Phasing Out of Hydrofluoric Acid OKd : Hazards: Action by the South Coast Air Quality Management District will affect four oil refineries and a chemical plant, all in the Los Angeles area. Deadlines for compliance are 1998 for the refineries and 1999 for the plant.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District on Friday decided to phase out large-scale use of hydrofluoric acid by 1999 unless a safe form of the acutely hazardous substance is developed by 1995.

The action, approved by the agency’s governing board in an 11-0 vote, affects four oil refineries and a chemical plant, all in the Los Angeles area. It sets phased deadlines of Jan. 1, 1998, for the refineries, which use the acid to produce high-grade unleaded gasoline, and Jan. 1, 1999, for the Allied Signal plant in El Segundo, where the substance is used in the manufacture of refrigerants.

During a public hearing before the vote, some critics--mostly industry officials--objected to the prospect of a chemical ban. Others--mostly residents and environmentalists--demanded earlier dates.

“We have a time bomb ticking in our back yard,” Rancho Palos Verdes writer and homemaker Ildy Rosen said. “How long are you going to force us to live with this? We want it out. Not 10 years from now, not five years from now, but today.”

But Daniel McClain, president of the South Bay Assn. of Chambers of Commerce, warned that the ban sets a bad economic precedent. “Not knowing when or how soon a chemical use could be banned, companies will be less motivated to modernize, expand or site new facilities in Southern California,” McClain said.

Board members defended the rule as a fair way to balance public safety concerns with worries about the adverse economic effects that a faster phasing out could have on companies using the chemical.

Board member Sabrina Schiller proposed that earlier deadlines be considered, but no one seconded her motion.

Hydrofluoric acid, the liquid form of hydrogen fluoride, is used in bulk in the Los Angeles area at the Allied Signal plant and at four refineries--Mobil Oil in Torrance, Ultramar in Wilmington and Golden West and Powerine in Santa Fe Springs.

What makes the acid so threatening is its extreme volatility. When released it tends to form a highly toxic, ground-hugging cloud.

No large spills of hydrofluoric acid have occurred in the Los Angeles Basin. Worries about the chemical have been building since an overflow of the acid at Mobil’s Torrance refinery, in November, 1987, precipitated a major accident that injured 10 people.

Last October, Mobil agreed in court to stop using the chemical at the refinery by the end of 1997 unless it can develop a less volatile form of the substance by the end of 1994. The commitment came in a pretrial settlement of a lawsuit brought by the city of Torrance.

At Friday’s meeting, AQMD staff members argued in favor of a similar approach, abandoning a tentative plan endorsed by the agency a year ago to phase out large-scale hydrofluoric acid use by Dec. 31, 1994.

Pat Nemeth, the agency’s deputy executive officer for planning and rules, said all five companies using the acid will have to make extensive plant safety improvements in the interim.

The agency will also ensure that if research into alternative forms of hydrofluoric acid does not bear fruit by Jan. 1, 1994, the five companies affected by the rule will have to begin phasing out use of the chemical.

For refineries using hydrofluoric acid, the main alternative under current technology is sulfuric acid. Refinery managers said converting to that chemical would cost millions and would leave them with a less efficient method of producing clean-burning gasoline.