50 sites use Highly Toxic Hydrofluoric Acid

[Guest guest]

Study: Refineries put millions of people at risk50 sites, including 12 in Texas,

use toxic acid; they're called 'sitting ducks' for terrorism.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/08/5refineries.html

 

By Julia Malone

 

WASHINGTON BUREAU

 

Friday, August 05, 2005

 

WASHINGTON — Fifty oil refineries across the country — including a dozen in

Texas — are putting millions of Americans at unnecessary risk by using highly

toxic hydrofluoric acid, an activist group said Thursday.

 

" Safer technologies exist, but industry has failed, despite relatively simple

solutions, to make any effort to take the public out of harm's way, " said Meghan

Purvis, co-author of a study released by the U.S. Public Interest Research

Group, an organization that campaigns on environmental and consumer issues.

 

Oil refineries and other chemical facilities that keep such toxic materials " are

sitting ducks " for possible terrorist attacks, Purvis said.

 

Hydrofluoric acid becomes volatile at relatively cool temperatures of just 67

degrees. If a container is punctured, it can form a potentially deadly plume.

Exposure to hydrofluoric acid can result in devastating burns.

 

The report uses Environmental Protection Agency data to show that more than 17

million Americans in 20 states live near such oil refineries.

 

Texas has by far the most refineries using hydrofluoric acid to boostthe octane

level for premium gasoline. The report estimated that more than 1.9 million

Texans living near such refineries could be at risk.

 

Of the 27 oil refineries in Texas, 12 use hydrofluoric acid. Corpus Christi

alone has four refineries that use the toxic material, the most of any community

in the nation.

 

Among several incidents in recent years, the report cited a 1987 accident at

Marathon Oil Co.'s refinery in Texas City that released 30,000 pounds of

hydrofluoric acid, sending more than 1,000 people to the hospital and forcing

the evacuation of 3,000 area residents. " The only thing that saved people was

that the plume shot 200 feet up in the air, " the report quotes Ronald Koopman of

the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as saying. " If it had squirted out

sideways, it would have killed hundreds, if not thousands. "

 

The study urged a switch to sulfuric acid, which it says would pose less of a

danger since it would leak as a liquid rather than an aerosol cloud, making it

easier to contain. It said that almost two-thirds of all U.S. oil refineries now

use safer methods, including sulfuric acid, to raise octane levels. For example,

California has 21 oil refineries, but only two use hydrofluoric acid, it said.

 

Responding to the report, Lou Hayden of the American Petroleum Institute said it

exaggerates the dangers of hydrofluoric acid by failing to acknowledge federal

safety requirements already in effect to limit the risks from a possible release

of the acid, including water systems to dilute a toxic plume.

 

Moreover, Hayden said that refineries have updated their safety procedures and

emergency response plans to meet federal EPA standards and, in many cases, new

maritime security laws regulated by the U.S. Coast Guard.

 

Hayden said that a refinery's decision to use sulfuric acid is usually based on

the kind of products a plant is making or on state or local laws.

 

" I think some have switched because of market reasons, " Hayden said, adding that

he knew of none that switched to the sulfuric acid process out of security

concerns.

 

Environmental groups are urging the federal government to require chemical

plants to switch to safer materials when it is technically feasible.

 

But Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told a House hearing last

month: " I don't think anybody has yet established that the appropriate way to

deal with chemical security is to get into the process of making people switch

chemicals. "

 

 

 

" Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit

are like men who are so afraid of being murdered

that they commit suicide to avoid assassination. "

President Harry S. Truman