House Panel OKs Funds for 1st Leg of Metro Rail

A key House committee Thursday approved a $130-million appropriation to build the first leg of the Los Angeles Metro Rail subway, but an amendment to the funding bill cast new doubt on the next phase of the embattled project by calling for a rerouting to avoid potential underground gas hazards in the Fairfax area.

Despite the amendment, the measure appears headed for a fight over safety issues when it reaches the full House, possibly next week.

In an unsuccessful last-minute effort to win back the support of Westside Rep. Henry A. Waxman, who has threatened to oppose funding for the subway because of concerns about tunneling through hazardous methane gas pockets, the funding bill was amended on a motion by Rep. Julian C. Dixon (D-Los Angeles). The amendment would require studies of alternative routes to steer the rail line clear of the Fairfax area, where an explosion of natural gas pockets below a clothing store last March ripped through the store and injured 21 people.

“The issue of safety I don’t think has been resolved. Let’s take the issue of safety off the table by not drilling in this area,” Dixon told the House committee on appropriations. Dixon, a committee member and a leading supporter of the subway project, said his amendment would essentially reopen the question of routing on the Westside. The amendment directs the federal Urban Mass Transit Authority to contract with the Southern California Rapid Transit District, which would build and operate the subway, to study alternative routes “to avoid penetrating” a 400-block area identified as potentially hazardous by a city task force that investigated the clothing store blast.

Dixon, who as both a Waxman ally and a key proponent of the project is in the middle of the safety dispute, said his amendment, which was endorsed by RTD officials, does not suggest that the subway could not be built safely through the Fairfax area. He said it merely recognizes that because of concerns expressed by Waxman and others “at this 11th hour the reasonable thing to do is avoid those areas altogether. . . . My intent today and on the floor will be to keep the Metro Rail project going,” Dixon said.

But after the committee vote, Waxman, a past supporter of the project whose district includes much of the proposed route, said he is not satisfied, citing what he called insufficient safety assurances. Control language submitted with the amendment said the study should assess the relative risks associated with various construction alternatives and alignments in an area bordered by Western Avenue on the east, La Cienega Boulevard on the west, Olympic Boulevard on the south and Hollywood Boulevard on the north.

The study area includes the potentially hazardous zone and Waxman noted that RTD officials have strongly maintained that the existing route is safe. “Suppose for some reason they still want to go up Fairfax. . . . There’s nothing enforcing them. They don’t have to make the change at all. All they have to do is study the plan,” he said. “It does not assure us of anything at all. I feel they are trying to finesse me and the issue to get funding.”

Opposed as Too Costly

Ralph Stanley, administrator of federal transit authority, which is opposing the project as too costly, also said the language does not appear to require the route to be changed.

If the question of the route is reopened, it could trigger a new round of environmental hearings and political struggles by neighborhood groups and elected officials. For example, Rep. Edward R. Roybal (D-Los Angeles) told the Appropriations Committee that he welcomed studying alternative routes because he believes that the subway should go east out of downtown Los Angeles rather than along the Wilshire Corridor.

Ready to Start Work

The funding bill, an $11-billion transportation package, is expected to go to the full House next week. It would allocate $130 million for the first 4.4-mile section of the $3.3-billion downtown-to-North Hollywood rail line and includes language that would earmark more than $400 million needed to complete the first phase.

When the bill comes to the floor, Waxman said, he will offer amendments to restrict disbursement of all funds for the project until a new Westside alignment is designated and an independent study on the safety of the tunneling plan for the first phase is completed.

But supporters of the project say the safety issues have been adequately considered. And privately they note that they are ready to begin construction. Congressional funding authorizations are only good for one year, and the fear is that a new study of the first leg could become bogged down and require another battle to get the funds re-authorized.

Stanley said he could “not in good conscience” issue a funding contract for the first leg of the subway if there is any question about the ultimate route.

Waxman warned that he will seek deletion of all Metro Rail funds by the full House if he is not given assurances that supporters of the project will not attempt to remove his proposed conditions when the bill goes to a House-Senate conference committee.

How successful he would be is unclear. Some congressional sources say Waxman has failed to convince even some of his closest allies, such as Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica), to join him in restricting funds. But others note that Waxman is respected among Democrats. There is also fear that with Waxman and Rep. Bobbi Fiedler (R-Northridge), a longtime Metro Rail foe, both arguing against the project it could raise enough questions to erode support among congressman from other states.

“They’ll say why should we go to all this trouble (when) we’re depriving all these other cities of funds,” said one congressional staff source familiar with the project.

RTD officials said construction on the line could begin early next year if the funding bill makes it through the House and Senate and is signed by the President. However, the Reagan Administration has strongly opposed the bill, and there may be resistance to it in the Republican-controlled Senate, which is voicing concern about the deficit, despite bipartisan support from California’s Sens. Alan Cranston and Pete Wilson.