Judge Rejects Effort by Residents to Halt Oil Pipeline Construction : Court: But a demonstration by members of the coalition briefly stops work on a segment of the 92-mile Mobil project. They vow to appeal.

An attempt by homeowners to halt construction of Mobil Oil’s underground pipeline from Kern County to Torrance was rejected by a judge Wednesday, a day after the firm began work on a segment of the $90-million project in Granada Hills.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ronald M. Sohigian ruled against the Coalition Against the Pipeline, which filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles and Mobil earlier this year.

Members of the coalition, who briefly halted work on the pipeline with a protest, said they would appeal the ruling.

Mobil wants to build the 92-mile, 16-inch-wide pipeline to carry hot crude oil from San Joaquin Valley oil fields to its Torrance refinery, replacing an existing pipeline that is six inches thinner in some areas and has ruptured eight times in the past five years. The pipeline would go through the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys, West Los Angeles and the South Bay.

The citizens group contended that Mobil secured construction approval for the project from Los Angeles because the environmental impact report on the project did not alert officials of potential hazards. The city’s Department of Transportation was the lead agency in overseeing the environmental review process for the project.

The opponents said the environmental report did not properly consider the alternatives of repairing the existing pipeline or building a new line the same size of the existing one. The suit also questioned whether a conflict of interest existed because the EIR was prepared by an independent engineering firm hired by Mobil.

But in a ruling released Wednesday, Sohigian said the concerns of the opponents were satisfactorily addressed during the environmental review and that the environmental impact report was only obligated to consider a reasonable range of alternatives--which it did. The ruling also said that there was no misconduct by allowing Mobil to retain the firm that prepared the environmental report.

James Carbonetti, a spokesman for Mobil, praised the ruling.

“The decision affirms that the Los Angeles Department of Transportation properly approved the EIR, exercising independent judgment and addressing all comments made by interested parties,” Carbonetti said. “Mobil looks forward to replacing the pipeline as quickly as possible.”

Lawrence Teeter, an attorney representing the coalition, was unavailable for comment, but in an earlier interview he said the coalition would appeal any adverse ruling by Sohigian.

John Aubuchon, a member of the coalition who lives in Los Angeles, vowed the group would continue to fight the pipeline in court.

“This is very sad to see that the EIR, apparently in the judge’s view, passed muster,” Aubuchon said. “This was not a critical, analytical document.”

Mobil is still seeking approval for the new pipeline from several government agencies outside Los Angeles, Carbonetti said. Many of those agencies, including the cities of Culver City, Hawthorne, Inglewood and Torrance, have held off on taking up the issue until a ruling was made in the coalition’s lawsuit.

What the coalition members did not achieve in court, they did accomplish--for about an hour--when they protested Wednesday morning at the Granada Hills construction site where Mobil contractors have begun digging trenches for the new pipeline.

Mobil officials shut down work in the area along Balboa Boulevard south of the Golden State Freeway overpass when about 25 members of the coalition began picketing in the construction zone.

The coalition members walked alongside parked trucks that held 55-foot pipe segments that will be placed beneath the street. They held signs that said, “Earthquakes Break Pipelines,” and “Mobil Pipeline Means More Pollution.”

“We just feel like we have to do something,” said Mary Edwards of Granada Hills. “We feel like we have to rage because it is important to speak out against the environmental danger.”

Carbonetti said the project was temporarily shut down as a safety precaution until police arrived and instructed the protesters to leave the construction area and continue their march across the street. The protest lasted about 90 minutes.

Michele Grumet, a coalition member who organized the protest, expressed disappointment when she later learned of the judge’s ruling.

“You can’t always count on the courts,” she said. “We still question the integrity of the environmental review process.”

Times staff writer Tracey Kaplan contributed to this report.