Vote on Mobil’s Use of Chemical Draws Widespread Interest : Torrance: The March 6 ballot measure to stop Mobil from using hydrofluoric acid has sparked state and national attention.

In an election March 6 that will test whether Torrance residents have lost faith in the safety of Mobil Oil Corp.’s refinery, voters will say whether the plant must eliminate the use of acutely hazardous hydrofluoric acid there.

The unusual measure would limit key technology at the refinery and could cost the oil giant up to $100 million to convert to a less volatile process. The measure would bar Mobil, which typically has 29,000 gallons of hydrofluoric acid on hand, from storing more than 250 gallons at its plant.

The election has drawn the attention of lawmakers in Congress and the California Legislature, as well as the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the oil refining industry and the environmental movement.

It pits critics in Torrance against the nation’s fifth-largest industrial corporation. The initiative campaign has split the seven-member City Council and set a local record for campaign spending. Mobil so far has spent more than $360,000, dwarfing the previous record of $46,000 and far outstripping the measure’s backers, who have spent about $7,600.

Councilman Dan Walker is the sponsor of the measure and the only council member supporting it. Nevertheless, Mayor Katy Geissert and three other council members who oppose the initiative, said in interviews last week that they favor a ban on hydrofluoric acid.

Walker, who gathered the 10,000 signatures that qualified the initiative for the ballot, said the Torrance vote will affect other governmental agencies considering similar hydrofluoric acid bans.

The stakes are high.

Walker and other proponents of the measure cite industry-sponsored spill tests to argue that a major release of the chemical, which is used to boost the octane of unleaded gasoline, could kill more people than the Bhopal methyl isocyanate gas release at a Union Carbide plant in India, in which more than 3,000 people died in 1984.

In the ballot argument and in speeches, proponents say that federal investigations show that human error by Mobil employees has contributed to a series of accidents at the refinery, demonstrating that it is foolish to rely on Mobil to ensure the safety of the hundreds of thousands of people living near plant.

Walker and Torrance resident Bernie Hollander, a retired chemical engineer, argue that Mobil opposes the measure because it does not want to spend $100 million to convert to less volatile sulfuric acid, which other refineries use in the same process.

Mobil says that a major release of hydrofluoric acid is extremely unlikely and that beefed-up safety measures would enable the refinery to control any reasonably foreseeable accident without endangering the public. The oil company adds that switching to sulfuric acid would dramatically increase the likelihood of a transportation accident involving sulfuric acid.

In identical Feb. 17 letters to their Torrance neighbors, refinery employees John Berryhill and Paul Pepper attacked Walker’s backing of the initiative. The letters called it a “grab for publicity by an ambitious politician who wants to take advantage of people’s fears.” Mobil’s campaign committee is identified as the sponsor of the letters.

The election has created an odd, three-sided political contest in the city among Mobil, Walker and the other six members of the council.

The entire council supported a lawsuit against Mobil that attacks the refinery’s safety record and Mobil’s use of hydrofluoric acid. The suit seeks enhanced regulatory power over the refinery, possibly including a ban on hydrofluoric acid. It was filed last April after Walker had started his signature campaign and after he had criticized his council colleagues for inaction in pursuing safety improvements at Mobil.

As the election nears, lawyers for the city have uncovered increasing evidence that human error played a contributing role in a series of accidents at Mobil. The findings strengthened council resolve to push the lawsuit against Mobil.

But at the same time, Walker’s boast that the council would not have acted without his prodding has infuriated his council colleagues. Their hostility prompted them to join Mobil in opposing Walker’s initiative. It also got them to put on the ballot a second measure that would allow the city to raise taxes to pay for legal costs if the ban succeeds.

The council members argue that Mobil would prolong the city’s lawsuit if the hydrofluoric ban passed, forcing the city to spend millions of dollars in legal fees.

Despite opposing Walker’s ballot measure, Geissert and council members Bill Applegate, Tim Mock and Dee Hardison said last week that they favor what it could accomplish--banning the use of hydrofluoric acid at the refinery.

“We can all agree that it is a substance we would rather not have used in large quantities in our city,” Geissert said.

The two other council members have less clear-cut positions: George Nakano said last week he favors a ban on hydrofluoric acid or stricter controls. Mark Wirth said he opposes a ban now but might change his mind if the AQMD comes out in favor of one.

Arguing that sulfuric acid is a safer alternative, the AQMD staff has favored the elimination of hydrofluoric acid at four refineries using the substance--Mobil, Ultramar in Wilmington, and the Golden West and Powerine refineries in Santa Fe Springs.

The staff will forward its recommendation to the AQMD board in several months, along with a report from a task force of industry and public safety agency officials.

Hydrofluoric acid turns to hydrogen fluoride gas at room temperatures. Tests show that 1,000 gallons spilled in two minutes could form a dense, ground-hugging cloud of vapors that could be fatal up to five miles downwind. By contrast, sulfuric acid must reach 518 degrees Fahrenheit before it vaporizes.

AQMD Deputy Executive Director Ed Camarena said in an interview that AQMD’s action will not depend on the outcome of the election in Torrance, although he is watching it closely.

AQMD officials add that Mobil could eliminate any transportation risk for sulfuric acid by building a sulfuric acid manufacturing plant at its refinery or by piping the acid in.

Sulfuric acid plants are now in operation at the Chevron refinery in El Segundo and the Unocal refinery in Wilmington.

“We think (Mobil) could build a plant in compliance with the air quality regulations,” Camarena said.

The AQMD also has asked Rhone-Poulenc Basic Chemicals Co., the area’s main commercial manufacturer of sulfuric acid, to see whether an existing pipeline could be used to transport sulfuric acid from Carson to the Mobil refinery. The Rhone-Poulenc plant, formerly operated by Stauffer Chemical Co., uses pipelines to supply the Arco and Shell refineries in Carson with sulfuric acid.

If Mobil decides to truck in the sulfuric acid, an AQMD analysis says it would take 10 25-ton truckloads of sulfuric acid a day to supply the refinery, said Rhone-Poulenc manager Peter Jurichko.

This figure appears to be far less than what Mobil has said. Mobil spokesman Tom Collins said last week it would take 125 trucks a day. The refinery currently receives two trucks a month of hydrofluoric acid.

Also looking at the March 6 vote is Assemblyman Curtis Tucker Jr. (D-Inglewood), who introduced a bill Feb. 12 that would ban the bulk use of hydrofluoric acid in all populated areas of the state.

“If I lived in Torrance, I would definitely vote for” the initiative, he said.

If the initiative wins, “it helps my cause” because it “helps show to people that there is a fear out there of this definitely dangerous chemical and that a group of people decided to do something about it,” he said.

In Washington, Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica), who has had his staff working on possible legislation on hydrofluoric acid for months, said he is watching the Torrance election as well.

“I am extremely interested in how voters will respond,” he said. “I have already come to the conclusion that hydrofluoric acid is deadly serious and needs to be dealt with at the federal level.”

The Washington-based American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s chief research and lobbying arm, also is paying attention to the Torrance vote.

Del Persinger, API senior refining associate, said that an API policy statement will address hydrofluoric acid in a nationwide context. It will say that “with safety measures and proper plant design . . . we don’t have to have legislative or regulatory limits on the use of hydrofluoric acid in refining.”

On the environmental side, Fred Millar of Friends of the Earth and the Environmental Policy Institute said that the Torrance measure is probably the most important local election issue in the country in terms of providing residents the opportunity to deal with an extremely hazardous facility.

“Since California tends to be the cutting edge of a lot of environmental issues, everyone around the country will be watching to see whether a facility that poses a Bhopal-type hazard to the community will be forced to change to a safer chemical,” he said.