NEEDLESS RISK: OIL REFINERIES AND HAZARD REDUCTION

Across the country, petroleum refineries, chemical plants and other industrial facilities use and store large amounts of hazardous chemicals that could be released in the event of an accident or terrorist attack. Such releases could endanger thousands or even millions of people who live in communities in close proximity to these facilities. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 106 facilities would each endanger at least one million people in the event of a worst-case chemical release. Another 3,000 facilities would endanger at least 10,000 people. Nearly 5,000 facilities store more than 100,000 pounds of at least one EPAclassified “extremely hazardous substance.”

Many of these facilities, however, present an unnecessary risk to their surrounding communities. Industries often have multiple options for carrying out similar processes, and some of these options are inherently safer than others. Facilities that use fewer or smaller quantities of hazardous chemicals, or even make changes to storage pressure or other processes, can eliminate the possibility of on-site chemical accidents and make themselves less appealing terrorist targets.

Petroleum refineries stand as a stark example of the needless risk posed by such facilities in the event of an attack or accident as well as the opportunity to mitigate this risk by using safer alternatives to toxic chemicals.

Many petroleum refineries use hydrofluoric acid in their processing, which poses a great public safety risk both because of its extreme toxicity to humans as well as its propensity to form a toxic aerosol cloud when released. A catastrophic event at one of these facilities could cause a potentially lethal release of hydrofluoric acid, forming a stable aerosol cloud above the facility and surrounding neighborhoods. Exposure to hydrofluoric acid results in devastating burns, and pain associated with the exposure may be delayed for up to 24 hours. If the burn is not addressed, tissue destruction may continue for days. Inhalation of fumes can cause symptoms ranging from severe throat irritation to pulmonary edema.

To estimate the number of Americans at needless risk of exposure to hydrofluoric acid in the event of a catastrophic accident or terrorist attack at a petroleum refinery, we examined the Risk Management Plans submitted by oil refineries to EPA. These plans estimate how far a chemical could travel off-site in the event of a release and report the number of people living within the “vulnerability zone,” the area potentially affected by the release. Based on this data, we found that petroleum refineries using hydrofluoric acid endanger millions of people.