ELECTION INITIATIVE : Torrance Council Vows to Continue Mobil Offensive

The initial battle over the use of hydrofluoric acid may be finished, but Torrance City Council members said Wednesday that the war is far from over.

Council members declared themselves the victors in Tuesday’s election, in which voters rejected a measure that would have effectively banned Mobil Oil Corp. from using the highly toxic chemical at its Torrance refinery.

The results, they say, give them a mandate to pursue other ways to get the acid out of Torrance.

Mobil and its industry colleagues, however, claim they were handed a clear victory at the polls that they believe will hamper further attempts to ban use of hydrofluoric acid in Torrance and elsewhere.

Although the ballot measure defeated Tuesday was sponsored by Councilman Dan Walker, his six council colleagues opposed the initiative, fearing that legal action by Mobil would interfere with their efforts to control a number of hazardous chemicals at the refinery.

“This is not a mandate of the people for Mobil doing business as usual,” Mayor Katy Geissert said. “I feel particular responsibility because people who talked to me, many people, said they were thinking of voting for the measure because (they said), ‘We are scared.’ . . . They trusted me and voted no.”

But Mobil officials said the vote reflects a confidence in the company’s policies.

“I think it is quite clear that the people of Torrance don’t perceive (the refinery’s use of hydrofluoric acid) as the big problem people like Dan Walker want to make it,” refinery manager Wyman Robb said.

“I think I can point to a lot of evidence that we do know how to handle this chemical safely.”

Mobil’s perception that efforts to control hydrofluoric acid should ease in the wake of the Torrance vote is “dead wrong,” Councilman George Nakano said.

“Mobil is going to try to send a message out there that everything is fine and dandy, and it is not,” he said. “I’m going to do my part and we are all going to do our part to get our message across to the state and federal level.”

In the largest municipal election turnout since 1972, nearly 28% of Torrance’s 72,000 registered voters rejected Measure A by a 3-1 margin. The initiative would have prohibited the storage of more than 250 gallons of hydrofluoric acid in the city.

Mobil spent nearly $650,000 fighting the measure--roughly $30 per ballot cast--to avoid having to spend as much as $100 million to convert its refinery to using less-volatile sulfuric acid.

Councilman Tim Mock said Mobil officials told him Tuesday night that they “could not have done it without the City Council’s opposition to the measure.”

Mock said the council should continue to push for greater control of the refinery, but said there should be a limit to what the city is willing to do.

State and federal legislators “have the resources to take on Mobil. Torrance doesn’t,” he said.

“At what level (of spending) will the city cry uncle? That is yet to be determined. If you are talking $8 million, I think the City Council said, yes, we should cry uncle.”

The City Council had asked voters to allow them to spend as much as $8 million to defend Measure A against expected legal challenges by Mobil. The council’s proposal, contained in Measure B on Tuesday’s ballot, also was soundly defeated.

Walker, admitting he was surprised by the resounding rejection of his proposal, attributed his loss to Mobil’s campaign spending.

“That expenditure in itself was obscene and totally out of place in our community,” he said.

Calling the results a “hollow victory” for Mobil, Walker noted that his council colleagues all agree that hydrofluoric acid should be removed--somehow--from Mobil’s Torrance refinery.

The chemical’s use already is under attack on several fronts.

Last year the City Council filed a lawsuit asking a judge to declare Mobil’s refinery a public nuisance and to grant the city broader control over the facility’s operations, including a possible ban on hydrofluoric acid.

In addition, South Coast Air Quality Management District staff members said earlier this year that they will recommend phasing out the use of hydrofluoric acid in the Los Angeles Basin at the district board’s April 6 meeting.

In Sacramento, Assemblyman Curtis Tucker Jr. (D-Inglewood) has introduced legislation that would impose a statewide ban on the bulk use of hydrofluoric acid in populated areas.

Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica) also says he may introduce federal legislation to control use of the chemical.

“This vote does not demonstrate a lack of concern about the urgency of eliminating the (hydrofluoric acid) danger,” Levine said. “Rather, it demonstrates the concern about the method chosen to resolve it.”

Del Persinger, a senior refining associate with the American Petroleum Institute, disagreed, saying the Torrance vote “sends the right signal to the country.”

“It indicates, I would hope, that we can pursue a sensible course to improve safety and provide the products that people need,” he said. “Whether by lawsuit or referendum, we don’t think there is any need to limit hydrofluoric acid.”

AQMD officials, Tucker and Levine rejected Robb’s suggestion that they look at Torrance election results and “take it into account.”

“Our work here at the district will continue and is unaffected by the ballot initiative outcome,” said Ed Camarena, deputy executive director of the district.

Tucker scolded Mobil and the oil industry for finding solace in Tuesday’s vote.

“If industry wants to hang their hat on (the vote), then shame on them,” Tucker said. However, he acknowledged that Torrance’s rejection of the initiative likely will be used by some lawmakers to fight his bill.

“The Torrance initiative basically self-destructed for a lot of different reasons that have nothing to do with my bill,” including voter preference for the city’s lawsuit and their reluctance to favor one council member’s position over that of six others.

The legislation is scheduled to come before the Assembly’s Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee next month.

Tucker aide George Wiley on Tuesday asked the El Segundo City Council to support the statewide ban, which would affect Allied-Signal Corp.’s El Segundo facility. The council agreed to discuss the bill on March 20.

“It would shut our plant down,” Allied-Signal plant manager Louis Ervin said. The process that uses hydrofluoric acid “accounts for certainly more than half our work,” he said, and there is no alternate chemical that could be used.

Dozens of voters interviewed as they left the polls Tuesday said it was the City Council’s warnings that Measure A could hamper other efforts to control Mobil that won their votes against the acid ban.

“The statements the mayor made were effective. . . . She’s kind of like a grandma,” said Donald Betsworth, 60, a retired Los Angeles City Fire Department captain.

Walker’s inability to draw even one of his council colleagues to his side also appeared to sway people against Measure A.

“Very seldom in my experience with city councils do you have such a strong majority on one side and such a weak minority on the other,” said John Novinger, a businessman who lives near the Mobil refinery.

VOTING IN TORRANCE

Precincts Reporting: 58 of 58

Measure A: Shall Measure A be adopted prohibiting the storage or maintenance of more than 250 gallons of 70% solution of hydrofluoric acid or 1,840 pounds of hydrogen fluoride; declaring a violation thereof to be a misdemeanor and a public nuisance, and authorizing the City Council to extend the time for removing any excess storage or maintenance of hydrofluoric acid, or hydrogen fluoride?

Preference Vote Total Yes 4,925 No 14,074

Measure B: In the event Measure A is adopted at this election, shall the amount of appropriations subject to limitation pursuant to Article XIII B of the California Constitution be increased by the sum of $2 million for each of the four fiscal years 1990-91, 1991-92, 1992-93 and 1993-94 in order to offset the anticipated costs of legal defense and implementation of Measure A?

Preference Vote Total Yes 6,563 No 11,341

Measure C: Shall Article 15 of the Torrance City Charter be repealed?

Preference Vote Total Yes 7,992 No 8,044

FOR MAYOR

Candidate Vote Total Katy Geissert (i)** 16,300

FOR CITY COUNCIL (3 SEATS)

Candidate Vote Total Bill Applegate (i) 13,345 Dee Hardison (i) 14,158 Mark Wirth (i) 13,300 Donald N. Pyles 6,738

FOR CITY TREASURER

Candidate Vote Total Thomas C. Rupert (i) 15,878

FOR CITY CLERK

Candidate Vote Total John A. Bramhall (i) 15,685

**(i) designates incumbent

Winners in bold; some races were uncontested.