At least 33 fires, explosions and chemical releases at U.S. oil refineries and industrial plants have occurred in the last year as the Environmental Protection Agency delayed updating a Chemical Disaster Rule intended to stop many of those accidents from occurring, a coalition of environmental groups said in a report released Tuesday.

Titled “A Disaster in the Making,” the report is intended to illustrate how inadequate safety measures can threaten public health, said the group of 10 environmental organizations across the country that sponsored the report, including California Communities Against Toxics and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“The Chemical Disaster Rule includes much-needed improvements to the EPA’s Clean Air Act Risk Management Program and would prevent and reduce chemical disasters, hazardous releases and resulting chemical exposures, while strengthening emergency preparedness and coordination with local first responders,” the groups said in a news release accompanying the report.

“When developing the rule, the EPA determined that prior protections failed to prevent over 2,200 chemical accidents around the country during a 10-year period, including about 150 incidents per year that caused reportable harm.”

Three of those 33 accidents cited in the report, including two on the same day last summer, happened in the South Bay:

A failed temporary pump was believed to have caused a “forceful” fire Oct. 17 at the Chevron El Segundo Refinery that prompted authorities to issue a shelter in place order as 40-foot-high, oil-fueled flames spewed thick back smoke into the air. The fire was extinguished in about an hour, preventing two large tanks nearby from overheating.

A hazardous release of at least 100 pounds of potentially lethal and flammable hydrogen sulfide and a leak of 42 gallons of a chemical called diethanolamine occurred June 26 at the Tesoro Refinery in Wilmington.

Three separate unplanned flaring events occurred within 24 hours and a 30-gallon crude oil spill occurred June 26 from a pipeline at the Torrance refinery owned by PBF Energy.

The report was issued the same day the Torrance Refinery Action Alliance sent a letter to the EPA asking why the agency has failed to enforce findings outlined in a report last March that found “serious and ongoing violations” of federal environmental law in the plant’s RMP that significantly underestimates the severity of a major release of highly toxic hydrofluoric acid on surrounding neighborhoods.

The EPA said the RMP endpoint for a ground-hugging cloud of HF was 3.2 miles, a figure the agency found had “no clear basis; the TRAA says the correct endpoint should be more like 16 miles, which would put significantly more people at risk of death or injury in the surrounding densely populated neighborhoods. The RMP for Wilmington’s Valero plant, the only other one in the state to use HF, also understates the size of the toxic cloud that could be released, the TRAA contended.

The letter was co-signed by eight other environmental organizations.

Moreover, the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s Refinery Committee is scheduled to meet April 28 in Torrance to discuss a new rule that could call for the phase-out of HF locally. The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. at City Hall, 3031 Torrance Blvd.

If the committee agrees with the ban, a recommendation to adopt it will be forwarded to the district’s governing board.

The Carson City Council also was scheduled Tuesday evening to discuss endorsing the proposed HF phase-out.

The current public debate over the risks associated with HF were triggered by a Feb. 2015 explosion at the Torrance refinery the federal government said almost caused a catastrophic release of HF that could have killed or injured thousands.