Ordinance Would Permit Pipeline

The Inglewood City Council this week introduced an ordinance that if adopted later this month will allow Mobil Oil Corp. to build a new pipeline beneath the heart of the city.

Designed to replace an existing smaller pipeline, the proposed pipe would carry as much as 95,000 barrels a day of crude oil from Kern County to the Mobil refinery in Torrance.

Council members, heeding the safety concerns of pipeline opponents, last week ordered that two amendments be added to the proposed ordinance. The amendments provide that the city engineer be allowed to monitor pipeline operations and that the city have the right to approve any move by Mobil to abandon the line.

The ordinance would normally be voted on by the council a week after its introduction. However, according to City Atty. Howard Rosten, the vote might not come until June 30 because there might not be a quorum for next week’s meeting.