Governor Signs Bill Allowing Assessments for Flood Control

Orange County officials could get a head start toward raising the estimated $250-million county share of the massive Santa Ana River Flood Control project under legislation signed into law Tuesday by Gov. George Deukmejian.

The $1.1-billion U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project, expected to be one of the largest public works projects ever undertaken in the United States, still awaits final congressional approval. If approval is given, construction is not expected to begin before 1989.

But under the measure by Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim), the Orange County Board of Supervisors could authorize collection as early as next year of special property tax assessments from homeowners threatened by potential flooding.

County officials estimate that the special “benefit assessments” could range from $40 annually in outlying areas on the perimeter of the flood plain to $100 a year in areas immediately adjacent to the Santa Ana River, where the flood threat is greatest.

The measure requires that the Orange County Flood Control District define the exact areas that would benefit from the flood control project and that public hearings be held by the Board of Supervisors before any tax assessments are set or levied.

Under the legislation, a special election on the tax assessments could be required if official protests are filed by landowners who control more than 25% of the affected parcels.

The Corps of Engineers has said that the usually dry Santa Ana River represents the most serious U.S. flood threat west of the Mississippi River.

The corps has estimated that more than 3,000 people could be killed and property damage could reach $11 billion in Orange County alone in the event of a major flood. In 1938, what has been called the “storm of the century” unleashed a major flood on the river that wiped out a community of farm workers living in the Anaheim area and inundated tens of thousands of acres.

That flood led to the construction of Prado Dam near Corona the following year. But in 1969, the corps discovered that the dam was not big enough to protect Orange County from a flood of the severity that could occur once every 200 years.

The flood control project calls for widening and deepening the river channel in Orange County, raising Prado Dam by 30 feet and building a new dam north of Mentone in the San Bernardino Mountains.

Both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives passed omnibus public works bills earlier this year that authorized the project, along with scores of other dams, harbors and levees around the country. But a conference committee of members from both houses is still trying to iron out differences in the House and Senate versions, and win Reagan Administration support for a compromise.