No Environmental Study Required for Mobil Project

Mobil Oil Corp. will be allowed to build a new, high-tech control room for its Torrance refinery without completing an environmental impact report, Torrance City Council members decided Tuesday.

City planners had recommended that Mobil be required to conduct the environmental study to give the city a broader overview of the company’s plans to modernize and refurbish the refinery.

The council voted unanimously to reject the staff recommendation, noting that planners failed to provide any legal justification for forcing Mobil to complete the report.

Council members, however, warned Mobil that they plan to keep a close eye on future developments at the refinery.

“I share with you very publicly my frustration . . . that we don’t have the broad picture,” Councilwoman Dee Hardison said, expressing concern that a series of planned improvements could increase the refinery’s capacity.

Mobil plans to break ground on the 21,000-square-foot control room and a 2,800-square-foot remote instrument enclosure early next month, refinery Manager Wyman Robb said in an interview.

The new buildings and modern computer facilities will replace the refinery’s existing 19,000-square-foot control room, which was built in 1967 and has been partially refurbished.

Much of the refinery’s existing controls are analog gauges, which require operators to constantly make fine adjustments in the refinery’s processes. The new digital control devices will let computers make such adjustments automatically, allowing operators to maintain broader control of the refinery.

“This will not increase the capacity of the refinery one iota,” said attorney Dale Neal, who acted as Mobil’s spokesman before the council. “It will take a system that is outdated, quite frankly, and replace it with the state of the art.”