Earlier this year, Chevron started commercial operation at its Salt Lake City refinery using an ionic liquid catalyst. And, CVR Energy is converting its HF refinery in Wynnewood, Oklahoma to solid-acid-alkylation technology.
Article by Robert Brelsford in Oil & Gas Journal
Big West Oil has contracted Honeywell UOP to deliver technology for the conversion of the existing hydrofluoric acid (HF) alkylation unit at its 33,000-barrel-per-day refinery in North Salt Lake City, Utah, into an alkylation unit based on ionic liquids alkylation technology. . . .
Click to read Robert Brelsford’s full article in Oil & Gas Journal.
Based on the recommendation of the TRAA Voter Advisory Panel, the Torrance Refinery Action Alliance strongly backs Dr. Carlton Waterhouse as EPA Assistant Administrator for the Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM). TRAA has signed onto a letter by Earthjustice urging U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer to bring his nomination to a vote in the Senate before the end of the 2021 congressional session.
Dr. Carlton Waterhouse is exceedingly qualified to lead EPA’s OLEM, which is charged with implementing environmental laws to protect health and the environment from industrial chemical disasters and releases of hazardous materials from tens of thousands of facilities in communities across the country. Dr. Waterhouse brings almost three decades of experience as an international expert of environmental law and environmental justice, and holds a Ph.D. in social ethics.
His academic experience includes degrees in science, theology, and law. In addition, he has deep roots within the EPA, beginning his career at EPA’s Office of Regional Counsel in Atlanta and moving on to the Office of General Counsel in Washington, D.C., where he acted as chief counsel for several notable cases and served as an expert on environmental justice. Dr. Waterhouse earned three of EPA’s prestigious national awards and has demonstrated a deep commitment to protect public health, the environment, and environmental justice communities.
Read the letter, which your organization can sign and send to Senator Schumer as a Google Document, by clicking here.
Check back closer to the meeting date for the latest information.
December’s TRAA meeting is being delayed one week because the nominal 2nd‑Wednesday date comes only one week into the month. Thus the December meeting will be on the 3rd Wednesday, December 15, 2021 at 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time.
To attend the virtual meeting, RSVP with an e-mail request for a Zoom link to TRAA President Steven Goldsmith at info@TRAA.website.
Unknown amount of HF released. Photos and a new video show the accident happened on a rural stretch of highway. In an urban setting, fatalities could have been catastrophic. Hundreds of trucks like these, loaded with HF, travel the U.S. highways every week, imperiling the communities they travel through.
On June 21, 2021, the Qinzhou Fire and Rescue Detachment Command Center received an alarm: A large truck carrying vegetables collided with a tank truck loaded with 31.2 tons of hydrofluoric acid about 5 kilometers from the Lanhai Expressway Dasi toll station in the direction of Qinzhou. Nineteen fire trucks from Qinzhou and its Port District Chemical Rescue Team were dispatched to the scene. They quickly carried out rescue work and plugged the leak. The amount of HF released was not stated in the news article; however, a rupture that released a major portion in an urban setting would be disastrous. Local governments and public security departments urgently evacuated village residents within 2 kilometers of the accident. Expressway and local traffic police departments evacuated and diverted vehicles stranded on the expressway.
After 12 hours of joint efforts by the fire, public security, traffic police, environmental protection, and other departments, the rescue work was successfully completed, and the danger was eliminated. The accident caused one minor injury and one death, although the cause was not stated.
Click to read news source.
This video created by Honeywell, the world’s largest producer of hydrofluoric acid, shows the extreme measures needed for even a minor HF leak during truck transport. It underscores the peril of a major accident like the one in China.
Experts know that by far the best protection from an accidental release of a highly dangerous chemical is to replace it with a much safer alternative. A regulation requiring refineries to convert from HF alkylation to one of the vastly safer modern alternatives would eliminate the hazards posed by the daily highway transport of massive amounts of HF to refineries. A multitude 0f communities nationwide, both near and far from these refineries, would then be safe from a trucking accident delivering HF to refineries.
An advocate for replacing HF alkylation at the Torrance and Valero Wilmington refineries with a modern, vastly safer process, Dr. Joeseph Lyou was a Governing Board Member of the South Coast Air Quality Management District during the critical period leading up to SCAQMD’s failure to ban HF. Dr. Lyou will open the meeting with his view of the current situation and the path forward. A Q&A discussion will follow.
Dr. Joseph K. Lyou serves as President & CEO of the Coalition for Clean Air. In January 2020 he was appointed to serve on the California Transportation Commission by Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon. Dr. Lyou also served as the governor’s appointee to the South Coast Air Quality Management District Governing Board from June 2007 to March 2019. Dr. Lyou received his Ph.D. from UC Santa Cruz in 1990.
To attend the virtual meeting, RSVP with an e-mail request for a Zoom link to TRAA President Steven Goldsmith at info@TRAA.website.
Be involved with important national and local issues of HF refineries and their impact on community safety.
The October meeting will focus on the national level with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the latest status of nominations to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB).
There also will be an important report from the TRAA Voter Advisory Panel on upcoming elections affecting the South Bay.
And, meet TRAA’s new intern Nia Liggins! Nia Liggins has joined the TRAA team as an intern/staff and committed to at least working 10 hours a week for the next ten weeks. She is currently working on (among other things) getting contact information for the appropriate staff people for the 36 Congress members and 40 Senators who have HF in their jurisdictions. She is terrific and a big help. Nia came to us via David Colgan, Communications Director of UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.
To attend the virtual meeting, RSVP with an e-mail request for a Zoom link to TRAA President Steven Goldsmith at info@TRAA.website.
Sierra – the magazine of the Sierra Club – tells how Whatcom County, located in the northwest corner of the United States and home to two of Washington State’s five oil refineries, is the first in the U.S. to ban new fossil fuel infrastructure.
In this inspiring David-and-Goliath article, Carl Weimer, a fierce advocate for pipeline safety and past Whatcom County Councilmember, concludes:
“We didn’t have any hope that the federal government was going to protect us. So, we had to try to do what we could locally. I think often local governments underestimate how much power they have. This was certainly an experiment in that. How far could we push it? How much could we use local zoning and planning issues to control industries that have a much broader impact? And we found we could do quite a bit.”
This Sierra Club article underscores the critical importance of electing informed members to City Councils in the South Bay, which is a goal of TRAA and the TRAA Voter Advisory Panel.
Former Managing Director of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board Dr. Daniel Horowitz and California Democratic Party Executive Board member Tony Hale will headline TRAA’s September Meeting. Daniel will talk about new nominees to the CSB, and Tony will discuss the upcoming Torrance elections and candidates. They will be available to answer questions.
Dr. Daniel Horowitz is an organic chemist and former Managing Director of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board. Dr. Horowitz recently wrote the compelling opinion piece for The New York Times:
This Chemical Kills. Why Aren’t Regulators Banning It?
Professional political consultant living in Redondo Beach, Tony Hale serves as an Executive Board member of the California Democratic Party for the 66th Assembly District. He is also the Chair of the Resolutions Committee of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party.
(click speakers’ names above to see their bios)
Dr. Daniel Horowitz and Tony Hale have graciously accepted an invitation to open TRAA’s September monthly Zoom meeting. Daniel will talk about new nominees to the CSB, and Tony will discuss the upcoming Torrance elections and candidates. They will be available to answer questions.
To attend the virtual meeting, RSVP with an e-mail request for a Zoom link to TRAA President Steven Goldsmith at info@TRAA.website.
We at the Torrance Refinery Action Alliance (TRAA) have only one mission and that is to see the Torrance and Valero refineries replace hydrofluoric acid (HF/MHF) with a safer chemical, one that will not threaten our communities. We believe Governor Newsom is the best candidate for achieving our mission.
The governor makes important appointments to regulatory boards. His appointments to the Cal-EPA, California Air Resources Board and the Southern California Air Quality Management District (AQMD) are of particular importance to TRAA.
Recently Governor Newsom appointed someone we believe is a champion for our cause. We’ve met with him and he gets it. We didn’t need to explain the danger posed by HF to him, as we usually must do with appointees and elected officials. He was well versed in the danger before he came into the Zoom room. He’s worked on environmental issues for a long time.
So, for us the choice is clear, and we ask our supporters to VOTE NO ON THE RECALL in order to retain Governor Gavin Newsom. (Vote NO on question 1).
Read about Governor Gavin Newsom at his official website: https://www.gov.ca.gov/
Two years ago, ignoring staff warnings, the AQMD Board said they were okay with massive quantities of HF a short distance from where over a million people live, work, and play. Residents of the South Bay, Los Angeles, and Long Beach regions live with danger and under a cloud of fear. It doesn’t have to be this way. There are vastly safer, commercially available alternatives to HF. Find the link for speaking below.
Read what the South Coast Air Quality Management District Governing Board did two years ago on that fateful day Friday, September 6, 2019 in the Los Angeles Times article:
Torrance Refinery Action Alliance 