Mobil, Allied Signal Accept Delayed Ban on Acid Use

Two companies with plants in the South Bay, Mobil Oil Corp. and Allied Signal, welcomed a recommendation this week by air quality officials to roll back a proposed deadline for phasing out the bulk use of hazardous hydrofluoric acid.

But three other Los Angeles area companies that use the acid criticized the measure, saying a ban is unnecessary and would likely saddle them with crippling costs. And a longtime backer of a ban on hydrofluoric acid criticized the proposed deadline for a different reason, expressing concern that it might be too generous.

Environmentalist Fred Millar said he felt uncomfortable that the proposal of South Coast Air Quality Mangement District experts to seek a phase-out by 1999 instead of by 1995, as they had recommended earlier, was based largely on confidential research information from Mobil.

“I think it’s very difficult for the public to give Mobil a blank check and say, ‘OK, on the basis of documents we haven’t seen, you should be given a longer period,’ ” Millar said. “If the AQMD is saying, ‘Trust us,’ that will be a very hard sell.”

At issue is a draft rule unveiled this week by the AQMD staff. Scheduled to be considered April 5 by the agency’s governing board, the rule would ban use of the chemical at four oil refineries by Jan. 1, 1998, and at Allied Signal’s refrigerant plant in El Segundo by Jan. 1, 1999.

The rule is intended to prevent a disaster due to a large-scale release of hydrofluoric acid, an acutely toxic chemical that vaporizes at room temperature and can form a lethal, ground-hugging cloud.

Last April, the AQMD set a tentative deadline of Dec. 31, 1994, on bulk use of the acid. But agency officials said they established a more gradual phase-out in the proposed rule to give industry time to try to develop safer forms of the chemical.

A key factor in their decision was research results that Mobil Oil shared with the agency on a confidential basis, the officials said. Mobil has already agreed to dis continue hydrofluoric acid use at its Torrance plant by 1998 in a legal agreement with the city of Torrance.

“We are very optimistic that one or more of the new technologies they are developing will come to fruition,” Barry Wallerstein, the AQMD’s planning director, said Wednesday. “With the proposed amount of lead time, we have high hopes that alternatives will be developed.”

The AQMD rule would also require users of bulk hydrofluoric acid to install extensive interim safeguards aimed at preventing and containing spills of the acid, including sensors that can sense airborne concentrations of the gas and spray systems to douse vapors arising from a spill.

Those who favor banning hydrofluoric acid disagree on whether the proposal merits support.

Torrance City Councilman Dan Walker, sponsor of an unsuccessful initiative drive in 1990 to prohibit Mobil from using the acid, said he reluctantly backs the draft rule in the spirit of compromise.

“While I would have liked it (the ban) to occur yesterday, you have to realize that Mobil has the capability to keep everybody tied up in court for the next 20 years,” Walker said. “This date is reasonable.”

But Millar, who heads the toxics project for Friends of the Earth, a Washington, D.C., environmental group, said he could not support the AQMD proposal until he saw the results of research into alternative forms of the chemical.

Differences are also evident among managers of the five plants targeted by the rule: the Allied Signal chemical facility in El Segundo and four refineries--Mobil in Torrance, Ultramar in Wilmington and Golden West and Powerine in Santa Fe Springs.

Allied Signal uses the chemical to produce refrigerants, and the refineries use it in a process called alkylation, a key step in the production of high-octane gasoline.

Three of the companies--Ultramar, Golden West and Powerine--criticize the imposition of any sort of ban, saying safe use of hydrofluoric acid can be assured by taking precautions and using proper equipment.

They fault the AQMD for basing the ban on worst-case estimates for fatalities in the event of a major spill. With those criteria, they argue, other hazardous chemicals used in large quantities by Los Angeles County industry should also be banned.

The executives also complain that if the search for alternative forms of hydrofluoric acid fail, they will have to convert to sulfuric acid--for refineries, the only known alternative.

Not only would the conversion cost millions, they argue, it would also leave them with a chemical that carries its own risks. Sulfuric acid, they point out, must be used in far larger quantities than hydrofluoric acid--creating an increased risk of spills--and is less efficient in producing high-quality gasoline.

“They’re asking us to replace one potentially hazardous operation with another,” said Al Gualtieri, president of Powerine.

Ultramar spokesman Joe Burton said: “We don’t believe that the AQMD is taking the proper approach.”

But the region’s two biggest hydrofluoric acid users, Mobil and Allied Signal, say they accept the AQMD rule--mainly because it gives them time to explore alternative forms of the chemical.

Joel Maness, manager of the Mobil refinery, called the rule a “positive step.” He said his company has invested more than $30 million so far for such research in the last four years.

“This is the highest single priority item in our entire corporate research program,” Maness said Wednesday. He said the company’s goal is to develop a form of hydrogen fluoride that does not readily vaporize, or to find an alternative to alkylation altogether.

If the effort fails, he said, Mobil will have to spend $100 million to convert its refinery to sulfuric acid.

Although there are no known substitutes for hydrofluoric acid in the production of refrigerants, Allied Signal plant manager Louis Ervin Jr. said his company also hopes to develop them. If it cannot, he said, it will use the time allowed it by AQMD to shift refrigerant production to a plant elsewhere in the country--a move that could mean the possible loss of 80 jobs.

“We’re hopeful we can come up with something,” Ervin said.

AQMD officials say they decided it would be worth giving companies extra time to pursue such efforts on two grounds:

* In the case of refineries, they say, sulfuric acid does have drawbacks, though it is not as harmful as hydrofluoric acid. Allowing time for development of another alternative that is better suited for producing clean-burning gasoline would be an environmental plus, they say.

* And an early ban would interrupt Allied Signal’s production of replacements for earlier types of refrigerants that are more destructive to the earth’s ozone layer.

AQMD spokesman Bill Kelly said: “After looking at the overall picture, we think that by allowing the extra time, we’re striking a better environmental balance.”