Red Tape Keeps Castaic School in Shadow of Dam, Power Lines : Safety: Application drags on while millions are OKd for light fixtures. FEMA says moving school is not simple.

It was the light fixtures that turned off the Castaic school district trustees.

Since September 1994, they have been trying to secure millions of dollars in federal earthquake-mitigation funds to move the 638-student Castaic Elementary School, which sits in the shadow of the dam that holds back half-mile-long Castaic Lake and is bordered by high-voltage power lines and oil pipelines to boot.

The paperwork pace has been maddeningly slow, board members say.

But what really annoyed them was that it took only from Nov. 27 to Dec. 5 for 63 other school districts--including the Los Angeles Unified School District--to receive approval of $106 million in grants to strengthen light fixtures against damage in future quakes.

“We learned light bulbs were more important than moving . . . kids out of imminent danger,” said Trustee Lester Freeman. “They’re stalling us forever.”

Federal officials counter that moving a school is not as simple as replacing a light bulb.

“We did not put the dam above the school,” said Jay Jazayeri of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The dam, 1.7 miles behind the school, holds back 323,000 acre-feet of water--half of Los Angeles’ water needs for one year.

The school, which shares the land with the district administrative offices, was built in 1928, and there have been other schools on the site since the late 1880s.

Records indicate that four ranches and a pig farm were flooded when the dam was completed in 1972. But at the time, the school was very small and was overlooked, said James Estes, director of business for the district.

Bonds to build the dam were approved in the early 1960s, an era before environmental studies and local community activism might have prompted more reflection on its impact on the school.

Officials are concerned about the high-voltage power lines and oil pipelines that cross the school grounds, running near play areas.

“It’s like the triad of terror that awaits these kids,” Estes said.

Added Freeman: “Even Saddam Hussein wouldn’t put a school there.”

Experts say it would take three minutes for the campus to be flooded by 150 feet of water if the Castaic Dam ruptured in an earthquake.

But they agree that such a catastrophe is unlikely--the worst-case scenario in a worst-case quake of magnitude 8.2. State officials familiar with the 335-foot-tall dam say it is built to withstand a major temblor.

Castaic voters approved $20 million in bond issues in 1993 to move the 532-student Castaic Middle School out of the flood plain to a nearby site, and although that school is still on the site, the move to a new school on higher ground three miles away is expected to be completed by September.

Freeman said trustees expected the state to chip in additional funds to move the elementary school as well. When state funds dried up after voters turned down school-construction bonds, the project was postponed.

After the Northridge earthquake, school officials asked FEMA for earthquake-hazard mitigation funds to move the elementary school to Hillcrest Park.

Federal officials reacted positively--moving to approve $18 million to relocate the schools and the district offices.

Using the bond money, school officials started work on the new middle school, in anticipation of receiving the federal money.

But by summer, FEMA said that a change in policy required an environmental impact review before work could commence.

Because construction work had already begun, the district lost its eligibility for $10 million for the middle school. It had to submit a new application for $7 million to move the elementary school and district offices.

The Castaic proposal was submitted Friday. Federal officials promise an answer in 45 days.