Advocacy group sues 2 SoCal refineries over hydrogen fluoride safety records

A community advocacy group filed suit Monday against two Southern California refineries, seeking safety compliance reports it says have been withheld for three years on facilities that use hydrogen fluoride — the only two such plants in California, according to KTLA.

The suit comes weeks after a chemical incident in Garden Grove, in Orange County, and underscores longstanding fears that an accidental hydrogen fluoride release from either refinery could generate a slow-moving, ground-hugging toxic cloud threatening mass casualties across surrounding communities.

The Torrance Refinery Action Alliance, or TRAA, named a PBF Energy subsidiary operating the Torrance refinery at 3700 West 190th Street and Valero Energy's plant at 2402 East Anaheim Street in Wilmington as defendants. The group filed under the California Public Records Act, seeking compliance reports on alkylation units that KTLA said are the only ones in the state still using hydrogen fluoride.

TRAA drew a direct link to the May incident in Orange County. "Garden Grove…is not the only city in Southern California harboring a potential ticking time bomb when it comes to a mass casualty event arising from a toxic industrial chemical tank," the group said in a media release, according to KTLA.

The group blamed years of obstruction by fire agencies for forcing the lawsuit. "The initiation of litigation has been necessitated by multi-year stalling tactics engaged in by both the Torrance Fire Department and the Los Angeles Fire Department, each of whom was the subject of public records requests made by TRAA in June 2023," the organization said in its release.

In the same media release, TRAA warned that "both the transport of hydrogen fluoride and modified hydrogen fluoride and the standing tanks at each refinery pose a chronic danger to adjacent communities. Any accidental release, due to a refinery explosion, natural disaster or intentional act of sabotage or terrorism, could cause a ground-hugging, slow-to-dissipate and toxic cloud to fan out with the prevailing winds."

Hydrogen fluoride is a colorless substance in gas or liquid form that can cause severe damage to the human body, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The chemical is used in the alkylation process at both refineries, making them the only two facilities of their kind in California, KTLA reported.

TRAA said its goal is not the closure of either refinery but the conversion of alkylation units to safer chemical processes. The group characterized each facility as "a potential ticking time bomb," according to KTLA.