132-Mile Oil Pipeline Nearing Completion

Crude oil should begin flowing in a pipeline from Kern County through the San Fernando Valley to refineries in El Segundo, Wilmington and Long Beach by the end of the year.

“We are a little behind schedule from what we had originally planned,” said Irvin Toole, president and chief executive officer of Pacific Pipeline Systems, the Los Angeles company managing the project.

Toole said construction was delayed by two factors: El Nino rains this winter and, more recently, the slow pace of obtaining many individual permits to lay pipe near roads, bridges and aqueducts.

Planners said in early June that the five segments of the 132-mile pipeline are under separate construction and would likely be linked by late August.

Toole said most of the line through the Valley is completed; the still-unfinished sections are in Kern County. He said a short segment in Newhall must be finished and that several pump stations are still under construction.

“We are planning to be in operation prior to the end of the year,” Toole said Thursday. “We don’t have an exact date.”

In Greater Los Angeles, the line will run along the Golden State Freeway past Santa Clarita; through Sylmar and from San Fernando to Glendale--primarily along the Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way.

The pipeline will continue through the northern edge of downtown Los Angeles down to the South Bay.

The project has endured controversy and tragedy. For years local officials debated its proximity to the Valley’s poorest neighborhoods and the risks of toxic contamination in the event of a spill.

On April 22, a five-ton drill used to lay pipe shifted unexpectedly and fatally crushed Mitch Williams, a 42-year-old construction worker from Madera, as he worked on the pipeline at Broadway and San Fernando Road.