The explosion and the fire of several hours at the Chevron refinery Thursday evening in the El Segundo communities deeply upset in the bay of South.
The explosion sent shock waves in the refinery field, injuring at least one worker and shaking residents up to a mile distance. A 100 feet high fire pillar throws orange glow on the night sky. And imposing plumes of smoke and acrus ord people were dripping east with the land winds.
While local regulators investigate the fire, environmental defenders deplore that federal security agencies will probably not join the effort to find the cause of Thursday’s explosion – perhaps preventing dangerous chemical versions similar to the future. The incident was one of the most perilous events of the 114th anniversary of the history of the refinery, adding to a long list of environmental and security violations, according to the public archives examined by the Times.
Most members of professional security and health staff, the federal agency responsible for investigating labor security, does not work due to the current federal closure. The American Commission for Chemical Safety and Risk Aplimate, which determines the deep causes of dangerous chemical versions, is also on leave and could lose its funding due to the budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration.
“The Trump administration has funded the chemical security committee, and the federal government is closed at the moment,” said Joe Lyou, a nearby Hawthorne resident and president of the Clean Air coalition, a non -profit organization on a state scale. “So there is a very good possibility that we will never know what has really caused this, because the experts to understand this thing are no longer there to do it.”
Without clear answers, unions fear that a similar disaster will endanger thousands of workers from 15 California refineries, which are mainly grouped in southern California and the bay region.
“Companies make billions of profits and always make almost impossible to ensure that we are safe from terrible disasters,” said Joe Uehlein, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Work Network for Sustainability. “In California, we have seen horrible injuries to workers and tens of thousands of residents had to consult medical care in refinery accidents. This time we were lucky. ”
The chemical security committee has identified the causes of dozens of refinery incidents on its history, including the 2015 explosion at the Torrance Exxonmobil refinery which injured at least two workers.
In this incident, the investigation of the Board of Directors revealed multiple security failures, including a seriously eroded security valve which allowed flammable gases to infiltrate dangerously in unwanted areas. The board also discovered that a large piece of debris has almost struck a tank of hydrofluoric acid, which could have caused a fatal release of the highly toxic chemical, leading to the pressure of stopping using the chemical.
But, for the explosion of the Chevron refinery, there is no guarantee that such an investigation will take place. The Trump administration proposed to eliminate the budget of the Board of Directors of Chemical Security This exercise, from October 1, at the sunset of the 27 -year -old federal agency. Environmental defenders say it is a mistake.
“They undermine our ability to prevent these accidents by removing the mechanisms of responsibility in the federal government,” said Lyou. “It is a huge concern. It is not politics. Democrats and Republicans live around the Chevron refinery, and they both want to make sure that the refinery works safely.”
In the absence of federal regulators, the Air Quality Management District of the South Coast survey the potential violations of air quality rules and permit conditions. The refinery will also be required to submit a report analyzing the potential causes and equipment failures within 30 days.
Until now, the air district has said that the fire was native to the ISOMAX hydocraction unit of the refinery, which uses hydrogen to refine oil in jet fuel and diesel. Air monitors of the refinery detected a peak in airborne chemicals after the fire broke out, but managers of the air district say that the conditions have returned to normal levels after a few hours.
Environmental defenders say that the extent of the benefits may not be known as long as there is no more important examination of air quality monitors.
“I was very surprised that the air district said that they did not see terribly high levels of pollution,” said Julia May, a main scientist for non -profit communities based in California for a better environment. “Sometimes, in a large refinery fire like this, he goes up right away. But then smoke falls into other fields. And it is a lot of pollution that happens somewhere.”
The installation of Chevron had been quoted several times for violations of the environment and security, according to local and federal files.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District issued 13 opinions of violations in the last 12 months and 46 in the last five years. More recently, on September 22, air district cited the installation of a large chemical leak and not to keep its equipment in appropriate operating condition.
In August, the representatives of Chevron had also asked the air district of leniency in the assessment of compliance with the rules of air quality while he worked to eliminate unwanted accumulation inside his stove tubes – the conditions that said risky to overheat and potentially fail.
The OSHA files show that the agency has carried out at least 15 inspections at the Chevron refinery in El Segundo in the last decade, identifying 17 violations.
In September 2023, the OSHA issued quotes linked to the prevention requirements of heat disease, railing of the ride and a non-examination of an analysis of in-depth risks-an internal evaluation intended to control fires, explosions and chemical versions.
In October 2022, after having carried out a planned inspection of the Chevron refinery, the OSHA files show that the agency identified a “serious” violation of an agency standard forcing employers to “develop, implement and maintain safe work practices to prevent or control dangers”, such as leaks, spills, liberals and discharges; And control entry into dangerous work areas.
When the government is closed, it is not clear if the OSHA staff will investigate the fire of Thursday’s refinery. A telephone number of the OSHA media office went directly to a registered message indicating that the line is not monitored and “due to a loss of funding, certain government activities have been suspended and I am unable to respond to your message at the moment”.
For some environmentalists, the fire of the Chevron refinery underlined why it is necessary to move away completely from the fossil fuels.
“They (refineries) have excellent workers and excellent fire services to respond, but it is an intrinsically dangerous operation that manages hundreds of thousands of barrels per day of high -temperature and high pressure explosive materials,” said May, the main scientist for communities for a better environment.
“When something is wrong, you can have a flight fire. They did an excellent job to control it. But do we really want old-fashioned dirty energy in our communities? ”
