O.C. to Get Flood Control Funds to Start Actual Work

The good news is that Orange County gets $65 million to speed construction of the massive Santa Ana River flood-control project, $10 million to build a new border checkpoint near San Clemente and nearly $7 million for major projects at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

The bad news is that the county gets no additional money to help with the flood tide of immigrants and refugees who have arrived in recent years. Federal aid for highways remains in a holding pattern and there are no new funds to modernize the outmoded air traffic-control center that shepherds aircraft through the Orange County sky.

A slowdown in military spending could affect local defense contractors, but a 24% increase in the budget for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration may cushion the blow.

In short, the 1991 federal budget unveiled Monday by President Bush is, like the well-worn punchline, a mixed bag for the 2.3 million people who live in Orange County.

Locally, the most significant item in the Bush budget, which is sure to be heavily reworked by Congress, is money for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to push the long-delayed Santa Ana River project into its construction phase, officials said.

“This means we have passed all the suspense . . . about whether or not this thing is going to be a fully funded program,” said Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove). “That means the Santa Ana River project is safe, and this flood plain is not going to suffer any horror” from a devastating flood.

Rep. C. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), said that inclusion of the $65 million is the “highlight” of the budget for Orange County. “It is far better to fund this sooner rather than later. If the funding is delayed, the project simply becomes more expensive,” Cox said.

Authorized three years ago but not funded until last year, the flood-control project will cost an estimated $1.4 billion by the time it is completed at the beginning of the next century. All but $364 million will be paid by the federal government. The rest is paid by the counties in the area.

The money will pay for construction of a new 550-foot dam in San Bernardino County, improvement of the Prado Dam in Riverside County, and new channel work along the 100-mile sweep of the river from the San Bernardino Mountains to its mouth between Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. The Corps of Engineers has said that the improvements could save up to 3,000 lives and prevent $11 billion in property damage in the event of a major flood.

Last year, the President asked for and Congress approved $20 million for the project. The biggest chunk of the $65 million proposed in the 1991 budget would pay for work along the lower Santa Ana River.

The President’s budget also provides $10 million for construction of a new border checkpoint to replace the facility on the San Diego Freeway a few miles south of the Orange County line.

Although the money is included in the proposed budget’s anti-drug initiative, the main purpose of the relocation is to eliminate the potential for high-speed chases through the residential streets of San Clemente and neighboring communities, according to Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad), whose district includes southern Orange and northern San Diego counties.

A site for the new checkpoint has not yet been chosen, Packard said, but a design is already in the works at the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which operates the facility. That design most likely will route traffic off the freeway and through a barricade that will prevent smugglers of drugs or illegal immigrants from speeding through the checkpoint, Packard explained.

The U.S. Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro will get about $3 million for construction of new warehouses for storage of hazardous and flammable materials. A data-processing facility at the base will be upgraded at a cost of nearly $4 million.

However, the Bush Administration included no money to improve the facilities at the Coast Terminal Radar Control Center, the air traffic-control facility on the El Toro base. The facility came under fire last year after controllers complained of outmoded equipment, an aging building and a shortage of manpower.

Some improvements have been made recently, but critics have pressed for even more changes before the tracking station is combined with others in 1994 to create a bigger regional facility at another location.

In the area of human services, Robert Griffith, chief deputy director of the Orange County Social Services Agency, said he is concerned about the Administration’s plan to hold steady at $368.8 million, the federal aid for refugee assistance.

Of the 92,957 refugees in the United States who are eligible for federal assistance, California is home to 56,859, or 61%. Mark Tajima, a Los Angeles County legislative analyst, said the cost shift to the state would be nearly $100 million in welfare assistance alone, without including added medical expenses.

Orange County last year provided aid to about 23,000 refugees, primarily Asian but also East European, who live in the jurisdiction.

“We are expecting increasing numbers of refugees coming in and if we have only the same amount of money . . . it will definitely affect our ability to provide service,” Griffith said. Aid includes money for direct expenses, such as rent and food, and for job counseling and training services.

In addition, the Bush budget proposes spending only $301 million out of an authorized $1 billion on State Legalization Impact Assistance grants, set up to help newly legal immigrants secure permanent U.S. residency under the 1986 immigration reform bill.

Although that money is sent directly to the state, which packages it with other immigrant aid funds, the impact could be felt at the county level, Griffith said.

Decreased defense spending could hurt some local defense contractors, some officials said. For example, the Bush budget includes about $2.7 billion for the Air Force to purchase six C-17 troop transports from Long Beach-based Douglas Aircraft Co. The company at one point had hoped to sell the Air Force 10 transports in the 1991 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

“I think the fact that the program is still moving forward is more significant than the fact that they’re buying a couple fewer airplanes,” said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Lomita), whose district includes northwest Orange County and parts of southeast Los Angeles County.

Rohrabacher noted that the NASA budget is scheduled to increase 24%, to $13.6 billion and that both NASA and the Air Force are asking for a total of $275 million for research on the proposed National Aerospace Plane.

Increasing spending on such high-tech projects is a positive sign, Rohrabacher said.

“I think that President Bush’s decision to keep the aerospace plane on the front burner bodes well for our congressional district as well as the country,” he said.

Defense facilities in Los Angeles County, meanwhile, appeared to suffer some of the deepest cuts in the Southland. The budget calls for military and civilian personnel to be reduced at Edwards Air Force Base in Palmdale. And two bases--the Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo and the Long Beach Naval Shipyard--face the prospect of being closed.

However, the shipyard, Long Beach’s second largest employer, stands to receive $500,000 for asbestos removal.

Los Angeles County is also slated to receive $67.2 million for seismic upgrading and renovation of two buildings at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Long Beach.

Times staff writers Alan C. Miller and Ronald J. Ostrow contributed to this report.