GAS EXPLOSION RISK AT LA PORT - After seeing smoke rising from the area in 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo designated the Bay of San Pedro … “Bahia de los Humos y Fuegos” (Bay of Smokes and Fires). Apparently the pattern had already been set for the residents of San Pedro and the LA Harbor!
The painful story of the introduction of the massive Liquid Petroleum Gas facility (now Rancho LPG – operated by “Plains”) that continues to threaten the LA Harbor region extends back some 40 years now. No one will disagree that the facility should NOT have been located in the densely populated area where it exists today. Most, if not all, local officials will concur that the location is not suited for the type of extraordinary risk to population that the facility presents.
However, there continues to be an incredible degree of political “dance” performed by Government officials to find reasons and excuses designed to give cover to their continual unwillingness to initiate any real action to remove the risk and protect the unsuspecting public.
This debacle all began with very questionable motives back in the late 1960’s and early 70’s. The LPG facility development was encouraged by the City and Port of LA to optimize the company’s profitability by opening up the lucrative sea shipping opportunity at the port. However, the vulnerability of port assets from the voluminous hazardous storage tanks was a major point of contention. Operators instead, were encouraged by the Port to locate the 25 Million Gallon storage tanks on private property outside the port complex and nearer community residents in San Pedro.
The Port of LA’s Harbor Commissioner, Mr. Cho, was a shareholder in Petrolane LPG (operators at that time), and clearly there was a conflict of interest. Regardless, and more than likely as a result of this conflict (not knowing all these years later just how many officials may have had a stake in the company), the development moved forward expeditiously with the port facilitating the LPG’s sea transport by installing a pipeline from the massive offsite storage tanks to a port wharf for shipping.
The City and Port of LA further accommodated the installation of the LPG facility by a number of actions. The Port and City exempted the storage terminal from CEQA laws, LA City Fire and Building and Safety regulations, disregarded the extreme existing geologic and seismic conditions of the land, circumvented a proper Environmental Impact Review and its public hearings, AND avoided any risk analysis of the facility whatsoever. Any one of these examples would have more than likely prohibited the development.
In 1977, the Petrolane LPG operation received comprehensive news coverage by the LA Times. The news articles (as reported by Larry Pryor, Pulitzer prize winner and now Prof. at the USC School of Journalism) revealed the extreme hazards posed by the facility and the “curious” concessions made to accommodate the operators at the expense of public safety.
The articles were enough to generate the attention of the office of Governor Jerry Brown who requested a report on the installation of the facility. Later that year, the Public Utilities Commission issued a report on Petrolane that clearly identified obvious and flagrant omissions of concern to public safety, improper issuance of “exemptions”, and the deficiency of any singular oversight entity of the multiple responsible jurisdictional agencies.
The report makes a demand for the creation of a singular oversight agency for such extremely hazardous liquid energy gas facilities, a comprehensive risk analysis for the Petrolane LPG facility, as well as a liability insurance guarantee, and other recommendations that have never been complied with.
This report has been left “untouched” to gather dust on a shelf for over 35 years. The document was only made available to homeowners this year after numerous public record act requests to the Port. The PUC report confirms every accusation of improper and illegal citing of the facility leveled by local residents.
Despite the euphoria in discovering the existence of the report and its findings, the reaction from public officials has been tepid if not ambivalent. The expectation that Governor Brown would be outraged to find that his important report affecting the safety of thousands had been ignored, fell flat.
The 1977 Report was hand carried by LAUSD Superintendent Richard Vladovic to Brown’s staff member at a Los Angeles meeting. In following up on its status, homeowners were informed that it had apparently been lost.
Ultimately, the report was provided to staff member, Michael Picker, who responded after several weeks that the Governor was “not going to get involved”. Clearly, there is some power at play that is insulating this operation and eluding our understanding of “why”.
Meanwhile, the proper reportable EPA calculation from the rupture of a single 12.5 Million Gallon tank of Butane Gas establishes a 3 Miles, 28 Sq. Miles and 27,000 victim Worst Case Scenario from Rancho’s facility.
On March 8th of this year, a Rancho Liquid Petroleum Gas rail car collided with a big rig truck (see photo above) at the intersection of Westmont and Gaffey Sts. - directly in front of the Rancho terminal. Miraculously, there was no rupture of the rail car.
Just last Friday, July 27th, there was another small earthquake recorded on the Palos Verdes Fault (potential mag. 7.3) directly below the Rancho tanks built to a seismic substandard of 5.5 – 6.0. Just how long and how far out can that envelope be pushed? Why would the State, the City and all government officials choose to play a virtual game of Russian Roulette with its public and its international ports?
It’s time for the City and Port of LA to stop playing the role of Pontius Pilate in washing their hands of the actions that have so incredibly violated the public trust. It is only right that Los Angeles find the guts to resume their proper leadership role by removing this flagrant threat and restoring the protection of all Harbor area residents … before it is too late. We don’t care how they do it. We just want it done.
(Janet Gunter is a long time community activist and member of the San Pedro Peninsula Homeowners United Inc. Connie Rutter is a retired oil industry environmental consultant. The SPPHU was one of the litigants in the successful China Shipping lawsuit that was represented by the NRDC in 2001-2003 on the issue of air pollution and aesthetics. )
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 62
Pub: Aug 3, 2012