L.A. Might Go Ahead With Pipeline Study : Regulation: A full environmental report could delay Mobil’s plans for months.

In the face of opposition from neighborhood groups and public officials, Los Angeles officials are backing off from an earlier recommendation to exempt Mobil Oil’s plans to replace 75 miles of its aging and leaky pipeline from an environmental review.

Requiring such a review would delay the $75-million pipeline for months. The line runs from Kern County to the oil company’s refinery in Torrance, crossing Santa Clarita, Los Angeles, Culver City, Inglewood, Hawthorne and unincorporated portions of Los Angeles County.

Officials with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation have reversed field after previously recommending that no assessment of environmental impact was needed. A proposal to approve the project without an EIR was removed from today’s agenda of the Los Angeles transportation board.

The department “is moving toward a recommendation that a full EIR be performed,” Bruce Fredrickson, principal senior engineer for the board, said Wednesday. “A final decision on the recommendation will be made later this week after meeting with Mobil and the city attorney.”

Mobil spokesman Jim Carbonetti said the corporation was resigned to the prospect of an extensive review.

“If we have to have an EIR, we have to have an EIR,” Carbonetti said. “So be it.”

The push for the report came first from Los Angeles neighborhood groups, followed by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude and state Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the state Senate’s Committee on Toxics and Public Safety Management.

Those seeking the move have argued that federal law requires an EIR for a project as large as the proposed pipeline. In addition, they say the pipeline may lead to increased air pollution if Mobil expands its refinery operations.

Some add that more restrictions on construction are needed to reduce traffic jams in the San Fernando Valley, the Westside and the South Bay that the massive project will cause.

Don Schultz, a board member of the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn., attacked the Department of Transportation’s previous position as not going “far enough in addressing the realities of a project that will gridlock major arterial streets in the San Fernando Valley.”

Torres, in a letter to city transportation officials, said more information was needed on the amount and quality of crude oil that would be pumped through the pipeline in order to assess the impact of a larger line on air pollution.

Mobil officials say that the new pipeline will be able to carry much more than the 63,000 barrels a day currently pumped through the existing pipeline but add that they have no plans to expand refinery operations.

In Torrance, where Mobil’s refinery is located, Mayor Katy Geissert said that “important environmental concerns” will need to be addressed when Mobil seeks a permit application for the segment that runs through her city.

In Hawthorne, City Engineer Jim Mitsch said he had intended to exempt Mobil from any environmental review if Los Angeles did. But upon learning that Los Angeles was reconsidering, Mitsch said he too might reconsider.

Mobil’s project was proposed after state fire safety officials voiced concern about corrosion in the pipeline, which carries heated crude oil at pressures up to 1,300 pounds per square inch from oil fields in Kern County to the refinery in Torrance.

The line has been plagued by a series of recent leaks, including two back-to-back breaks last year.