By Mark Friedman, RLN Contributor
Opponents of the continued use of the toxic hydrofluoric acid at Torrance PBF and Valero refineries had little impact at the latest is a series of public hearings regarding unsafe conditions at the facilities. The South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) board failed to make any determination but a majority of members implied their support for refinery management and no ban, while calling for yet another hearing in 90 days.
The Torrance City Hall auditorium on April 28, was packed with 500 community residents, unionists, company representatives and scientists. Testimony was heard for five hours for or against the refineries continued use of the dangerous chemical.
This came on the heels of three explosions this past week, near miss accidents with tanks of this same acid, in Superior, Wis. and Texas City, Texas. Tens of thousands were evacuated for an area of 25 miles.
Leading the AQMD hearing agenda was a presentation by Craig Merlic, UCLA scientist and an expert on the human impacts of modified hydrofluoric and sulfuric acid, commonly referred to as MHF. The science was clear: Hydrofluoric is far deadlier than sulfuric acid.
Hedge fund PBF Corp. purchased the Exxon Mobil refinery in Torrance, after a 2015 explosion.
The Torrance Refinery Action Alliance has been educating local communities on the dangers posed to refinery workers and communities within a several mile radius.
They have gathered the support of people in Congress, state senators, city and neighborhood councils, the NAACP, some unions, environmental groups and more than 10,000 residents who signed petitions for a ban on modified hydrofluoric and hydrochloric acid.
On the other side, opposing a ban and fighting any meaningful new safety measures are Torrance and Valero refinery management, union officials and unionists working at these two locations, who are being threatened with plant closure and loss of their livelihoods if the AQMD mandates a MHF and HF ban.
Hundreds of workers attended the hearing to attack the residents fighting for safety in and outside of the refinery, walking in step with the management that appears only interested in its bottom line.
These refineries have the money, especially with new tax breaks, to retrofit with safer sulfuric acid, used in all other California refineries. The retrofit to the safer sulfuric acid is estimated to cost $300 million. Public records show that PBF earned $250 million in 2017 and expect earnings to increase $350 million. PBF calls this their most profitable refinery.
But members of the International Association of Machinists are being pitted against their natural allies in the neighborhoods surrounding the refineries and safety is being characterized as a threat to the jobs of steel workers, carpenters, iron workers, electrical workers and laborers.
A Risk Too Great
The United Steelworkers, North America’s largest industrial union, issued a national report in 2010 called A Risk Too Great, which called for the immediate elimination of hydrofluoric acid (virtually identical by all scientific reports to Modified Hydrofluoric). Citing more than 131 HF accidents in the five preceding years, the report ends by stating that: “Fortunately HF alkylation can be entirely eliminated. The industry has the technology and expertise. It certainly has the money.” If refinery management says they don’t have the money, activists’ response is “Open your financial books.” Which, of course, they won’t.
Many community activists believe that if the local steelworkers union were to join with the community and urge other unions to participate in this community and worker safety fight, they would win this battle overnight. Until then, hundreds of thousands of South Bay citizens live in the hazard zone, according to Torrance Refinery Action Association.