L.A. Council Asked to Help Fight Mobil Pipeline Plan : Environment: Activist says a bigger line could mean more air pollution. Oil firm denies that it plans to increase capacity at its Torrance refinery.

A Westside activist representing eight citizens’ groups has called on the Los Angeles City Council for help in fighting Mobil Oil Corp.’s $90-million pipeline replacement project.

In a letter Wednesday to council President John Ferraro, activist Laura Lake asked the council to overturn a recent city Transportation Commission vote in favor of the project, which would replace an oil line running from Kern County to Mobil’s Torrance refinery.

Arguing that the plan’s provision for a larger pipeline could mean more oil refining--and, thus, more air pollution--by Mobil, Lake urged the council to file a lawsuit challenging the project on environmental grounds.

“The issue . . . is increased refining in our already over-polluted basin,” wrote Lake, president of the Friends of Westwood environmental group. “The issue is public health. Under no circumstances should more oil be brought into this air basin for refining.”

A Mobil official took exception to Lake’s letter, pointing out that his company has long insisted that it did not plan to refine more oil, but rather to use the larger pipeline to reduce its reliance on crude oil transported by sea.

“It’s ridiculous,” company spokesman James Carbonetti said Friday. “Mobil will not increase its capacity. We’ve already stated that.”

Mobil officials say the current pipeline can transport up to 63,000 barrels of oil a day. As part of its approval of the replacement project April 11, the Los Angeles Transportation Commission stipulated that the new pipeline must not be used to move more than 95,000 barrels a day--75% of its capacity.

Mobil is pushing hard for a new pipeline on grounds that the current line extending south from Kern County’s oil fields is too old and leaky. The pipeline has ruptured eight times in the past five years. A Feb. 1 break in Santa Clarita spilled more than 63,000 gallons of heated crude oil into the Santa Clara River.

Lake was writing on behalf of eight organizations ranging from her Westwood environmental group to a San Fernando Valley homeowners association. Her letter drew a noncommittal response from Ferraro, who said it had been forwarded to a council legislative analyst for review.

“We’ll have to take a look at it,” Ferraro said Friday. “We can’t go off half-cocked.”

Lake said Friday that the City Council would be shirking its responsibility if it fails to become involved in the pipeline issue.

“We don’t want our city officials asleep at the switch,” she said.

Though the pipeline project has won the approval of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, it must still be endorsed by other jurisdictions along its 92-mile route. Those include Inglewood, Hawthorne and Torrance and the U.S. Forest Service.

The estimated 18-month project is expected to cause disruptions on many major roads, including portions of Inglewood and Prairie avenues.