Mobil Agrees to Safety Pact With Torrance

In what is being termed an unprecedented action, Mobil Oil Corp. has agreed to phase out or significantly modify the use of highly toxic hydrofluoric acid at its Torrance refinery as part of a far-reaching pretrial settlement of a lawsuit brought by the city.

The settlement, which was filed in Superior Court on Thursday, also calls for a court-supervised adviser to monitor and make recommendations on a broad range of safety and environmental issues at the refinery.

Mobil has agreed to stop using hydrofluoric acid at the refinery by the end of 1997 unless it can develop a safer form of the chemi cal by the end of 1994. Hydrofluoric acid is used, in a process called alkylation, to boost the octane in unleaded gasoline.

The settlement is being called unprecedented by city and Mobil officials as well as some industry observers, particularly because it involves a safety adviser who would have the authority to investigate conditions at the refinery and make recommendations that could be made binding on Mobil by the court.

Torrance Mayor Katy Geissert hailed the agreement as a landmark settlement. “The unusual situation, I think, is that you have one of the largest corporations in the world agreeing to sit down and arrive at some agreements,” she said.

Joel H. Maness, manager of the Torrance refinery, said, “From our viewpoint, we’ve got a first-class facility.” But he noted that the city felt strongly about the importance of an independent adviser.

“I’m not aware of any refineries in the country having this,” Maness said. And an American Petroleum Institute spokesman said he has never heard of a safety adviser overseeing a refinery.

Industry sources also said they are unaware of any refinery being forced to move away from use of hydrofluoric acid because of community pressure.

Throughout the legal battle with the city, Mobil had complained that the cost of converting the refinery from the use of hydrofluoric acid would be prohibitive. Officials estimate it would cost $100 million to use sulfuric acid instead, the only existing alternative process.

When asked why Mobil is now prepared to take on a project earlier deemed too expensive, a Mobil spokesman cited a press statement issued Thursday by Maness stating that Mobil has agree to “this unprecedented . . . phase-out in order to address the concerns of its neighbors and to resolve the dispute with the city of Torrance.”

Mobil also said Thursday it already has spent $25 million researching other alternatives, including additives to make hydrofluoric acid less hazardous.

The refinery produces 12% of the gasoline used in Southern California. A Mobil spokesman said it is “highly unlikely” that the conversion will effect the price of gasoline.

The city filed suit against Mobil in April, 1989, after a series of accidents, deaths and injuries at the Torrance plant raised concerns about the refinery’s safety. None of the deaths were caused by hydrofluoric acid. However, a major accident in November, 1987, that injured 10 people was caused by an overflow of the toxic chemical.

Attention focused on hydrofluoric acid in 1986, after industry-sponsored tests showed that a leak of 1,000 gallons of hydrofluoric acid could be lethal as far as five miles downwind. Mobil typically has an estimated 29,000 gallons of the acid at the plant, officials have said.

Hydrofluoric acid is used at 60 refineries in the United States, including four in Los Angeles County.

The situation in Torrance is unusual because many people live near the refinery, community concern about the chemical has been heightened and the lawsuit was pending, Maness said.

“That’s a unique situation we do not have in the other communities,” Maness said.

“I don’t know of another community situation like this in the country,” added Del Persinger, senior refining associate at the American Petroleum Institute in Washington.

The safety adviser would be selected by Mobil and Torrance, or named by the judge overseeing the settlement if the two sides cannot agree on a suitable consulting firm. The adviser would have to approve any modified hydrofluoric acid process proposed by Mobil and would have authority to investigate a wide range of safety, environmental, seismic and emergency questions at the plant.

Recommendations made by the adviser can be enforced by the court. Retired Superior Court Judge Harry V. Peetris, who guided the settlement talks, will oversee the consent decree.

All costs of the safety adviser would be borne by Mobil.

The safety adviser is a potential “weak link,” depending on who is chosen, said David Roe, senior attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund in Oakland.

“The settlement guarantees risk reduction as long as you get the right safety adviser,” Roe said. But he called the agreement significant. “I would hope someone would take this settlement and knock on the door of every other refinery in the state and say, ‘Why can’t you do this, too?’ ”

Torrance City Council members praised the agreement, saying it accomplishes what they hoped the lawsuit would do.

“After today, things will never be the same because refineries and people who deal with things that hurt the general population will know that just because they’re big, or rich, or whatever, their first concern has got to be the health and safety of the community,” said Councilman Dan Walker, who spearheaded an unsuccessful March referendum to force Mobil to stop using hydrofluoric acid in Torrance.

Both sides predict that the settlement--reached less than three weeks before the trial was scheduled to start Nov. 5--will ease the long-running tensions between Los Angeles County’s fourth-largest city and Mobil, Torrance’s largest taxpayer.

But in other quarters the reaction to the settlement was cautious--and in some cases skeptical. Officials with the South Coast Air Quality Management District generally welcomed the settlement but said they have questions about the feasibility of modifying hydrofluoric acid.

The AQMD in December is scheduled to consider a phase-out of hydrofluoric acid at the four oil refineries and a refrigerant manufacturing plant in Los Angeles County. AQMD officials said Thursday that the Mobil settlement would not affect the agency’s consideration of the proposed ban.

The consent decree calls for Mobil to phase out the use of hydrofluoric acid in Torrance by Dec. 31, 1997. But the oil company may continue to use the acid after 1997 if it commits to a modified hydrofluoric catalyst process by Dec. 31, 1994.

Although many refineries use less volatile sulfuric acid instead of hydrofluoric acid, Mobil has resisted switching to a sulfuric acid system, citing the cost.

The city’s suit, which maintained that Mobil is operating the refinery in a “callous and indifferent” fashion, sought to have the court declare the facility a public nuisance and grant the city authority to regulate it.

The huge explosion that rocked the refinery in November, 1987, set off a 17-hour fire and prompted the release of about 100 gallons of hydrofluoric acid.

The city lawsuit contended, and Mobil later admitted, that human error caused the 1987 explosion.

BACKGROUND

The city of Torrance filed suit against Mobil after a series of accidents at the Torrance refinery that raised safety concerns. Three people, including a passing motorist, were killed in 1979 when a large cloud of butane gas exploded after drifting from the refinery’s tank farm. An explosion and two-day fire in November, 1987, injured 10 people. About 100 pounds of hydrofluoric acid were released in the fire. Scientists say a 1,000-gallon spill of hydrofluoric acid could produce a toxic cloud lethal within a range of five miles. Mobil typically has an estimated 29,000 gallons of the acid at the plant.

Times staff writer George Hatch contributed to this story.