Carson Mayor Wants Review of Chemical Plant’s Safeguards

After a fire and three toxic sulfur trioxide leaks from Stauffer Chemical Co. last weekend, Carson Mayor Michael Mitoma said he is not satisfied with plant safety procedures and wants them re-examined.

“We need to look at the plant,” Mitoma said.

Stauffer officials defended their safety program but acknowledged that they are changing the design of a pipe-heating unit to reduce the risk of the corrosion that they blame for the sulfur trioxide releases.

Purifies Acid

The 33-acre Stauffer plant, a part of the oil refineries complex in Carson for more than 60 years, purifies huge amounts of contaminated sulfuric acid used by the refineries. In a product line that is being phased out, the facility also produces lesser amounts of sulfur trioxide, which is used to manufacture detergents.

According to reports of acutely hazardous materials filed routinely with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, Stauffer typically has on hand 2 million gallons of concentrated sulfuric acid, 400,000 gallons of 30% strength sulfuric acid, 40,000 gallons of sulfur trioxide, 13,000 gallons of sulfur dioxide and 9,500 cubic feet of ammonia.

The leaking gas last weekend injured no one and did not result in residential evacuations.

Nevertheless, plant manager Pete Jurichko said the incidents were the worst at Stauffer since a massive acid vapor leak in August, 1973, forced the evacuation of 150,000 people in a 25-square-mile area, sending 38 to hospitals and curtailing airport operations in Long Beach and Orange County.

In the 1973 incident, 100,000 gallons of 30% strength sulfuric acid leaked. Jurichko said the amount that leaked last weekend was too small to estimate accurately.

The incidents began with a fire that broke out about 5 p.m. Friday afternoon in the roof of a building housing a 20,000-gallon tank of sulfur trioxide.

Mitoma said he came to the plant, in the 20700 block of South Wilmington Avenue, to monitor the fire on Friday.

“I was told on Friday that there is no problem, that it is all under control. And Saturday there was a problem,” he said. “There is something wrong.”

On Saturday, about 6:50 a.m., a pipe connected to the tank in the building that had been on fire began leaking, producing a plume of white sulfur trioxide vapor hundreds of feet long.

Employees at the nearby Shell refinery were evacuated. Streets were closed. And safety officials watched wind direction in preparation for the possible evacuation of residential areas within three-fourths of a mile of the plant.

‘Total Coincidence’

Stauffer employees plugged the leak shortly after 8 a.m. Another leak occurred at 9:15 a.m., and was stopped about 10 a.m. The Shell employees returned to work at about noon. Jurichko said a third leak occurred at 4 a.m. Sunday and was quickly plugged.

Jurichko labeled as “total coincidence” the fact that the leaks occurred shortly after the fire. He said that subsequent examination of the pipe showed that the three pinhole-sized holes stemmed from a leak that occurred at an undetermined time, in a steam jacket around a pipe containing sulfur trioxide.

“Nothing that the fire did caused that,” he said.

Once the leak in the steam jacket started, the steam and sulfur trioxide mixture combined to produce hot and extremely corrosive sulfuric acid, which attacked the weld on a pipe flange and caused the release, he said.

Plant officials have decided to abandon the steam jacket in favor of other configurations for steam heat for heating the pipe, he said.

“We are going to change some of that piping as a precaution,” he said.

He added that initial inspections showed that the corrosion was restricted to specific piping segments but that the tank, which had last been inspected in 1983, will now be inspected thoroughly.

“We have a very extensive comprehensive safety program for the plant and its employees,” he said. “The area I emphasize is emergency response. We put a lot of time (in) training employees. That worked for us on Saturday. We were prepared to handle it. And the fire department allowed us to do it.”

Jurichko said he intends to contact the mayor to discuss the city’s concerns about safety at the plant.

Mitoma said that he and Mayor Pro Tem Kay Calas had met with City Administrator Jack Smith, and that he and other council members would get a briefing on the incidents at Stauffer from the city’s community safety director.

The mayor also said he wants to get an overall update on hazardous materials in Carson from the Los Angeles County Fire Department, which has a contract with the city to provide fire protection.

“We need to take a more aggressive position because of the amount of hazardous materials in our city,” Mitoma said. “We need to meet with the fire department.”

INCIDENTS AT STAUFFER 1973--A massive acid vapor leak forces the evacuation of 150,000 people in a 25-square-mile area, sending 38 to hospitals and curtailing airport operations in Long Beach and Orange County. In the incident, 100,000 gallons of 30% strength sulfuric acid leak out.

1978--A chlorine gas leak from a vinyl chloride plant in Carson near the company’s sulfuric acid facility forces the evacuation of 50 people and the hospitalization of three workers.

1982--The South Coast Air Quality Management District insists that Stauffer close the vinyl chloride plant after ruling that the installation emitted too much cancer-causing vinyl chloride.

1984--Stauffer files applications to construct an $8-million toxic waste incinerator that would burn 50,000 gallons a day of mostly

liquid waste. In 1986, after an uproar by neighbors, the city kills the plan.

April 1, 1987--20,000 gallons of 35% strength hydrochloric acid spill, sending one person who had breathed fumes to the hospital.

May 12, 1987--10 to 15 pounds of mercury spill.

Sept. 22, 1987--1,000 gallons of a 50% strength solution of caustic sodium hydroxide spill.

Oct. 1, 1987--The Whittier Narrows earthquake breaks a pipeline carrying sulfuric acid and 1,000 gallons spill.

March, 1988--The South Coast Air Quality Management District lists Stauffer as one of the 10 top violators of air quality regulations for the month of January, and fines the company $1,750 for excessive sulfur oxide emissions.