At the end of a draining, daylong public hearing on restarting the ExxonMobil Torrance refinery earlier this month, two Torrance moms unexpectedly found themselves thrust into the middle of a debate over the excessive pollution expected from the operation.

Because of concerns over another explosion like the one that crippled the plant in February 2015, ExxonMobil was proposing to crank up the refinery without operating its emission-control equipment. And there would be little public notification.

Maureen Mauk and Catherine Leys were stunned.

This was a company that had caused the explosion in the first place by failing to fix equipment despite knowing it could cause a life-threatening blast, state and federal regulators had both concluded in separate investigations.

And now ExxonMobil executives were asking to spew hundreds of pounds of pollutants into the air for about six hours at a time of their own choosing.

So minutes before the South Coast Air Quality Management District Hearing Board voted to allow the company to resume gasoline refining at the plant, Mauk and Leys huddled with lawyers from the agency and company in an effort to reduce the community’s exposure to pollutants.

The pair managed to convince regulators to require the company to restart the refinery at night rather than when children were at school and give the community 48 hours notice, neither of which ExxonMobil had volunteered to do. Homes within a mile of the refinery also will receive direct notification in the form of a door hanger.

“It felt like a charade to the public,” Leys, a mother of two, said of the meeting and its outcome. “It was very eye-opening.

“It certainly didn’t feel like AQMD was representing the people and ensuring everything was safe; it seemed more like they were there working with ExxonMobil to get the refinery up and running,” she added. “We don’t really have a lot of balance. We have industry running the city; no one is stepping up for the public interest.”

So the two thought they should.

The result, just days later, was a group they dubbed South Bay FLARE: Families Lobbying Against Refinery Exposure, which is basically a Facebook page with educational resources on the issue that’s already reached thousands, in part, via several local mom groups. The group also has a new Twitter account: @SouthBayFLARE.

It’s the second local group to spring up in response to the explosion and what its members see as a lack of political will to regulate the refinery’s safe operation. The Torrance Refinery Action Alliance has primarily focused on the risks associated with hydrofluoric acid, which could create a toxic vapor that could potentially kill thousands.

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Mauk ripped the panel for its lack of leadership.

“What is the city doing to uphold the public trust?” she asked. “How many of you were at the AQMD meeting from beginning to end? I’ll tell you: none, and that is the problem.

“Why were concerned mothers brought into the mix by attorneys and refinery managers to determine school hours and Torrance Alerts (emergency) procedures at the 11th hour?” she added. “Where were our elected officials?”

It’s a question increasingly being asked of a panel seemingly reluctant to take action where ExxonMobil is concerned.

Torrance Unified School District board member Don Lee has suggested that potentially affected schools need to come up with a plan in case the refinery start-up overlaps with school hours or evening sports events.

“We don’t really have the plan yet, it’s being worked on,” Lee said via email last week. “It’s hard to do when ExxonMobil says it’s no problem and Torrance Fire Department follows the lead.

“ExxonMobil isn’t telling anybody anything,” he added. “We’re in the same boat as everybody else. We’re kind of waiting to see when it’s going to happen.”

That’s not what Leys wants to hear. She said kids at Anza Elementary School were outside at recess during the explosion playing in what they saw as “snow,” but was actually industrial debris.

ExxonMobil spokeswoman Gesuina Paras — who used to hold the same job with the city of Torrance — avoided answering a Daily Breeze inquiry Friday about when the restart would occur.

But while AQMD officials have said the dirtier-than-normal restart presents no significant health implications, those active with FLARE aren’t so sure.

Especially since the American Lung Association website says studies have concluded that even “short-term exposure to particle pollution can kill.

“Deaths can occur on the very day that particle levels are high, or within one to two months afterward,” its website reads. “Particle pollution does not just make people die a few days earlier than they might otherwise — these are deaths that would not have occurred if the air were cleaner.

“Particle pollution also diminishes lung function, causes greater use of asthma medications and increased rates of school absenteeism, emergency room visits and hospital admissions,” it added. “Other adverse effects can be coughing, wheezing, cardiac arrhythmias and heart attacks.”

Melanie Arvonio, a Hawthorne resident and mother of four home-schooled children, said she won’t hang around when the restart occurs. Her family plans to get out of the area.

Still, she has questions.

“How far away is far enough?” she asked. “How long (away) is long enough?

“There is no information,” she said. “My biggest concern is the lack of transparency. I would like to know what the actual risks are.”

Erin Shaw, who described herself as a “thoroughly freaked out” Torrance mother of two, has similar concerns.

Her family moved to what she saw as a family-oriented community in 2014. A refinery with safety and regulatory issues that’s one of only two in the state that uses highly toxic hydrofluoric acid — the other is in the Harbor Area —was “not part of the package,” Shaw said.

“I don’t want to be alone in this anger and this fear that I think some of us have,” she said of joining FLARE. “Quite frankly, it’s just good to talk to people about it who have the same feelings you have.

“I want there to be transparency,” she added. “I want people to know what’s going on, and, if people don’t like it, I want them to help us make it safer.”

The dearth of information and what FLARE sees as a failure of the regulatory system, compounded by a lack of representation and leadership from city officials, has become a familiar refrain.

Mauk is incredulous at the overarching concern city officials demonstrate on seemingly routine issues compared to their public stance on refinery risks.

“The city of Torrance spent over three years publicly debating and researching the issue of allowing residents to keep chickens in their yards, yet each of you up there are virtually mum on where you stand in regard to the oil refinery in our backyard,” she lectured the council Tuesday.

“I am here because I believe the citizens of Torrance deserve transparency and communication on ways to protect our families and children from the unmitigated excess pollution that is coming our way.”