Council urges MHF ban for Torrance Refinery
Dozens of speakers addressed the Hermosa Beach City Council Tuesday night as the body mulled a ban on modified hydrofluoric acid, a chemical used at the Torrance Refinery. Photo
The Hermosa Beach City Council voted Tuesday night to support an effort to phase out the use of modified hydrofluoric acid (MHF), a chemical used at the Torrance Refinery. Neighbors and scientists say the chemical poses a potentially deadly threat to communities throughout the South Bay.
In a 3-1 vote, the council decided to send a letter to the South Coast Air Quality Management District urging the regulatory body to adopt a rule mandating that the refinery replace MHF with an alternative “alkylation agent” within four years. Councilmember Hany Fangary, the lone no vote, said he supported eventually curtailing the use of MHF, but objected to sending a letter with a fixed timeline.
More than 30 people addressed the council at Tuesday’s meeting, including a number of Hermosa residents who worked at the refinery and urged the council not to send the letter. Councilmember Justin Massey, who along with Mayor pro tem Stacey Armato helped bring the issue onto the council agenda in time to produce a letter in advance of the air district’s April meeting, said that he respected the employees who spoke, but said that the refinery has a “spotty safety and operating record.” Given the extent of the risk, and the money that PBF Energy, which owns the refinery, is likely to accrue as a result of the recently passed federal tax bill, Massey said that he felt obligated to push for a firm ban.
“There are viable alternatives to modified hydrofluoric acid. PBF can and should spend their tax windfall on making our communities safer, and putting people to work,” he said.
Community concern over the possible impacts of MHF grew following an explosion of the refinery in 2015 when it was run by ExxonMobil. A subsequent investigation discovered that as a result of the explosion a large piece of equipment narrowly missed hitting a tank of MHF. According to reports from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, had the MHF storage tank been pierced, the chemical could have formed a toxic cloud with the potential to spread for miles and kill thousands.
Along with information about the state of AQMD proceedings, councilmembers were also briefed by Brandy Villanueva, the city’s Emergency Management Coordinator. Villanueva said that, beyond urging residents to stay inside and shut their windows, there was little that the Hermosa could do in the case of such a threat.
“We cannot mitigate a hazard that is not in our jurisdiction,” she said.
This grim scenario has prompted condemnation of MHF from elected officials, although not necessarily from those with the power to end its use. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously opposed the refinery’s use of MHF, as has Rep. Ted Lieu, who served as a state legislator and Torrance City Council member before being elected to Congress.
The last time refinery issues were before Hermosa’s council, they considered but ultimately held off on sending a letter in support of a bill by Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, a Democrat whose district includes both Hermosa and the refinery; the bill, AB 1645, would have banned the use of MHF in the refining process, but died before it could make its way to the governor’s desk.
Refinery employees sat together at Tuesday’s council meeting and tried to counter the emotion of MHF opponents with measured pleas for gradual action. They stressed the significant precautions that went into their jobs every day, and warned of unintended consequences of abandoning MHF.
The Torrance Refinery and the Valero Refinery in Wilmington are the only two facilities in California still relying on MHF. But the two sides differ as to how many throughout the nation rely on MHF, and on whether a switch to another alkylation agents is possible. The most common alkylation alternative, sulfuric acid, is a less efficient catalyst and would require far more truck shipments into the refinery. Two other MHF alternatives, solid acid, and an ionic liquid, are currently being explored by scientists, but the two sides differ as to their commercial viability.
Nicholas Donovan, a Hermosa resident who works for PBF energy, said that mandating a shift to sulfuric acid could cost thousands of jobs.
“If forced to switch, the refinery will more than likely shut down,” Donovan said.
The cost to outfit the refinery for a different alkylation agent is a moving target; an estimate in 2016 from PBF’s president pegged it at $300 million. But activists are skeptical of the company’s economic arguments and note that PBF purchased the refinery from ExxonMobil at a deep discount following the explosion and that the equipment alone at the facility is likely worth more than $1 billion.
Hermosa joins the City of Redondo Beach in pressing for an end to the use of MHF. The issue is on the agenda for next week’s council meeting in Manhattan Beach. Community members said Tuesday night that they planned to continue lobbying other cities in the region.