Hearings Set on Mobil Plan for Pipeline

An ambitious plan to build a 92-mile underground pipeline to carry heated crude oil through the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys to the Mobil Oil refinery in Torrance will be the subject of three public hearings this week on the project’s environmental impact report.

Mobil Oil Corp. plans to replace an aging pipeline, parts of it 55 years old, with a 16-inch-diameter line capable of carrying 95,000 barrels of crude each day from Lebec in Kern County to the refinery in Torrance.

Torrance officials say they are monitoring the project, particularly any changes it would create in the refinery’s operations.

The draft environmental impact report, released last month, said that despite the pipeline’s increased capacity, Mobil would continue to process about 120,000 barrels a day at the Torrance refinery.

The report said pipeline construction would create noise and cause unavoidable disruptions of traffic at major intersections along the route.

But the report said the new line would be safer than the deteriorating line it would replace, which ruptured two times within three weeks in 1988, spilling more than 130,000 gallons of oil in Encino and Sherman Oaks.

The first hearing will be held Monday at William S. Hart High School, 24825 N. Newhall Ave., in Santa Clarita. Fulton Junior High School, at 7477 Kester Ave. in Van Nuys, will be the site of the second hearing on Wednesday.

The third hearing will be held Thursday at Culver City High School, 4401 Elenda St. All hearings are scheduled from 7 to 10 p.m.

Ken Cude, an engineer with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, said Friday that the purpose of the hearings is to gather the public’s comments on the conclusions and recommendations contained in the environmental impact report.

Torrance City Manager LeRoy Jackson said Torrance city planners will attend one of the hearings this week. Mobil has withdrawn its application for the portion of the pipeline within Torrance but is expected to refile the application, Jackson said.

The pipeline would also pass through Inglewood, where city officials believe the major impact would come during construction, said Norman Cravens, assistant city manager. Inglewood planners and engineers are studying the project.

The environmental report is considered a draft until the comments collected at the public hearings are studied and addressed in the final document. Cude said city traffic engineers hope to forward the final report to the Los Angeles Board of Transportation Commissioners by Dec. 13, when the panel could make a final decision on the project.

Times Staff Writer Deborah Schoch contributed to this story.