SPECIAL REPORT * Torrance residents, once worried by facility in their midst, can now breathe more easily. As eight-year effort to improve safety winds up . . . : Mobil Refines Its Image

The residents around the Mobil Oil refinery in Torrance have had their fair share of horror stories about living near the vast network of petroleum tanks and tall steel towers that dominate the city’s landscape.

The memory of horrible accidents weighs heavily on the minds of residents such as Reuben Ordaz, whose family had to be evacuated for three days after a 1979 explosion that killed three people and triggered a fire that raged for two days.

But a consent decree to improve the refinery has come to an end, and many people whose backyards overlook the Mobil facility now have a different opinion of the 750-acre refinery where an eight-year project to improve safety is almost finished.

“I was born in 1928 on the street where I live and have lived here all my life,” said Ordaz, who remembers the pungent smells that used to come from the refinery. “I have seen a 100% improvement.”

The consent decree was established in 1990, three weeks before a lawsuit filed against Mobil by the city of Torrance was to go to court. The decree was a legally binding eight-year agreement overseen by retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Harry V. Peetris, who appointed an independent safety advisor to make sure that the oil company complied with the safety recommendations spelled out in the pact.

As of Jan. 1, the Mobil facility became the first U.S. refinery to use, on a full-time basis, modified hydrofluoric acid, described by Mobil officials as a safer form of hydrofluoric acid. Mobil officials say using it will reduce by 90% the chance that a cloud of toxic hydrofluoric gas can move into surrounding neighborhoods and threaten residents.

“The bottom line is there have been a number of improvements. I would characterize the facility as a very safe refinery now,” said Steve Maher, the court-appointed independent safety advisor.

But because the additive to the modified hydrofluoric acid is a trade secret, the only people to test the modified form’s safety have been the companies that developed it together--Mobil and Phillips Petroleum.

Some environmental groups remain unconvinced.

“How can a community feel safe taking the word of the company that threatens them?” asked Carlos Porras, director of Communities for a Better Environment, based in Los Angeles.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District has reviewed test results provided by the oil company, but is not required to approve or disapprove them, said AQMD spokeswoman Claudia Keith. The test results are on file with the Torrance Fire Department as part of the refinery’s risk management program.

The refinery began to address its safety problems after Torrance sued in 1989. City officials were so angered by numerous accidents in the late 1970s and 1980s that they wanted the facility to be declared a public nuisance.

In 1979, a 19-year-old woman died from burns after her car stalled near the refinery’s tank farms. When she tried to start her engine, a spark ignited a huge cloud of leaking butane gas that set off a thunderous fire, killing two refinery workers as well.

Because of this and other accidents, the city sought to regulate the mammoth jungle of smokestacks, tank farms and oil-processing units that make up a fourteenth of the city. Taxes paid by the refinery make up about 7% of the city’s budget.

But on the eve of the trial in 1990, Mobil, the eighth-largest corporation in the United States, and the city settled out of court.

The result was the consent decree, or safety pact, starting in 1990 and ending in 1997, that gave an independent safety advisor the authority to make and approve recommendations about refinery safety. The proposals included implementing an emergency response program, employee training, seismic safety, procedures for handling hazardous materials and traffic control on nearby streets.

Implementation of the bulk of the recommendations was completed by the end of December. The rest, such as a loud air raid-like siren and a radio alert system, are scheduled to be finished by summer.

One of the most pressing issues was Mobil’s use of hydrofluoric acid, a highly toxic substance used as a catalyst to boost the octane level of unleaded gasoline. The acid, which when spilled can form a lethal, ground-hugging cloud that can easily drift with the wind, can seriously injure or kill at very low concentrations.

Hydrofluoric acid has been used by only a handful of refineries in the Los Angeles area. Most major refineries, such as Arco, Chevron and Texaco, use sulfuric acid, which is considered safer. Ultramar in Wilmington is now the only refinery in the Los Angeles area using hydrofluoric acid.

As part of the 1990 pact, Mobil was required to eliminate hydrofluoric acid unless it could no longer form an aerosol or dense vapor cloud upon release. Mobil, in conjunction with Phillips Petroleum, spent several years and $20 million, to develop a modified form of hydrofluoric acid.

Phillips Petroleum is planning to license and market the modified hydrofluoric acid process and is testing it at its Utah refinery, a company official said.

To make it safer, modified hydrofluoric acid contains an additive that raises its boiling point, reducing the amount that can vaporize if a leak occurs, Mobil officials said.

If any modified hydrofluoric acid were to escape, Mobil officials said, it would leak to the ground as a liquid and be contained on the spot.

Torrance Fire Chief R. Scott Adams and Maher, the independent safety advisor, traveled to Mobil’s refinery in Paulsboro, N.J., to observe the tests being done on modified hydrofluoric acid. Both men say they are satisfied that the modified form is safer.

Even City Councilman Dan Walker, who sponsored an unsuccessful initiative in 1990 to end Mobil’s use of hydrofluoric acid, says he is content with the new chemical.

“The bottom line is that the chemical doesn’t move with the air anymore. So if something occurred, it would be confined to the area where the accident takes place instead of disseminating in the wind,” he said. “We now have a state-of-the-art refinery.”

Mobil said it opted for the modified form of hydrofluoric acid because it would have cost millions of dollars to convert its alkylation unit to sulfuric acid. By this summer, the company will have spent $102 million to make all the safety improvements, said Mobil spokeswoman Carolin Keith.

Also, higher quantities of sulfuric acid are needed for the same process. Mobil said it would have to bring in 450 truckloads a month of sulfuric acid to do the same job as four or five truckloads of modified hydrofluoric acid.

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When the Torrance refinery was opened in 1929 by General Petroleum, oil company officials did not have to contend with complaining residents. The refinery was surrounded by a vast stretch of bean fields.

But as Torrance grew after World War II, the city turned into a popular and peaceful suburb. It now has a population of 141,500.

As the city mushroomed, so did the refinery. The facility supplies 16% of all the gasoline consumed in Southern California and 20% of the gas in Phoenix, Ariz.

But with growth came problems that seemed to worsen with a series of accidents in the late 1970s and ‘80s.

One of the most memorable was in November 1987, when a terrific explosion shattered windows in nearby homes and sparked a spectacular fire that burned for 17 hours and released about 100 pounds of acutely toxic hydrofluoric acid into the air. Six people were injured.

About a month before, a similar accident had happened at the Marathon Oil refinery in Texas City, Texas. The refinery released 6,000 gallons of hydrofluoric acid that forced the evacuation of 4,000 people and left a path of dead trees and plants.

People began to think that the Torrance refinery had become a dangerous neighbor.

“In those days, you just had a lot of terror in your heart,” said Hope Witkowsky, who has lived north of the facility for 28 years. “You just didn’t know if this was going to be the bad one that was going to get you.”

Since the Mobil refinery began to scrutinize its safety practices, the number of accidents has dropped dramatically.

Last year, there was only one major accident--a fire that broke out in a petroleum coke barn. In a separate incident, nine plant system operators were exposed to benzene, a known carcinogen, according to Cal/OSHA reports. No one was hospitalized.

In March 1996, two employees received chemical burns from exposure to hydrogen fluoride, state industrial accident reports show. One was hospitalized. In September 1996, an early morning fire erupted, shaking nearby residents out of their beds. No one was injured. In November of that year, a fire in the refinery’s coker unit caused two minor injuries and led to the temporary closure of Crenshaw Boulevard.

“If you take a look at their accident record, they have come a long way,” said Kennith Hall, the hazardous materials chief at the Torrance Fire Department.

Even though the consent decree has expired, city officials said the refinery will remain under close inspection with the help of Mobil officials, who have been more candid about its operating procedures.

“To say that a horrible accident could never happen again, no one can ever say,” Adams said. “But the refinery will always be under a microscope.”

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Chronology of Mobil problems.

1979: A 19-year-old woman’s car stalled near the refinery. When Cynthia Moore tried to restart her engine, a spark ignited a cloud of butane gas drifting from the nearby Mobil tank farm, setting off a large fire. The woman and two refinery workers died. Three months earlier, there was an explosion and fire.

1986: Attention focused on hydrofluoric acid after industry-sponsored tests in Nevada showed that a leak of 1,000 gallons of hydrofluoric acid could be lethal as far as five miles downwind.

1987: In March, a contract worker died of asphyxiation. In November, an explosion ripped through the refinery, sparking a 17-hour fire, injuring six people and causing $17 million in damages. About 100 pounds of hydrofluoric acid were released, but none of it spread beyond the refinery grounds. The explosion was blamed on an excess of hydrofluoric acid in a refinery unit.

1988: In April, a contract worker fell to his death. In July, on the same day, two accidents occurred. Chemicals exploded in a tank being cleaned, killing one worker and seriously burning two others. Earlier in the day, another explosion injured eight workers.

1994: In October, a mix of propane and butane escaped through a disconnected pipe and ignited, injuring 28 workers and causing the refinery’s most serious accident in seven years. The explosion happened after refinery and contract workers failed to follow safety procedures.

1996: An early morning fire in September shook nearby residents out of their beds, causing many of them to flee when they saw flames coming from one of the refinery’s many towers. No one was injured or evacuated. A November fire in the refinery’s coker unit caused two minor injuries and led to the temporary closure of Crenshaw Boulevard.

1997: A fire broke out in the petroleum coke barn, requiring 100 tons of petroleum coke to be removed to put out the blaze. No one was injured.