Two contract workers injured after they are splashed with acid at the Tesoro Corp. refinery near Martinez, California

Two contractors doing maintenance work suffered burns when they were splashed with acid Monday at the Tesoro Corp. refinery near Martinez, an accident that occurred in the same processing unit where two workers were burned last month, officials said. Sulfuric acid spilled on the two workers at 10:50 a.m. in the latest incident at the Golden Eagle Refinery at 150 Solano Way, said a Contra Costa County hazardous materials specialist. Both workers were working protective garments, which spared them from serious injury, an official said. They were taken to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek with non-life-threatening injuries. A spokesman for Cal/OSHA, the state's worker safety regulatory agency, said the incident involved piping in the same unit where two workers were burned by acid Feb. 12. The pipes carrying sulfuric acid are involved in production of butylene, a chemical used to increase octane levels in gasoline. "The workers were performing maintenance on the unit when they were splashed with sulfuric acid," a spokesman said. State inspectors were being dispatched to the plant, he said. It was not immediately known what went wrong that resulted in the workers being splashed.