Air quality regulators on Wednesday are scheduled to discuss an order requiring the owners of the Torrance Refinery to improve its electrical system after at least three power outages in the last year caused excessive flaring that sent thick black smoke belching across the city.
The enforcement hearing hosted by the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s independent Hearing Board is set to begin at 9 a.m. in Diamond Bar. The meeting will also be streamed at www.aqmd.gov/home/library/webcasts.
In addition, the AQMD on Thursday will discuss a variance refinery owners PBF Energy are seeking to suspend some regulatory conditions and other requirements while the company repairs a boiler used in manufacturing gasoline.
The boiler is designated as an air pollution control device — although in practice that is not its function — so if it is shut down and bypassed while repairs are made the refinery is technically in violation of its operating permit.
The issue is expected to take several weeks to fix.
‘High number of flaring events’
Regulators first announced in October they intended to seek a stipulated abatement order to force the refinery to improve the sturdiness of its electrical infrastructure because of the “unacceptably high number of flaring events” since PBF took over the operation of the plant last year.
“Since the improvement of electrical power reliability both outside and inside the refinery is a complex challenge, the proposed order will likely call for the refinery to evaluate several specific modifications and implement them if warranted by the evaluation,” AQMD spokesman Sam Atwood said via email. “The order will also likely set a time frame — such as six months — for the refinery to return to the Hearing Board to report on whether these specific modifications would improve power reliability.”
AQMD officials cited at least three flaring incidents associated with power outages since last March to justify seeking the tighter regulatory requirements:
• Last March a mylar balloon came into contact with a Southern California Edison transmission line causing a “system disruption” that led to flaring.
• Last September another power supply interruption caused in part by heavy fog cut power to the refinery as well as to 57,582 Edison customers in Gardena, Inglewood, Hawthorne and parts of Los Angeles.
• Last October yet another outage left the refinery without power for 24 minutes as well as 100,000 Edison customers in the South Bay. The outage caused massive flaring visible for miles, increased air pollution and prompted a “shelter in place” order for Torrance residents that lasted 30 minutes.
Additional measures needed
That final incident led the AQMD to brand the refinery a public nuisance for its continual violations of district rules and health and safety codes.
Edison and PBF are engaged in an “unprecedented degree of cooperation” to solve an issue the AQMD believes is likely to reoccur without additional measures taken.
The AQMD wants to see improvements to power distribution, electrical infrastructure and monitoring.
The action comes just days before a scheduled 10 a.m. Columbia Park rally and march to the refinery organized by the Torrance Refinery Action Alliance on the two-year anniversary of a near-catastrophic release of highly-toxic acid from the refinery.
The release could have killed or injured thousands.
The explosion that caused the near-disaster has prompted the AQMD to explore an outright ban on the acid, which is only used by two South Bay refineries and no others in the state.
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