In The News

Toxic Clouds on the Horizon; The HF Threat Continues

On May 4, 2021, another refinery suffered a leakage of highly toxic hydrogen fluoride (HF). This time it was the Marathon Petroleum Corporation’s Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas, 41 miles south of Houston.

HF Release Test in the Nevada Desert

by Environmental Journalist Isabelle Jeng

If you think a leak at a refinery in Texas doesn’t concern you, think again. If you live, go to school or work in southern Los Angeles County, you are among the millions at risk of serious injury from hydrofluoric acid (HF), which is used to make high-octane gasoline. If you’re within six miles of the Torrance refinery or the Valero refinery in Wilmington, you are among the tens of thousands who risk death from a large release of this chemical. . . .

Click to read Isabelle Jeng‘s full article in “Foggy View News” of the Palos Verdes – South Bay Sierra Club website.

Safer and More Efficient Alkylation Process Now at Commercial Scale

CHEVRON and Honeywell have started commercial operation of a new alkylation process at Chevron’s Salt Lake City refinery using an ionic liquid catalyst that is vastly safer and more efficient than the HF alkylation process it replaces

Chevron’s Salt Lake City refinery is world’s first commercial-scale process unit using ISOALKY technology to produce ionic liquid-based alkylate for higher octane motor fuels. (Photo from The Chemical Engineer)

Article by Amanda Doyle in The Chemical Engineer

Alkylation combines light olefins such as butylene with isobutane to create a high-octane blending component that can be used to produce high-octane gasoline. . . . The ISOALKY process was proven in the US at a demonstration unit at Chevron’s Salt Lake City refinery for five years. Work began on converting Chevron’s hydrofluoric acid (HF) alkylation unit in Salt Lake City to ISOALKY technology in 2017. The commercial-scale unit has now become operational. . . .

Click to read Amanda Doyle’s full article in The Chemical Engineer.

Read about Chevron & Honeywell’s ISOALKY Process and watch an informative video by clicking here.

Gov. Whitman, Retired Generals Call on EPA to Protect Against Chemical Plant Disasters

Today, former EPA administrator and New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman, retired generals Russel Honoré and Randy Manner, former EPA official Robert Bostock, and David Halperin, submitted a comment to the Environmental Protection Agency urging it to strengthen rules to make U.S. chemical plants less vulnerable to potentially catastrophic explosions and toxic releases.

The authors begin: “We believe the requirements of U.S. national security make it urgent that EPA move to issue new, strong Risk Management Plan (RMP) rules that adequately protect the American people against chemical plant explosions. Millions of Americans, particularly low-income people and people of color, live near hazardous chemical facilities. Accidents, storms that have been intensified by climate change, and deliberate attacks, including terrorism and cyber attacks, all pose risks of chemical explosions that could cause widespread destruction and death. 

Christine Todd Whitman
Former EPA administrator and New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman
“EPA should restore and build on its 2017 rule, including by:
  • requiring all RMP facilities to assess safer alternatives to existing chemical processes;
     
  • requiring all these facilities to share their safer technology analyses with communities and emergency responders; and,
     
  • starting with the highest risk facilities, requiring chemical facilities to substitute safer alternatives to their processes, wherever feasible, that will eliminate or significantly reduce the consequences of a catastrophic release.”

Continue Reading >

Free TRAA “Ban Toxic MHF” Lawn Sign

Show your support for TRAA’s efforts to making the South Bay and the nation a safer place to live.

Please provide your name and address where the sign will be delivered. One of our friendly volunteers will write back to verify your information and then bring the sign to you.

Go back

Your message has been sent

In The News

A list of “In The News” posts appear in the right-hand column of every webpage. Be instantly alerted via email when a new item is posted on “In The News” by entering your email address in the Follow “In The News” box that appears on every webpage. Subscribe to the TRAA Newsletter to stay up-to-date.

Continue reading “In The News”