seeking to have the refinery declared a public nuisance is the proper course because it is more comprehensive than the proposed initiative measure. She predicted that the city and Mobil will be locked in “a prolonged legal battle” if the initiative becomes law.

The measure would limit the amount of hydrofluoric acid that can be stored at any industrial site in Torrance to 250 gallons.

The Mobil refinery had more than 29,000 gallons of the lethal acid on hand at last report, according to the Torrance Fire Department.

Massive Explosion

An excess of the acid in a refinery unit caused a massive explosion and two-day fire at the Mobil facility in November, 1987. The blast, which released 100 pounds of the acid, focused attention on the potential hazard posed by use of the chemical.

Tests sponsored by the oil industry in the Nevada desert have shown that a 1,000-gallon spill of hydrofluoric acid could produce a toxic gas cloud that could be deadly to all exposed within five miles of the spill.

In his mailer, which featured a large color picture of the 1987 refinery fire, Walker said a hydrofluoric acid spill could threaten the health and lives of thousands of Torrance residents.

Speaking to reporters after submitting the petitions, Walker dismissed a risk assessment prepared by consultants for Mobil that found that use of the chemical poses almost no danger to local residents.

Eliminate Risk

“Mobil Oil has said over and over again that the refinery is safe and we can see that it is not,” Walker said. “Mobil Oil says the utilization of hydrofluoric acid is at an acceptable risk to the community. I’m saying that if the risk can be eliminated, it should be.”

Walker alluded to a series of explosions, fires and accidents at the refinery that have caused three deaths and a dozen serious injuries since March, 1987.

“Every time someone dies, their answer is the refinery is safe and there aren’t any problems,” he said. “That answer will no longer do.”

Walker called for Mobil to release information that its consultants have developed on worst-case scenarios in the event of a major release of hydrofluoric acid.

Robb said Walker has no basis for saying that the risk management study is “not accurate or acceptable.” He said Mobil has supplied some additional information sought by Torrance officials, but “it just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to discuss cases with probabilities of one in several billion years.”

Public Relations

The refinery manager would not discuss in detail Mobil’s plans for responding to the initiative. “It is not the kind of regulation that industry needs to have placed on it,” Robb said.

Since the initiative campaign was launched last December, Mobil has hired a public relations consultant, conducted a poll to assess the community’s view of the refinery, and stepped up its lobbying activities in Sacramento.

Walker’s initiative has drawn sharp criticism from his council colleagues. In a highly unusual step, they issued a public letter in April accusing him of plotting to “capitalize politically on the community’s fears” about the refinery.

The council members suggested that Walker, who has made no secret of his desire to run for the state Legislature, was using “questionable political tactics” to advance his political career.

Geissert said Thursday she stands by that criticism. She said the filing of 10,000 signatures does not change her mind that the initiative is the wrong approach to concerns about safety at Mobil.

Conditional-Use Permit

In an effort to head off the initiative, Councilman Tim Mock has proposed a countermeasure that would require all businesses in Torrance to obtain a conditional-use permit to use acutely toxic chemicals.

Mock called Walker’s initiative unconstitutional because it is aimed at only one business. “Dan is grandstanding on this whole thing,” he said.

But Walker defended his actions.

“There is a feeling in the community that the people want to have this problem taken care of and taken care of now,” he said.