After Explosion and Fire, Clean Air Council Demands that PES Refinery Stop Using Toxic Hydrogen Fluoride and Calls on Chemical Safety Board to Investigate Immediately
(PHILADELPHIA, PA – June 21, 2019) On Friday, after a massive explosion and fires rocked the hydrogen fluoride alkylation unit at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) refinery in South Philadelphia, Clean Air Council called on the refinery to halt its use of the extremely hazardous chemical. The Council also sent a letter to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board to immediately begin an independent investigation of the conditions that led to this morning’s explosion and the fire on June 10 at the refinery.
Hydrogen fluoride is an extremely dangerous substance used at a handful of refineries to make high-octane gasoline. The United Steelworkers union has called for the phase-out of the use of hydrogen fluoride at refineries due to the grave danger it poses to refinery workers. A fire in a hydrogen fluoride alkylation unit at a Wisconsin refinery led to evacuations up to ten miles out. Nearly two million people live within ten miles of the PES refinery. Reports have not indicated that hydrogen fluoride was released during today’s explosion.
“Clean Air Council calls on PES to stop playing Russian Roulette with the lives of the refinery workers and all Philadelphia residents by storing and using hydrogen fluoride at the refinery,” said Joseph Otis Minott, Executive Director and Chief Counsel of Clean Air Council. “As disastrous as today’s explosion and fires at the refinery were, we should count our blessings that we narrowly missed a catastrophe of monumental proportions. The Chemical Safety Board should immediately launch an investigation to determine what problems at the refinery have caused there to be two serious fires just in the last two weeks.”
UPDATE: After receiving Clean Air Council’s request, the Chemical Safety Board has announced it is deploying a four-person team to investigate today’s PES explosion. “Clean Air Council applauds the swift action of the Chemical Safety Board in deploying an investigation team to the refinery,” said Joseph Otis Minott, Executive Director and Chief Counsel of Clean Air Council. “We look forward to a full airing of the facts so we can stop this kind of dangerous situation from threatening the safety of Philadelphia residents again.”
The Chemical Safety Board’s announcement is available here: https://www.csb.gov/chemical-safety-board-deploying-to-site-of-refinery-explosion-and-fire-outside-philadelphia-pa/.
