LOS ANGELES : Alarcon Seeks Moratorium on Underground Pipelines

Angered by a blaze that was fueled by oil from a quake-ruptured pipeline in Pacoima, Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon said Wednesday he will seek a moratorium on new agreements to operate such underground pipelines in the city.

The moratorium is likely to delay the renewal of expired franchise agreements between the city and four petroleum companies that want to continue pumping oil through existing pipelines under streets throughout the city.

Alarcon’s move also may have an impact on the city’s consideration of a proposed pipeline that would run parallel to railroad tracks in the northeast San Fernando Valley, only a few blocks east of the site of the Jan. 17 fire, which injured one man and burned 17 cars and three homes.

That pipeline, which would carry oil 52 miles from Santa Clarita to Wilmington, is scheduled to be discussed today at a meeting of the Los Angeles Board of Transportation Commissioners.

Alarcon, whose district includes the neighborhood that burned after the pipeline break, said he will ask the City Council to adopt the moratorium until an investigation of the rupture on Wolfskill Street in Pacoima can be completed.

It was one of eight breaks that occurred along a 35-mile span of the Four Corners Pipeline. One rupture killed hundreds of fish and other wildlife in the Santa Clara River in Valencia.