PA Environment Digest Blog: Clean Air Council, NRDC Sue EPA Over Toxic Refinery Chemical That Threatens Fenceline Communities

On July 9, community and environmental groups announced they filed suit to force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to address the threat of the unnecessary and dangerous hydrogen fluoride chemical used in dozens of American refineries, despite its potential to form toxic acid clouds.

The groups include the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council, Communities for a Better Environment in Wilmington and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The groups filed the suit after the EPA rejected their petition to address the needless risks from use of hydrogen fluoride (HF)—an extremely corrosive chemical that, if released to the air, can form a lethal, ground-hugging plume that can travel for miles, causing severe injury or death to anyone in its path.

The chemical is still being used in refineries around the country, including at the Torrance and Wilmington refineries in the Los Angeles area and the Trainer refinery south of Philadelphia, putting millions at risk of exposure.

More than forty oil refineries across the country—currently owned by companies including ExxonMobil, Marathon, Valero, and Delta Airlines, among others—use HF.

Several refineries across the country have started to replace HF with safer commercial-scale alternatives.

HF can dissolve skin, muscle, and bone, disrupt essential bodily functions, and kill or permanently disable people who inhale or touch it.

HF endangers not only people near the refineries, but also those along train and truck routes used to transport the corrosive chemical.

The groups’ petition to EPA highlighted the horrific risks associated with a potential release of HF. It also discussed numerous near-miss incidents, some of which narrowly avoided exposing tens of thousands of people to the chemical.

The federal government and oil industry have known for decades that a dense, ground-hugging cloud tends to spread from an HF release into the air.

This propensity to form clouds makes HF harder to contain, and more dangerous, than alternative chemicals used in other refineries around the United States.

Exposure to as little as 1 percent of one’s skin (about the size of one’s hand) to liquid HF can cause fatal injury because of how easily the chemical penetrates the skin and disrupts vital functions.

Inhaling HF vapor or aerosols (small airborne droplets)—the most likely way people would be exposed if there were a major release—can also be deadly, causing people to drown in their own bodily fluids.

The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California by Clean Air Council Communities for a Better Environment, and Natural Resources Defense Council.

The groups have developed materials to inform the public if they live near a refinery using HF, and have included other information about each facility, such as its parent company, safety measures in place (or missing), and the number of people it puts at risk.

If the case prevails, the Court will order EPA to develop a regulation to eliminate unreasonable risks from HF use at refineries.

“Needlessly risking release of this extremely hazardous chemical in our densely packed region where so many people could be injured or killed is reckless. All the other refineries in Pennsylvania manage to use safer alternatives,” said Alex Bomstein, Clean Air Council Executive Director. “The Philly refinery explosion in 2019 was a breath away from being a mass casualty incident due to HF. EPA needs to confront this risk, and we’re going to court to make sure it does.”

“HF is so dangerous, industrial safety experts have asked why it is still in use. LA County found the local refineries using it put millions at risk, so we are going to court to end this unnecessary and unnerving risk to the public,” said Alicia Rivera, Wilmington community organizer with Communities for a Better Environment. “Why should this hazard continue in a densely packed earthquake zone, even though all the other refineries in the state use far safer alternatives? This recklessness has got to stop.”

“Poison acid clouds engulfing refinery communities and transit corridors sounds like a horror movie, but it’s a real possibility as long as EPA refuses to engage,” said Matthew Tejada, senior vice president of Environmental Health at NRDC. “This is an unnecessary threat to the communities around dozens of refineries. Since the Agency won’t fix the situation, we are going to court to address it before people are hurt or killed. At a time when oil companies are making tens of billions of dollars every year in profit, the least they can do is adopt safer alternatives that better protect the communities near their facilities.”

More information can be found on NRDC’s Hydrogen Fluoride At Refineries webpage.

PA Oil & Gas Industry Public Notice Dashboards:

-- PA Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - July 5 to 11 - Shale Gas Wastewater, Fracking Chemicals Release; Water Pipeline Rupture; Crude Oil Spills; More Abandoned Wells [PaEN]

-- PA Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities: Permit Notices, Opportunities To Comment - July 12 [PaEN]

-- DEP Invites Comments On An Air Quality Permit For A Proposed 218 MW Natural Gas Power Plant For A Data Center In Bradford County; Site Originally Proposed For An LNG Gas Facility [PaEN]

-- DEP Posted 70 Pages Of Permit-Related Notices In July 12 PA Bulletin [PaEN]

Comments On DEP Oil & Gas Methane Emissions Reduction Plan:

-- Shale Gas Industry VP Attacks Credibility Of A Mom And Allegheny County Resident For Comments She Submitted In Support Of DEP Plan To Reduce Methane Emissions From The Oil & Gas Industry [PaEN]

-- PennLive Guest Essay: Why Pennsylvanians Must Speak Up For Reducing Oil & Gas Methane Emissions - Kim Anderson, Evangelical Environmental Network

-- Oil & Gas Methane Pollution Reduction Testimony: Patrice Tomcik, Mother, Butler County Resident And Moms Clean Air Force Member [PaEN]

-- Oil & Gas Methane Pollution Reduction Testimony: Kim Anderson, Evangelical Environmental Network - Rager Mountain Leak Of 1.1 Billion Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas [PaEN]

-- Oil & Gas Methane Pollution Reduction Testimony: Sarah Hertweck, Indiana Township Supervisor - ‘I See Up Close How Hobbled We Are By The State To Make The Best Choices For Our Community’ [PaEN]