Refinery Believed to Be the Source of Noxious Cloud

A foul-smelling, noxious cloud hung over much of the South Bay on Wednesday morning, triggering more than 1,000 complaints and sending nine people to hospitals with minor health problems.

Officials of two school districts kept children indoors and some employers let workers go home for the day.

Air quality officials said they suspect but have not proved that the Unocal oil refinery in Wilmington released the cloud, a distinctive white haze that hung over Torrance, Redondo Beach, Wilmington, Lomita and parts of the Palos Verdes Peninsula for at least two hours.

Unocal spokesman Barry Lane denied that the plant was responsible but acknowledged that equipment failed twice Wednesday morning, forcing the refinery to burn off excess gases and release hydrogen sulfide, which smells like rotten eggs.

A spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District said the agency would inspect Unocal and other refineries again today in an attempt to determine where the fumes came from.

Complaints first came in to police and fire department dispatchers about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday and jammed emergency switchboards in Torrance and Redondo Beach for about two hours.

Six people were treated for nausea, headaches and watery eyes at Torrance Memorial Hospital emergency room, according to spokeswoman Laurie Lundberg. All were released. Three employees of Phone Mate Inc. in Torrance were treated for the same symptoms and released from Little Company of Mary Hospital.

Another 20 of the company’s employees were sent home for the day with the same complaints, said Tak Suzuki, a vice president with the firm, which makes phone answering machines. A clerk at nearby Torrance Courthouse was also sent home for the day.

Several other employers reported minor health complaints but said their workers were able to stay on the job.

Officials in the Redondo Beach City School District canceled gym classes and other outdoor activities during the morning on the advice of the city’s Fire Department, according to Battalion Chief John McBride. Torrance Unified School District administrators said they gave similar advice to their schools.

“I really feel like I’m being poisoned,” said one office worker in Torrance as the cloud hovered for more than two hours under a heavy overcast. The smelly haze lifted late in the morning when winds finally began to blow, local officials said.

Inspectors from the Air Quality Management District checked the Mobil oil refinery in Torrance and two smaller area refineries but found no gas leaks, said AQMD spokesman Tom Eichhorn.

The hydrogen sulfide released by Unocal did not approach the 10 parts per million level that the federal government considers unsafe, Eichhorn said. In fact, the gas did not register on the air quality district’s reading devices, he said, but those are less sensitive than the human nose.

Inspectors usually use the wind to track fumes to their source, but Wednesday’s still air made that impossible, Eichhorn said. He said inspectors will return to the refinery today to examine records that might resolve the question.

Unocal spokesman Lane said that a compressor at the Wilmington refinery malfunctioned from midnight until 2 a.m. and again about 8 a.m. for less than an hour.

Because of the problem, the refinery automatically burned off into the atmosphere the propane, butane and methane that is normally compressed for reuse at the plant, Lane said. Hydrogen sulfide is also released during such a “flare.”

Lane said there is no evidence, however, that the malfunctions at the plant caused the cloud.

“There is a lot of speculation on this and I think it would be folly to get wrapped up in that,” Lane said.

Eichhorn said that the Unocal compressor malfunctions coincided with complaints to the Air Quality Management District.

“The bottom line is that we suspect the odor came from Unocal,” Eichhorn said. “We believe the circumstantial evidence points in that direction, but we can’t prove it.”

Records from the air quality district revealed no similar emissions from Unocal in the last three years.