BOARD OKS STUDY FOR NEW SCHOOL.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

A proposal to build a 49-acre high school to serve 2,400 students cleared a hurdle this week as the school board approved the state-required environmental study for the campus and its access artery, Golden Valley Road.

The city and the William S. Hart Union High School District hired a consultant to conduct an environmental impact report for the planned construction of Golden Valley High School and a one-mile section of road that would lead to it.

District officials hope to have the school built by the time the 2001-02 school year begins.

At its meeting Wednesday night, the school board voted 4-0 to certify the report, approve plans for the campus and to approve the proposed extension of Golden Valley Road - which would be linked to Via Princessa, thus creating another badly needed thoroughfare in the Santa Clarita Valley.

The school board also approved a measure providing for the simultaneous grading of the school site and the road site, so that the projects can be completed together. The land for the proposed high school is hilly, and heavy construction equipment will move an estimated 5 million to 6 million cubic yards of dirt, according to the environmental impact report prepared by Ventura-based Rincon Consultants Inc.

``Grading for the proposed project would substantially alter the topography of the . . . site,'' the report states.

Some of the environmental effects classified as ``unavoidable'' and ``significant'' were the cutting of mountain ridgelines to make way for construction, the loss or displacement of some animal and plant species that live on the site, which includes Orofino Canyon, and the proximity of the future high school and road to active and abandoned oil wells, the report stated.

``Fourteen known oil wells are present in the southeasterly area of the proposed school property,'' the report states. Several measures were suggested in that document to address the potential hazard.

``Any wells located within areas of proposed development shall be properly abandoned. (Government) regulations for well abandonment generally require cement plugs and welded steel plates over the bore hole casing,'' the report said.

Another precautionary step suggested by the report would be for the school to be built no closer than 350 feet from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's overhead electrical transmission lines that run through the property.

Other concerns include the need to uproot oak trees from the land, the potential that the extensive hillside grading could create unstable slopes and the proximity to the site of the former Whitaker-Bermite munitions plant, under investigation for toxic pollution.

District officials have proposed that Golden Valley be paired with La Mesa Junior High, both of which would get most of their students from four local elementary schools: Rio Vista, Sulphur Springs, Valley View and Pinetree.