Debate rages as AQMD eyes toxic-cloud safeguard.

South Coast Air Quality Management District officials are considering lifting a ban on hydrogen fluoride, after meeting with Mobil Corp. officials about a new additive the oil company is developing which would prevent a hydrogen fluoride spill from vaporizing into a lethal cloud.

The AQMD will hold public hearings in january on a new rule which would allow oil companies to use hydrogen fluoride, commonly called HF, with the additive, said Moshen Namzemi, director of the toxics division of the AQMD.

The old rule, which was approved by the AQMD in 1991, "basically called for a complete phase-out" of HF by 1998, Namzemi said.

Environmentalists, who warn that a large spill of HF could result in a toxic cloud which could potentially kill thousands near the spill in a worst case scenario, blasted the AQMD's change.

The move is another example of how pressure from the business community "is finally taking its toll on the AQMD," said Victoria Kun, staff scientist at the Los Angeles office of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a New York-based non-profit environmental action group.

Namzemi said the AQMD is considering changing its position because of technology changes and not because of political pressure.

Oil refineries must use either hydrogen fluoride or sulfuric acid to refine crude oil into gasoline. Three L.A. area refineries -- Mobil's in Torrance, Ultramar Inc.'s in Wilmington and Powerine Oil Co.'s in Santa Fe Springs -- currently use hydrogen fluoride. The other major user of HF in the L.A. basin is the AlliedSignal chemical plant in El Segundo.

Namzemi said the agency will consider the economic impact of a ban in issuing a new rule.

Switching from hydrogen fluoride to sulfuric acid would cost about $100 million at the Mobil refinery, $90 million at the Ultramar refinery and $30 million to $40 million at the Powerine refinery, according to officials there.

AQMD spokesman Sam Atwood said, "The decision to allow the additives as an alternative (to a ban) came as a result of input from the oil companies ... Mobil, primarily."

Joel Maness, manager of the Mobil refinery in Torrance, said Mobil scientists met with AQMD officials two months ago to give them a presentation about the new technology that Fairfax, Va.-based Mobil is developing.

Mobil scientists showed AQMD officials a video tape of the additives' effect on an experimental hydrogen flouride spill Mobil scientists performed in Oklahoma this summer.

Normally if a large amount of hydrogen flouride is spilled it will create a ground-hugging toxic cloud which will travel with the wind. The Mobil videotape "shows that after the additive is added, the fuming characteristic (of hydrogen fluoride) is eliminated," Maness said.

"I think the AQMD is very excited about this," he said. "They see that this additive could make HF every bit as safe as the sulfuric acid alternative."

Maness and AQMD officials pointed out that the old rule had a provision that might have allowed companies to use HF if they could develop technology which would reduce the risk of dangers to the public health.

Atwood of the AQMD pointed out the old rule was overturned by the California Court of Appeal in July because the agency did not provide enough public notice before implementing it.

In that decision, the court held that the rule was invalid because the environmental impact report was publicly available for 24 days before the AQMD vote -- and not 30 days, as required by law.

Fred Millar, director of toxics for the Washington, D.C.-based Friends of the Earth and an expert on hydrogen fluoride who successfully lobbied the AQMD in the late 1980s to ban the chemical, said he is "very upset at what the AQMD is doing."

Millar said the AQMD "should simply re-issue the (public) notice and put out the (same) rule again."

But he said it was "tragic" that AQMD would reconsider its ban after completing "the most carefully conducted, professional study" of the potential effects of an HF spill. In a worst case scenario, "there could be thousands of people dead," Millar said.

"I have been told by environmentalists in the L.A. area that the AQMD has been backsliding and I should not be surprised by this," Millar said. He said he thinks the AQMD has changed its position because of economic pressure.

Kun of the Natural Resources Defense Council said, "It would be really foolhardy for the AQMD to rescind a rule on some promising test results on a chemical that is unproven. It would be unfair to the residents around the facilities to take away their safeguards on the promise of some untried additive."

Although Mobil wants to use the additive, the other three major HF users are lobbying AQMD to allow them to continue using HF without using the additive.

Powerine, Ultramar and AlliedSignal officials say safety measures they have installed to prevent an HF accident, such as electronic leakage monitors and a water spray system (water is believed to reduce the chance of an HF cloud forming), are sufficient.

Don Phillips, plant manager of the AlliedSignal El Segundo facility said that, unlike the oil refineries, AlliedSignal cannot replace HF with another chemical to manufacture its product, a refrigerant chemical. The company must use "pure" HF and can not use HF with the additive Mobil is proposing, Phillips said.

Phillips said if HF is banned or if the AQMD allows its use only with the additive, AlliedSignal will shut the El Segundo plant, which employs 70. Phillips said company officials plan to meet with AQMD officials in December to seek a new rule to allow them to continue to use HF if they institute added safety precautions.

Santa Fe Springs-based Powerine, Long Beach-based Ultramar and Morristown, N.J.-based AlliedSignal are campaigning to get the AQMD to allow them to use HF if they institute more safeguards.

June Christman, environmental engineering manager at Powerine, said Powerine officials are also seeking a meeting with AQMD officials to get them to issue a rule which would allow them to use HF without the additive. "I think we should be able to use HF with the safety procedures that are already in place," she said.

Carolyn Green, director of public and government relations for Ultramar, said Ultramar officials have already met with AQMD officials to ask them to allow them to use HF without the additive.

"We have discussed it with them, yes," Green said. "They're leaning towards not banning the substance (only) if you use an additive with it."