Residents Say Pipeline Could Disturb Chumash Sites, Wetlands : Environment: The proposed 170-mile conduit is the latest attempt to transport oil along the coast. The comments were made at a state study session.

A proposed 170-mile underground pipeline that would carry oil through Ventura County would disturb ancient Chumash villages along the Santa Clara River and could harm wetlands at the mouth of the Ventura River, area residents said Wednesday.

The comments, made during a study session held in Ventura by the California Public Utilities Commission, will help define issues to be included in an environmental review of the Pacific Pipeline Systems project.

The $200-million pipeline, which would be built by a subsidiary of Southern Pacific railroad, would largely follow the railroad’s right of way. It is the most recent proposal by oil producers in Santa Barbara County to transport oil along the coast without the risk of spills involved in shipping oil by tankers.

A consortium of oil companies has agreed to pay about $2 million for an environmental review of the project.

The 20-inch insulated line would carry 130,000 barrels of heated oil daily from Gaviota in Santa Barbara County to refineries in El Segundo and Wilmington, said Norman Rooney, president of Pacific Pipeline Systems.

Two routes have been proposed for Ventura County. The preferred route follows the Santa Clara Valley to Santa Clarita, and an alternative route passes through Oxnard, Camarillo and Simi Valley.

Rooney said safeguards would exceed those required by the state Department of Transportation. The pipeline would have thicker walls than required and would be buried at a depth of five feet rather than the mandatory three feet, Rooney said. In addition, every weld would be examined by X-ray, even though state standards call for just 10% of them to be tested, he said.

But a few residents who attended the study session expressed concerns about the effects that the pipeline would have on the area’s environment, cultural resources and transportation projects.

Two members of the Chumash Nation’s Owl Clan said the northern route through the Santa Clara River Valley would disturb a number of former Chumash towns and urged the company to select the southern alternative through Oxnard.

“These are irreplaceable-treasure sites,” said Qun-Tan Garcia, a Chumash resident of Ventura.

After the meeting, A-Lul-Koy Lotah said the Santa Clara Valley was heavily populated by Chumash clans.

“These places have been protected quietly,” she said. “We will not allow them to dig up our burial sites.”

About 8,000 Chumash descendants still live on their ancestral lands, she said.

Lotah said the only solutions acceptable to the Chumash would be for the pipeline to be built aboveground or routed around the settlements and burial sites.

Paul Tuttle of the Friends of the Ventura River asked that the review include a study of the pipeline’s effect on the wetlands along the Ventura River estuary.

It should also examine the potential for periodic floods gouging out the river channel and damaging the pipeline, he said.

From Seacliff to Ventura, the oil would pass through a slightly larger 22-inch pipeline that was installed more than 20 years ago, Tuttle said.

The environmental review should consider wetland restoration that was not required when the older pipeline was installed, and also examine an emergency plan for any catastrophic failure, Tuttle said.

Several other speakers, including Christopher Stevens of the Ventura County Transportation Commission, asked that the pipeline not interfere with future rail projects envisioned for the Santa Clara Valley corridor.

Frederick Gientke, general manager of the United Water Conservation District, expressed concern that the project would affect plans for a future pipeline to carry state water into the county.

And if the company selects the southern route, it should be prepared to deal with contaminated soil along half a mile of railroad right of way in east Oxnard, said Dennis Tagashira, a planner with the city of Oxnard.

“The cost (to clean up the soil) would be staggering,” Tagashira said.

Acknowledging that the pipeline conforms with the county’s zoning laws, Lou Merzario, a county planner, asked the commission to evaluate the capacity of existing pipelines before approving the new pipeline.

A final study session is scheduled for today in Los Angeles, and a draft environmental report could be ready by June, said Martha Sullivan, a project manager with the utilities commission.

The pipeline would not be completed until 1994, she said.