Inglewood to Vote on Changes to Pipeline Agreement : Council: Additions would let the city engineer monitor the line, require a yearly report from Mobil and give the city the right to approve abandonment.

The Inglewood City Council is expected to vote next week on whether city engineers will monitor a Mobil Oil Corp. pipeline scheduled to replace a smaller line that now runs below Inglewood city streets.

After hearing two hours of public testimony Tuesday night, the council decided to amend a proposed agreement with Mobil.

The new version would allow city engineers to monitor the pipeline, would require Mobil to provide the city with an annual report and would give the city the right to approve any Mobil plans to abandon the pipeline.

Mobil has already begun building the 92-mile, $88-million pipeline, which will carry oil from Kern County to its refinery in Torrance, and it has received approval for the line from Los Angeles County and the cities of Los Angeles, Hawthorne and Torrance. The new pipeline would replace an aging line and increase oil flow by up to 50%, or 95,000 barrels a day.

Many testifying before the council Tuesday said they feared the expanded pipeline could be unsafe.

“It doesn’t take geologists or seismologists to know that the Earth’s crust has a fault and . . . you don’t build on unsolid ground,” Inglewood resident Barbara Bedford said. “I’d like to have more time given to concerned, interested citizens like I and my husband who live here and plan to be here.”

“We violently object to the pipeline in our immediate area,” said Inglewood resident Ralph Prey, who submitted a petition against the pipeline signed by 21 residents. “Instead of heeding the need of the greedy, please heed the need of the residents, the taxpayers.”

Councilman Jose Fernandez said the council must consider the importance of jobs and safety in making its decision. Fernandez said that Mobil’s Torrance refinery provides jobs for about 1,500 Inglewood residents and that he believes those who oppose the pipeline have a long-term goal of closing the refinery.

“This is a serious situation,” Fernandez said. “The South Bay just experienced several thousand job losses at McDonnell Douglas. . . . These issues have to be weighed, and have to be weighed carefully.”