News Archive

Safety officials say the most troubling issue at Mobil’s Torrance refinery is the use of hydrofluoric acid. It’s a chemical so toxic that the federal government labels it “acutely hazardous.” It is so dangerous that exposure to concentrations as low as 50 parts per million for 30 minutes can be fatal. A safety study on […]

An environmentalist and a research scientist told a legislative hearing Wednesday that use of acutely toxic hydrofluoric acid at Los Angeles-area oil refineries poses a potentially deadly threat to nearby residents. “Most of us live in blissful ignorance of the kind of hazards we are exposed to,” said Fred Millar of the Environmental Policy Institute, […]

Torrance City Council members expressed surprise Tuesday that an $88,000 study on safety of the Mobil Oil refinery will not answer their key question: What is the risk of the plant continuing to use hydrofluoric acid — an acutely toxic chemical — in the refining process. “That was the most important aspect of the whole […]

Use of sulfuric acid instead of hydrofluoric acid at the Mobil Oil Corp. refinery in Torrance could pose less danger to area residents in the event of an accident, according to a preliminary report prepared by the Torrance city staff. But it also would mean a substantial increase in truck traffic and hazardous-waste disposal problems, […]

Citing a November explosion at the Mobil Oil Corp. refinery in Torrance, South Coast Air Quality Management District officials have warned that the possibility exists for a “significant release” of hydrogen fluoride gas at facilities that use the chemical. An AQMD staff report obtained Monday calls for creation of a “high-level, multiagency” task force that […]

Fifty-eight U.S. oil refineries, including three in the Los Angeles area, are using a potentially lethal chemical that could result in a Bhopal-like disaster threatening as many as 12 million people across the country, a Washington-based environmental group has warned. Fred Millar of the Environmental Policy Institute issued the warning three years after the Bhopal […]