City Attorney to Urge Settlement on Oil Pipeline

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office is expected to recommend today that the City Council accept a settlement allowing construction of a controversial pipeline that would pump hot crude oil from Kern County through the San Fernando Valley to refineries in Wilmington.

The council will have its back against the wall legally when it considers the settlement because a Superior Court ruling in January gave owners of Pacific Pipeline eminent domain powers to build the line under city streets.

City Hall sources say the chief legislative analyst’s office and city attorney’s office support a settlement to end the seven-year battle the city has waged against the pipeline.

The only legal challenge the city has left is a pending lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service that would attempt to halt the pipeline by prohibiting it from running through the Angeles National Forest.

Pacific Pipeline has won several rounds in court and still has a $300-million antitrust suit pending against the city for trying to block the project.

Under the proposed settlement, both sides would drop the remaining lawsuits, allowing pipeline construction to begin under city streets almost immediately.

Sources say Pacific Pipeline would also agree to pay for 100 computers for high schools along the route. The pipeline work would enable the city to place fiber-optic lines along the route to improve the Police Department’s 911 system, sources say.

The $170-million line would carry 130,000 barrels of oil a day to Los Angeles refineries.

The 20-inch diameter line--about the size of a basketball rim--would enter the city of Los Angeles in Sylmar and follow the Southern Pacific right of way through San Fernando, Burbank and Glendale before cutting through the heart of the city to Wilmington.

Along its trek, the line would run beneath 9.5 miles of city streets in Los Angeles.

Councilmen Richard Alarcon and Mike Hernandez, who represent the mostly working-class Latino communities where the line would run, have been the most vocal opponents, saying the line puts their constituents at risk of leaks and explosions.

But they have also had to oppose labor groups, who are eager to benefit from the about $50-million construction payroll.

In an interview Tuesday, Alarcon said he still opposes the line but realizes that the city may have no option but to eventually agree to it.

“The Superior Court has clearly put us in a difficult position with regard to what options we have remaining,” he said. “I am not friendly to the notion of a settlement, but I have to recognize from a legal perspective that the odds are against us.”

Hernandez, however, showed no sign of softening his stance.

“We will fight to the end,” said Morrie Goldman, a Hernandez spokesman.

Los Angeles has been the lone city to continue fighting the project. Southern California Edison, which is working on a competing pipeline, has also joined the city in challenging Pacific Pipeline.

Because the city rejected a franchise agreement to allow Pacific Pipeline to run its line beneath city streets, it lost authority to impose any conditions to lessen the environmental impact. The company is only required to meet the minimum conditions imposed by the state.

Only a settlement would allow the city to request amenities and additional environmental mitigation measures.

Opponents of the line have repeatedly voiced concerns about the risk of a rupture or oil leak. Alarcon and others have also expressed fear that a rupture near the city’s main aqueducts and reservoir near Sylmar could contaminate 75% of the city’s water.

But proponents argue that the line will use state-of-the-art technology and reduce smog and traffic by replacing oil-carrying trucks, trains and ships.

Pacific Pipeline System is owned by Anschutz Corp., headed by Philip F. Anschutz, a Colorado billionaire businessman who is also co-owner of the Los Angeles Kings hockey team.