Torrance residents fear continued use of hydrofluo…

Torrance resident Isabel Douvan Schwartz said she worries about a major earthquake hitting her community, largely because of the impact it could have on the massive Torrance Refinery two miles from her home.

The biggest concern is that the refinery continues to use the highly toxic chemical hydrofluoric acid to process fuel, a practice that Schwartz and other activists want to see stopped.

“If hydrofluoric acid or modified hydrofluoric acid is released, then it forms into a ground-hugging toxic cloud that travels with the wind,” Schwartz said. “It can cause death and permanent serious injury to those exposed to it.”

Schwartz was among dozens of demonstrators who held a rally at Columbia Park on Saturday to mark the ninth anniversary of an explosion at the then Exxon Mobil Refinery that injured four workers and in which debris from the blast hit near tanks containing hydrofluoric acid, according to federal regulators.

The Torrance Refinery Action Alliance organized the rally and argued that safer alternatives exist, and that many of the refineries in California no longer use hydrofluoric acid.

PBF Energy, which purchased the refinery in 2016, issued a statement Saturday rebutting the activists’ accusations.

“We are aware of the misleading and inaccurate claims by the activist group, which they have been making for years,” the statement said. “The cleaner-burning gasoline sold in California requires alkylate to comply with the most stringent tailpipe emissions requirements in the world. The Torrance Refinery has been safely and reliably manufacturing alkylate for transportation fuels using hydrogen fluoride (HF), including modified hydrogen fluoride (MHF), in its Alkylation Unit for more than 60 years, without any offsite impact.”

On the refinery’s website, PBF Energy argues that…