Torrance Voters to Decide Hazardous Chemical Use by Mobil

When twin sonic booms from the returning space shuttle Columbia jolted residents throughout the Los Angeles Basin last August, hundreds called earthquake hot lines to find out if the Big One had hit.

But in Torrance, residents called the Fire Department and asked whether there was another accident at the Mobil refinery.

“They thought they heard an explosion,” said dispatcher Jeannine St. John. “They asked if it was Mobil again.” She sent Engine 93 to the refinery. Firefighters found no problem.

The incident illustrates the deep sense of unease that has developed among the Torrance neighbors of Mobil Oil Corp.’s sprawling refinery in the heart of the densely populated South Bay.

On Tuesday, the outcome of a hotly contested election will determine whether Torrance residents have lost faith in the safety of the 60-year-old, 750-acre refinery. Capping a contentious campaign that has divided the city, Torrance voters will decide whether to ban the plant’s use of highly hazardous hydrofluoric acid.

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 refining 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 Legislature, as well as the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the oil refining industry and the environmental movement nationwide.

Sponsors say the election’s outcome will send a signal to other governmental agencies considering similar hydrofluoric acid bans.

The contest pits Mobil’s critics in Torrance against the nation’s fifth-largest industrial corporation. The initiative campaign, which drew 10,000 signatures, has split the seven-member City Council and set a local record for campaign spending.

Polling in January by supporters of the ban indicated that sentiment strongly favored the measure. On Tuesday, Mobil spokesman Tom Collins acknowledged that the oil company’s polls show supporters of the ban still outnumbering opponents, though he said the gap has narrowed substantially.

City Clerk John Bramhall said that the majority of requests for absentee ballots have been arriving in envelopes distributed by groups favoring the measure.

Mobil so far has spent $483,172.19 on a blizzard of mailers, radio ads and cable television programs, as well as hired out-of-state phone banks to poll and persuade local residents. The oil company’s level of campaign spending dwarfs the previous Torrance record of $46,000 and far outstrips spending by the measure’s backers, who have collected $25,000.

Within the city, debate over the issue has created some strange bedfellows.

Councilman Dan Walker, who drafted the measure, is the only council member supporting it.

Opposing it, along with Mobil, are the other six council members.

And even though they oppose the measure, Mayor Katy Geissert and three of her colleagues said last week that they favor what the measure would accomplish: banning the bulk use of hydrofluoric acid.

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

The six council members prefer to fight Mobil through a lawsuit filed by the city last April, which seeks enhanced power to regulate the refinery.

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 boosts the octane of unleaded gasoline, could kill more than the 3,000 people who died when methyl isocyanate gas was released at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, in 1984.

In the ballot argument and in speeches, backers of the ban say that federal investigations show that human error 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 who live near the plant.

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

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 that chemical.

In letters to their Torrance neighbors, Mobil workers 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.”

Sometime in the next several months, the debate about the safety of hydrofluoric acid will be replayed before the AQMD board.

In addition, a bill to ban the substance in urban areas has been introduced in the Legislature by Assemblyman Curtis Tucker Jr. (D-Inglewood). U.S. Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica) is considering sponsoring a bill regulating the use of the chemical.

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 does not vaporize until the temperature reaches 518 degrees Fahrenheit.

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.

Ed Camarena, AQMD Deputy executive director, said in an interview that he is watching the election in Torrance. The staff argues that Mobil could eliminate any transportation risk for sulfuric acid by building a sulfuric acid manufacturing plant at its refinery or by piping in the acid.

A Chevron refinery in El Segundo and a Unocal refinery in Wilmington have their own sulfuric acid plants. The Rhone-Poulenc Basic Chemicals plant in Carson pipes sulfuric acid to Arco and Shell refineries.

Some environmental activists also are monitoring the election.

“Since California tends to be (on) 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,” said Fred Millar of Friends of the Earth and the Environmental Policy Institute.