Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : COUNTY : Santa Ana River Control Project Assured

A $1.1-billion project to control flooding on the Santa Ana River was included in a massive water projects bill that President Reagan signed into law last week in Washington.

Reagan’s signature came just one day before an automatic pocket veto would have killed the legislation, but the White House issued no comment on the signing.

The Santa Ana River is considered the worst flood threat west of the Mississippi River, and the measures to prevent a catastrophic flood from its banks are the largest single component of the $16.3-billion bill.

The first major water projects legislation to be signed into law in 16 years also includes an expedited study of the proposed Sunset Harbor development in the Bolsa Chica wetlands and $3.5 million to dredge and maintain a 15-foot-deep, 250-foot-wide navigation channel in Newport Bay, north of the Coast Highway bridge.

Plans for the Santa Ana River include building a new dam, known as Seven Oaks, four miles upstream of the San Bernardino County community of Mentone; nearly doubling the capacity of Prado Dam, near Corona, by raising it 30 feet, and expanding the channels of Santiago Creek and the river itself in Orange County.

These measures will address “the very critical flood problem” threatening urban areas of Orange, Riverside and Sen Bernardino counties, said Lt. Col. Norman I. Jackson, deputy commander of the Army Corps of Engineers’ Los Angeles district.