Flood Bill Merits Fast Action

For more than a decade Orange County has been trying to get federal officials to help protect county residents from the threat of flooding by the Santa Ana River. This could be the year. Two final votes and a stroke of the President’s pen will do it.

Efforts began about 20 years ago to develop a flood control project along the Santa Ana River running from Big Bear through San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties to the Pacific Ocean. The initial problem was getting the three counties to agree upon a plan. They finally decided to widen and deepen the river channel in Orange County, raise Prado Dam in Riverside County and build a new dam about four miles upstream from Mentone.

But it has taken Congress and two administrations more than a decade to come up with an omnibus water project bill and a cost-sharing formula that they could agree upon and that the counties could afford.

It all might have come together last Wednesday when a House-Senate conference committee approved a $16-billion public works bill. The measure contains $1.1 billion for the Santa Ana River Flood Control Project, the largest of the 262 projects in the bill. And one of the most crucial.

The river does a good job of camouflaging its potential danger. Today it is harmless. But heavy rains have sent water over its banks before, and U.S. Army Engineers see it as the worst potential flood threat in the Western United States.

Engineers say it’s not as much a question of if but when a major flood will hit. When it does, Army engineers estimate that without the needed improvements, parts of Orange County will be under six feet of water. They foresee $14 billion in property damage and as many as 3,000 lives lost.

Those stakes are high.

The conference committee decided on a formula that will require local and state governments to pick up 25% of the flood control project’s cost. That’s a reasonable figure that local government accepts. State legislation has already been enacted to enable Orange County to begin raising its share through special tax assessments against property in danger of being flooded.

All that remains is for Congress to approve the compromise bill worked out by the joint committee and the President to sign it. That should be done posthaste.