Eleven years after a refinery blast rattled homes across the South Bay, the same controversial chemical at the heart of that near miss is still in use, and Torrance leaders say they have had enough. The target is modified hydrofluoric acid, or MHF, which activists describe as a ground-hugging, flesh-eating vapor that can travel for miles and cause deep tissue and lung damage. The anniversary has ramped up pressure on regulators and refinery owners to swap out MHF-based alkylation units for safer technologies.
In a Facebook reel, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn did not mince words, warning that “MHF is simply too dangerous to use” and calling it a “flesh eating, low crawling, toxic vapor cloud.” Her remarks came during an 11th anniversary teach in marking the Feb. 18, 2015 explosion, an event the Los Angeles Times revisited this week.
The 2015 Near Miss That Still Haunts Torrance
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board investigation found that debris from the Feb. 18, 2015 blast struck scaffolding near the refinery’s alkylation unit and came dangerously close to a tank holding tens of thousands of pounds of modified hydrofluoric acid. It was a scenario that “could have been far worse,” according to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board. Investigators cited multiple process safety management failures and warned that a release of HF or MHF would likely form a dense, ground hugging cloud capable of causing severe burns and respiratory collapse.
Why MHF Terrifies Activists
Hydrofluoric acid, and the “modified” version refineries insist is safer, reacts with moisture to create a low lying vapor that can dissolve tissue and fat and fatally damage lungs, the Natural Resources Defense Council warns. Local regulators point out that only two Southern California refineries, the Torrance plant and Valero’s Wilmington refinery, rely on MHF. Both facilities submitted voluntary safety proffer letters to the South Coast AQMD when the agency reviewed refinery controls in recent years…