Oil Pipeline’s Environmental Impact Report to Be Aired : Construction: Traffic disruption is a concern. Objections to the 92-mile project are expected from the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys.

An ambitious plan to build a 92-mile underground pipeline to carry heated crude oil through the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys 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 new 16-inch-diameter line capable of carrying 95,000 barrels of crude each day from Lebec in Kern County to the Mobil refinery in Torrance.

An environmental impact report, released last month, said pipeline construction would create noise and cause unavoidable disruptions in traffic at major intersections in the two valleys.

But the report said the new line would be safer than the deteriorating line that ruptured two times in three weeks in 1988, spilling more than 130,000 gallons of oil in Encino and Sherman Oaks. The pipeline, which carries 63,500 barrels a day, burst again in June of this year, pouring 67,000 gallons of oil-tainted water into a concrete drainage creek in Granada Hills.

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

The third hearing will be 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 hear public comments on the conclusions and recommendations contained in the environmental impact report.

On Monday, Santa Clarita city officials are expected to object to Mobil’s plans to route the pipeline along San Fernando Road through downtown Newhall. Mayor Jo Anne Darcy said the city would prefer to have the pipeline built west of the Golden State Freeway, and Cude said transportation planners are considering that concept.

In the San Fernando Valley, members of the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn. and other homeowner groups have said they fear the $88-million construction project will produce gridlock at already congested intersections and streets.

The environmental report is considered to be merely 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 send 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.