Residents and advocates gathered Saturday to demand the ban of a chemical that’s used at a Torrance oil refinery and that they are saying has the potential to trigger a mass casualty catastrophe.
Hydrofluoric acid is utilized in about 40 gasoline refineries throughout the US, in line with the Nationwide Sources Protection Council. The protection council states that “exposing as little as 1% of an individual’s pores and skin to HF (in regards to the dimension of 1’s hand) can result in demise. When inhaled, HF can fatally injury lungs, disrupt coronary heart rhythms, and trigger different severe well being results.”
The Torrance Refinery makes use of modified hydrofluoric acid, or MHF, which the refinery considers to be a safer different to HF, although the declare is disputed by advocates. Steve Goldsmith, president of the Torrance Refinery Motion Alliance, which hosted the Saturday occasion, mentioned that if MHF have been to be been launched into the air, it might create irreversible well being results inside 6.2 miles of the refinery, trickling into different components of Los Angeles County.
And in 2015, he mentioned, this nearly occurred.
On Feb. 18, 2015, there was an explosion on the refinery, then operated by ExxonMobil, attributable to the rupture of an eroded valve. The incident, which launched flammable hydrocarbons, injured 4 staff and compelled 14 colleges into lockdown.
The Saturday occasion, held at North Excessive College’s Performing Arts Middle in Torrance, marked the eleventh anniversary of the explosion.
Goldsmith described the chemical as “murderous.”
Viewers members take part in a “peace clap” at North Torrance Excessive as they hearken to audio system in opposition to the usage of hydrofluoric acid within the Los Angeles area and throughout the nation.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Occasions)
“Torrance Refinery had an unlimited explosion, and a bit of apparatus the scale of a bus got here inside 5 toes of the hydrofluoric acid, inflicting a close to miss,” Goldsmith mentioned. “We’ve been working to do away with it.”
Residents like Christopher Truman say changing MHF with an alternate choice is the least that may be finished. His dad and mom reside close to the refinery.
“I’m born and raised within the South Bay, and my household lives in, successfully, what can be the blast radius if one other accident occurred,” Truman mentioned. “So simply in that facet, I’m very fearful about it.”
MHF can also be used to wash semiconductor surfaces and produce pesticides and herbicides within the agricultural and pharmaceutical industries, in line with the Torrance Refinery.
County Supervisor Janice Hahn mentioned residents mustn’t assume “they are going to be fortunate” if one other refinery accident have been to happen.
“Solely two refineries in California use MHF, Torrance Refinery and the Valero Refinery in Wilmington,” Hahn mentioned. “MHF is just too harmful to make use of. It’s a flesh-eating, low-crawling, poisonous vapor cloud. Our communities is not going to be secure till this chemical is gone.”
Goldsmith mentioned a Chevron refinery in Salt Lake Metropolis discovered an ionic-liquid alkylation course of as a substitute for MHF. He added that the 2025 Chevron refinery explosion in El Segundo “would have been completely different if that they had been utilizing MHF.”
“They used one other chemical that didn’t endanger the neighborhood,” Goldsmith mentioned. “And that’s the factor about refineries, they’ve explosions. However that’s why you’ll be able to’t have [MHF] round issues that may blow up.”
U.S. Consultant
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) seems on a video message explaining her laws, which she says can have a optimistic affect for communities within the Los Angeles area.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Occasions)
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, (D-Los Angeles), who represents the town of Torrance, greeted attendees in a prerecorded message, by which she reintroduced her invoice, the “Stopping Mass Casualties from Launch of Hydrofluoric Acid at Refineries Act,” which targets crops utilizing MHF.
“I initially launched this invoice in December of 2024,” Waters mentioned within the video. “I confronted appreciable opposition, particularly from the United Metal Staff Union, [who were] involved that if refineries transformed to safer applied sciences, among the refineries may shut, leaving staff with out jobs. They agreed with me that hydrofluoric acid is harmful. However they nonetheless wouldn’t assist my invoice. So I made a decision to go forward and reintroduce this invoice, [without] union assist.”
The invoice would give refineries 5 years to seek out a substitute for the harmful chemical. Violators could also be topic to fines as much as $37,000 per infraction.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn speaks out in opposition to the usage of hydrofluoric acid.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Occasions)
Some residents careworn the necessity for transparency from native officers.
Ian Patton, a Lengthy Seashore resident, mentioned most components of the investigation into the 2015 explosion have been withheld.
“Why can’t they not make this report public? The [Torrance Refinery Action Alliance] has been asking for it for years,” Patton mentioned. “The subsequent step was to take a look at litigation underneath the California Public Data Act. It’s not one thing that we need to do, however the public deserves to know whether or not these crops are secure.”
