Santa Ana River Flood Work Included : Senate Allots $12 Billion to Finance Water Projects

The Senate Wednesday endorsed the construction of $12-billion worth of dams, harbors, levees and other water projects across the country, including a $1.2-billion plan to curb flooding along the Santa Ana River in Southern California.

The package, approved on a voice vote, would also authorize more than $353 million for flood and navigation projects in Northern California.

If reconciled with an already passed House bill and signed by President Reagan, the measure would be the first major legislation in a decade authorizing a broad range of federally financed water projects.

Separate Funding Vote

Funding for the federal share of the projects would have to be approved separately by Congress.

In addition to authorizing more than 180 water-related projects, the measure for the first time would require state and local governments to pick up a significant share of the costs. The federal government now pays about 95% of the costs of such projects, but the bill would cut Washington’s contribution to between 65% and 75%.

The House last year passed a bill that also trimmed the federal share of financing, but it included so many more projects than the Senate version that its cost soared to $20 billion.

Santa Ana Project

The Santa Ana project, the most expensive of all those authorized in the Senate legislation, has been given top priority by the Army Corps of Engineers, which has concluded that the river poses one of the most serious flood threats in the West.

A major Santa Ana River flood could affect more than 2 million people and cause $12 billion in damage to 15 cities along a heavily developed corridor in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, the corps has estimated.

Key elements of the Santa Ana project include raising the Prado Dam near Chino by about 30 feet, building 23 miles of channels and levees on Santiago Creek and the lower Santa Ana River and constructing a new dam north of Prado Dam--about a mile north of the mouth of the Santa Ana River Canyon--to control flood flows in the upper river basin.

Other State Projects

Other California projects that would be authorized by the legislation:

--$125 million to deepen and widen the Sacramento River Deepwater Ship Channel from Avon to the port of Sacramento.

--$84 million to improve flood control along Redbank and Fancher creeks in Fresno County and $30.7 million to finance flood prevention work in the Cache Creek basin 90 miles north of San Francisco.

--Nearly $114 million to improve harbors in Oakland and Richmond along San Francisco Bay.

The measure would increase barge fuel taxes and port and harbor user fees to help raise money for the projects.