2nd Group Formed to Fight Acid Curb on Torrance Ballot

A second campaign committee has been created to oppose a March 6 ballot measure aimed at banning the use of hydrofluoric acid at Mobil Oil Corp.’s Torrance refinery.

The group, “Citizens for a Safe Torrance Environment--No on Measure A,” filed papers with the Torrance city clerk Friday. Spokesmen for the group said their committee will be independent of the one formed by Mobil at the end of January.

“We want to have local South Bay people who are directly affected by this talking to their neighbors about it,” said committee Treasurer Bob Bush, president of Contract and Business Consultants Inc., a company that helps developers work with cities on construction projects.

The group plans to raise about $10,000 to send out a mailer and coordinate a door-to-door campaign against Measure A, a March 6 ballot measure sponsored by Torrance City Councilman Dan Walker. The measure, which seeks to limit storage of hydrofluoric acid at any place in the city to no more than 250 gallons, would effectively force Mobil to stop using the chemical at its Torrance refinery.

The committee will solicit support from the business community, organized labor and Torrance residents, Bush said.

Real estate agent Tony Kriss, a 1988 City Council candidate, and Warren Bennett, a longtime resident who works as an energy coordinator for the county, will be co-chairmen of the committee.

Walker sponsored the initiative after a series of accidents at the refinery raised concerns about Mobil’s safety procedures. A November, 1987, explosion and fire involving hydrofluoric acid focused attention on the lethal chemical. Mobil officials say they since have tightened safety at the refinery and that Measure A is not necessary.

On Feb. 2, Mobil announced plans to spend several hundred thousand dollars to fight the initiative through its Mobil Refinery Safety Committee--No on Measure A.

“Mobil has a right to say what it wants to. We’ll try to do what we can on a grass-roots level,” Bush said of the new committee. “If we raise $10,000, we’ll be doing pretty well.”

Bush said Jack Foley, executive director of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union, asked him to help create the committee. The union represents most of Mobil’s workers.

Foley said he had spoken with Bush, but the union also plans to create its own committee against Measure A.