ELECTION TORRANCE : Toxic-Acid Initiative Sparks High Interest Among Voters : Safety: A record number of absentee ballots has already been cast. Mobil admits it has an uphill fight to defeat measure but says the gap is narrowing.

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,” dispatcher Jeannine St. John said. “They asked if it was Mobil again.”

On Tuesday, that deep sense of unease among neighbors of the Mobil Oil Corp.’s Torrance refinery will be tested in a hotly contested election centering on the safety of the 60-year-old, 750-acre facility.

On the ballot is an unusual measure that 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, effectively banning its use.

Although few people outside Torrance were concerned with problems at Mobil when the space shuttle landed, millions of people throughout Southern California now are hearing about the refinery.

In Torrance, interest is high. Already, 3,546 residents have voted by absentee ballot; a record in the city.

During the last two weeks of the campaign, the oil giant has poured tens of thousands of dollars into dozens of radio spots airing on KFWB, KNX, KABC and other stations, which reach well beyond Torrance. Mobil also has run large political advertisements not only in newspapers circulating in Torrance, but also as far afield as Santa Monica.

And although the outspent supporters of the measure are limiting themselves to mailers within the city limits, their ability to publicize their case has provoked calls to Torrance Mayor Katy Geissert from national media as far away as the Texas Oil Patch. Worried oil industry officials there are talking about the Torrance election, she said.

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

“It is still an uphill battle,” he said. “It is going to be tough to prevail.”

Observers searching for clues to Tuesday’s vote also are examining the absentee ballots: 1,707 came into the city clerk’s office in envelopes sent out by the city when sample ballots are distributed. An additional 1,663 arrived in envelopes sent out by the sponsor of the measure, Councilman Dan Walker. Only 176 were in Mobil’s envelopes.

The Mobil strategy has been to emphasize the perils of the alternative--sulfuric acid. Either of the acids can be used as a catalyst in a reaction that boosts the octane of unleaded gasoline. Sulfuric acid is needed in far larger quantities than hydrofluoric acid.

One Mobil newspaper ad said that the result of approving the measure will be the danger from “an additional 125 tanker trucks carrying hazardous chemicals clogging up our streets.”

The ad failed to specify a time frame for the sulfuric acid truck traffic. Mobil spokesman Collins said the omission was inadvertent.

“It should have had ‘a month’ in there,” he said. “I don’t know why it didn’t have it in there.”

The staff of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which is recommending the elimination of hydrofluoric acid at refineries throughout the district, says there are other alternatives to trucking the sulfuric acid. Mobil could operate a sulfuric acid manufacturing plant at the refinery or pipe in the acid, as refineries using that chemical in Southern California have done for decades.

Mobil, which has said it will probably sue if the measure is approved, says in its advertising that voters should defeat the measure because of legal costs that taxpayers might have to bear--”$8 million or more.”

The oil company recently sponsored a series of “coffee hours” at the homes of refinery workers who live in Torrance to persuade people to vote against the hydrofluoric acid ban.

“You can see highlights of these coffees,” a newspaper ad continued, by watching a 30-minute cable television program sponsored by Mobil. The program is running on Paragon Cable’s Channel 46 each night from Friday through Monday.

Also opposing the measure are six of the seven members of the Torrance council, who argue that approval will complicate a city lawsuit against Mobil that seeks more power over hazards at the refinery.

They said in a letter published Friday that, although they favor a ban of hydrofluoric acid, they prefer the lawsuit to the ballot measure. In fact, the letter said passing the ballot measure “might well delay (the suit) going to trial for years to come” and cost the city millions in legal fees.

To make the point, the council last year put on the ballot a second measure that would raise the city’s spending limit.

The strategy of the measure’s supporters has been to stress hydrofluoric acid’s dangers and problems at the refinery. They cite a series of deaths, explosions, fires and other accidents at the refinery, and industry-sponsored tests that showed a two-minute, 1,000-gallon spill could be deadly up to five miles downwind.

Hydrofluoric acid turns to hydrogen fluoride gas at room temperature, forming a dense, ground-hugging cloud. Supporters argue that sulfuric acid is safer because it vaporizes at 518 degrees Fahrenheit.

In support of the measure, Torrance resident Irma Robinson, wife of Torrance Police Capt. Larry Robinson, wrote a letter sent to voters that recalled the death of her only daughter, age 19, in an accident at Mobil. Walker, who paid for the mailing, said the letter should make the average voter cry.

“Cyndi was driving her car on a public street next to the Mobil refinery (on Dec. 4, 1979). . . . Due to faulty safety equipment--which Mobil knew was inoperative for several days--an explosive vapor cloud developed that spread beyond the boundaries of the refinery,” the letter says.

Cyndi’s car ignited the cloud, and she “suffered massive burns over 98% of her body and died 20 hours later.” The letter says that Mobil has “a proven record of bringing tragedy to this community.”

Another letter sent out by supporters was penned by Torrance firefighter Jerry V. Terrill, who asserted that Mobil has “lied to us before. Why should we believe them now?”

The letter cited a report in The Times that said a 1987 explosion and fire in the refinery’s hydrofluoric acid unit was not caused simply by faulty equipment, as Mobil officials long claimed.

“The truth is,” the letter continues, “that the explosion occurred because Mobil knowingly ignored the fact that crucial safety systems at the refinery were not working for several days prior to the ‘accident.’ ”

The letter warned against Mobil: “Don’t let them buy your trust this time.”