Harbor Commission Delays Decision on Scrap Yard Proposal : Waterfront: Its staff requests more time to review opponents’ environmental concerns about Hiuka America Corp.’s plans to build the facility in Wilmington.

The Los Angeles Harbor Commission on Wednesday postponed a decision whether to seek further environmental study of Hiuka America Corp.’s controversial plan to open a new scrap yard on Wilmington’s waterfront.

The delay was requested by the Harbor Department staff, which said it needs another two weeks to analyze the project. Opponents claim that a port study, which concluded Hiuka’s proposed scrap yard would not significantly affect the environment, is flawed.

While insisting he saw no reason for more environmental study, port Executive Director Ezunial Burts told commissioners his staff needed more time to review some of the concerns raised at a public hearing last week. Those concerns, he said, included requests for ongoing environmental monitoring of the scrap yard as a condition of its lease.

Currently, Hiuka is seeking a 30-year lease at Berth 147 for a new scrap facility to replace its San Pedro yard, one that has proven so noisy and troublesome that the city of Los Angeles has taken steps to declare it a public nuisance. The proposed 13-acre facility in Wilmington, both company and port officials say, will be far more advanced than the current yard with state-of-the-art environmental safeguards such as thick sound walls and sprinkler systems to control metal dust.

Proponents of the project, including the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, contend the facility will bring 50 new jobs to the community and about $400,000 over the next five years to youth groups and other organizations.

But opponents, including Wilmington’s homeowner associations, argue that Hiuka has attempted to buy off the community with the promise of jobs and money. And noting that Wilmington is already awash with polluting industries, critics also complain that their community should not be saddled with a scrap business that San Pedro residents refuse to tolerate.

After Wednesday’s commission meeting, port officials said they learned that Hiuka also has asked the Long Beach Harbor Department for permission to relocate a shipping terminal from one location in that port to another site on Terminal Island.

Los Angeles port officials said Wednesday that they were studying Hiuka’s plans in Long Beach after being told that the corporation might be thinking about more than merely relocating the shipping facility to Terminal Island.

“We’ve been told it may be more than a replacement facility. We want to look into that and find out what that means,” said Barbara Yamamoto, a spokeswoman for the Port of Los Angeles.