Effort to Control Mobil Gaining
The Torrance Unified School District voted unanimously this week to support the city of Torrance’s efforts to regulate the troubled Mobil Oil Corp. refinery.
In a resolution approved Monday, the school board cited the numerous accidents that have caused three deaths at the refinery since 1987 as reasons to support the city’s lawsuit. It asks a Los Angeles Superior Court to declare the refinery a “public nuisance” and to give the city the power to regulate it.
The resolution also notes a March incident in which several students and staff members were hospitalized after breathing foul-smelling fumes at Magruder Middle School. There was no proof that the fumes came from the nearby Mobil refinery, but refinery officials offered to pay all hospital costs.
School board President Ann P. Gallagher said she recommended the resolution last month after receiving letters and phone calls from residents and teachers who said they were concerned about safety at the refinery.
Mayor Katy Geissert said the city “certainly appreciates the support of the district. It is appropriate.”
Mobil officials have defended the refinery’s safety record and have said the city has no right to try to regulate the plant.
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