Backs Residents : State Enters Fight Over Power Plant

State Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp, saying the case presents “a significant issue of concern to the people of California,” has sided with a homeowners’ group fighting a controversial power plant under construction in Santa Clarita by Arco Oil and Gas Co.

The intervention by the attorney general pits the state against the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, which awarded Tenneco Oil Co. permits to build the plant in December, 1987. The project has been continued by Arco, which purchased Tenneco last year.

The Placerita Canyon Property Owners Assn. maintains that the supervisors should have ordered Tenneco to prepare an environmental impact report on the $35-million project. The association sued, but Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Miriam A. Vogel ruled in the company’s favor in February, 1988.

Ruling Appealed

At the request of the association, which is appealing the ruling, Van de Kamp asked the state Court of Appeal to let his office file a friend-of-the-court brief on the group’s behalf. Judge Mildred L. Lillie granted the attorney general’s request Friday. Michael McEntee, attorney for the property owners, said he learned of the judge’s ruling Tuesday.

The property owners and the Santa Clarita City Council fear the plant will pollute ground water and air in the Santa Clarita Valley. The council unsuccessfully tried for more than a year to scuttle the plant through litigation of its own.

In its brief, the state repeats some of the original arguments made by the property owners. Deputy Atty. Gen. Susan L. Goodkin said the California Environmental Quality Act clearly required an EIR for the project. She said the case has widespread importance because it addresses how local governments comply with the state law.

Goodkin said the South Coast Air Quality Management District predicted that the plant would cause significant pollution in certain weather conditions. “Nevertheless,” she wrote, “the board never carried out its own study of the local air impacts . . . prior to approving the project.”

McEntee said the property owners have won a powerful ally in the attorney general. But Albert Greenstein, an Arco spokesman, said the state merely repeats arguments the judge rejected last year.

Arco and the property owners had been negotiating a possible settlement, but the negotiations ended before the state became involved, McEntee said. Santa Clarita City Manager George Caravalho said the city is still negotiating with Arco to develop measures that would relieve the city’s concerns about the project.

The power plant is at Placerita Canyon Road and Sierra Highway in Newhall. The company plans to inject steam into the ground to liquefy and force to the surface about 30 million barrels of oil from an old oil field. The steam will also turn turbines to produce electricity. Electricity sales alone will produce an estimated $102 million, Arco officials predict.