Massive Santa Ana River Flood Project Nears Congress OK

House and Senate negotiators have agreed this week on all but the final details of water project legislation that authorizes construction of a $1.1-billion Santa Ana River Flood Control Project in Orange, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties.

The Santa Ana River project is the largest of 262 undertakings in the $16.3-billion package, the first major authorization of new water projects since 1970.

The bill calls for $822 million in federal funds to be matched by $268 million in local and state funds for the project, which is intended to provide protection along the 90-mile river against a flood of the magnitude that occurs about once every 170 years. By calling for major local funding, the legislation fundamentally restructures the federal role in financing such politically sensitive projects.

California Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad) said the highly populated plain surrounding the usually dry river has been designated by the Army Corps of Engineers as the worst flood threat west of the Mississippi River.

Estimate Deaths, Damage

The Corps of Engineers has estimated that another serious flood along its course through San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties could result in more than 3,000 deaths and $14 billion in damage in Orange County alone.

Final congressional action on the bill is expected next week, after House and Senate committees work out relatively minor differences on port and inland waterway user fees. Actual financing of individual projects must be provided in separate future spending bills.

A huge proposed dam in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains near the community of Mentone was rejected as part of the project in the face of stiff opposition from local leaders. Instead, the project plan calls for building a 550-foot earth- and rock-filled dam about four miles upstream from Mentone in Upper Santa Ana Canyon, which is expected to cut $100 million from the price tag.

The plan also calls for increasing the holding capacity of Prado Dam by raising it 30 feet and widening and deepening the river channel through Orange County.

Of the three counties through which the river flows, Orange County is expected to bear the brunt of the local share of costs because it would be the major beneficiary of the project.

“We’ve got an affordable project,” said Murray I. Storm, director of the county’s Environmental Management Agency.

The legislation breaks a decade-old impasse between two Presidents and various factions in Congress by requiring local beneficiaries of water projects to provide cash up front for about 25% of the cost of building them.

In the past, the projects have been financed largely by the federal government, making them some of the most valuable plums that congressmen could bring home to their districts. Critics said the result was that projects were sometimes distributed according to the clout of individual lawmakers, rather than specific need for ports, dams, inland waterways and harbors.

Environmentalists also argued that federal largess led local governments to plan and build inefficient projects that were larger than necessary, causing undue ecological disruption of the surrounding areas.

Opponents of cost-sharing complained that it would mean that water projects would be built only in wealthy areas. To meet that concern, the bill allows cost-sharing requirements to be relaxed or waived for areas that cannot afford them.

Weeds Out ‘Junky Projects’

Under the new system, “the local people are going to have to pay, and the Administration feels strongly that this is going to weed out a lot of junky projects,” said Bob Will, Washington spokesman for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. “If people really want them, they’ll be willing to pay.”

President Reagan had threatened to veto the House version of the legislation, passed last November. The Administration complained that it contained too many projects--more than 300, many of which had not been reviewed by the Corps of Engineers--and did not force local interests to shoulder enough of the cost.

The Senate version contained 191 projects and cost-sharing provisions more to the White House’s liking. In the end, the House got almost all the projects it wanted, while the Senate prevailed on the cost-sharing issue.

The bill also withholds funds until projects have been evaluated by the Corps of Engineers.

James McConnell, Orange County’s lobbyist in Washington, said he is optimistic that President Reagan will sign the bill. McConnell said Reagan Administration officials were involved in the negotiations that produced the conference committee bill.