Pipeline to Run Under Valley Gets Go-Ahead

After a seven-year battle, the proposed Pacific Pipeline--which promoters hope to use to transport crude oil from offshore wells in Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, via the San Fernando Valley--is closer to reality with the release of a Superior Court judgment Thursday that grants builders permission to acquire underground rights of way.

Pipeline supporters say the ruling is a major victory that will allow construction to begin almost immediately on the planned 132-mile leg of the route from Kern County to refineries in Wilmington. A pipeline from Santa Barbara to Kern County already exists as part of a line that continues all the way to Texas.

“It is a very strong and detailed decision in which [the court] ruled in favor of Pacific Pipeline on all arguments,” said Charles M. McLean, spokesman for Pacific Pipeline System Inc. of Burbank, a private utility company that wants to build the project.

The proposed pipeline, which McLean said will carry up to 130,000 barrels of crude oil daily, could be completed by the end of the year.

Opponents, who contend the pipeline endangers residents and businesses along the route because of the possibility of explosions, vowed Thursday that they have not given up the fight. “We are certainly going to review all appeal options,” said City Councilman Richard Alarcon, who represents the northeast Valley.

“I think that these kinds of projects that dump into poor neighborhoods have all the cards stacked up in their favor.”

But Pacific Pipeline officials said they will ask opponents not to appeal the ruling. “We hope to meet with City Council members as quickly as possible so that we can begin working constructively together,” McLean said.

The contentious issue has pitted elected officials who represent economically depressed neighborhoods against community and labor leaders anxious to benefit from the estimated $50-million construction payroll.

In a lengthy ruling, Superior Court Judge Ronald Sohigian said the $170-million pipeline project allows for “the greatest public good and least public injury.” The action upholds previous approval of the project by the Public Utilities Commission, which determined that it would significantly reduce the amount of crude oil transported by truck, railroad and ocean tankers.

Sohigian also rejected arguments by the city, Arco and Southern California Edison, which contend the oil could be transported through existing pipelines. In his judgment, Sohigian wrote that these lines are “older and riskier.”

The ruling gives Pacific Pipeline eminent domain authority, which McLean said allows the company to construct and begin operating the pipeline despite other legal challenges.

The city of Los Angeles last summer filed a separate lawsuit in federal court challenging the U.S. Forest Service for allowing the pipeline to run through Angeles National Forest. A ruling on the suit is pending.

Because Los Angeles rejected a franchise agreement with Pacific Pipeline, the city has lost authority to impose any conditions to lessen the environmental impact of the project. The company is only required to meet the minimal conditions imposed by the state.

But Pacific Pipeline will have to pay the city more than $200,000 in fees--the exact amount is to be named in a future ruling by Sohigian.

The pipeline as proposed will run from the town of Emidio, south of Bakersfield, along the Golden State Freeway to the Santa Clarita Valley. From there, it would follow the Southern Pacific railroad tracks through San Fernando, Burbank and Glendale before heading for South Los Angeles.

Jim Shamas, Pacific Pipeline vice president, said in addition to favorable rulings from the PUC and Superior Court, the project has also passed muster with the U.S. Forest Service and the California Supreme Court, and been granted franchises by Kern County and the cities of South Gate and Huntington Park.

“We believe it is time for the city of Los Angeles and Pacific Pipeline to work together constructively to bring the significant environmental, safety and community benefits of this project to the people of Los Angeles,” Shamas said.

But City Councilman Mike Hernandez, who represents Cypress Park and other minority communities in East Los Angeles, where the pipeline is to be built, said he intends to pursue all possible alternatives to block construction.

Hernandez said he is angered that yet another pipeline is planned for his communities. “We have more than our fair share of pipelines,” he said, in “areas of color, areas of poverty--the areas that the city as a whole is trying to revitalize.”

While the line would run mostly beneath railroad rights of way, it would also run beneath 9 1/2 miles of city streets in Los Angeles.

Construction in rural areas could proceed at the rate of 1,500 feet per day, while construction in urban areas would advance about 300 to 500 feet per day, company officials said. The 20-inch-diameter pipe will be laid in ditches 2 feet wide and 7 feet deep.

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