Flood Project Faces Drought of State Funds

This is an awkward time for the people of the San Luis Rey River valley in Oceanside to ask for sympathy, let alone money and votes.

After four years of drought, the valley with 4,000 residences and 100 businesses is so parched that brittle scrub dots the wide banks of the low, seemingly unmenacing river.

Yet the people live with the threat of deadly floods, which have struck before. They believe it’s only a matter of time--perhaps not much time--until the drought ends and a torrential rain swells the river again.

“It’s obvious they’re overdue,” said Jim Crum of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is building an estimated $66-million flood-control project that’s not expected to be completed for another two years.

Already worried about being unprepared for the next inevitable flood, city officials and residents now have another reason for concern. Gov. George Deukmejian, trying to balance the budget, recently cut nearly $5 million from the project.

Local officials are alarmed about the project’s possible delay. Although a bond measure on the Nov. 6 ballot would provide the revenue, skeptics wonder if statewide voters will approve the funds.

“Coming on the tail of a four-year drought, I question whether voters will be motivated to approve a bond measure” for flood-control projects, Oceanside Mayor Larry Bagley said.

The situation does nothing to console Nancy Jakovac, who lives with her husband in a 122-unit condominium complex that is 4 feet above sea level and within viewing distance of the San Luis Rey River bed.

“We’re in a drought, and everybody believes they can play Russian roulette . . . ,” she scoffed.

When it comes to floods, Jakovac knows her subject.

Fourteen years ago, as the Jakovacs prepared to move into their new condominium, they had no idea they had put themselves in harm’s way until they signed the loan papers and were told they must get flood insurance.

The insurance cost $87 a year initially, but it has risen to $400 yearly now.

“I didn’t even know (the river) was there. It was a drought year, so nobody even mentioned it was there,” said Jakovac, who is on the city Planning Commission.

She and her husband soon learned about life on a flood basin.

In 1978, during heavy rains, they heard a loud noise and opened the front door.

“The river was just roaring and tumbling out there. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen,” she said. The water was 60 feet from the door. Her husband borrowed a bulldozer and hastily crafted a levee that neighbors secured with sandbags. Luckily, the river subsided.

“Everybody pitched in to save our neighborhood,” Jakovac said.

In recent years, there were floods in 1969, 1978, 1980 and 1983, claiming one life and causing $5.4 million in damage.

Although the monetary cost was “relatively modest,” said Dana Whitson, assistant to the city manager, the floods served as a reminder of what can happen.

The worst San Luis Rey River flood in memory hit in 1916, when three people were killed, bridges were washed out and the entire valley floor was inundated by a peak flow of 95,600 cubic feet per second.

“The city was inaccessible for more than two weeks, except by boat,” said Whitson, who is working on the flood-control project. A flood of that magnitude today would cause at least $100 million in damage and pose “a clear risk to loss of life,” she said.

The project involves a rock-revetted double levee with a soft-bottom channel, parapet walls and drainage ponds along a 7.2-mile stretch of river from the ocean to the Murray Bridge. It also includes a 5-mile bicycle trail and a 42-acre replacement habitat for the endangered least Bell’s vireo.

With the project one-third complete, funding is critical to begin the second construction phase next April. The third and last phase is scheduled to be finished in 1992.

The federal share of the project is about $47 million, with $13 million from the state and $5.8 million from Oceanside.

But Oceanside suffered a setback when Deukmejian, in a battle with the Legislature to balance the state budget, vetoed funding that included $4.6 million for the city.

The funds were intended to reimburse Oceanside for money it spent to cover a portion of the state’s part of the project.

The city has spent $1.5 million and expected to spend another $5.25 million this fiscal year to buy property for the project. The property purchases were to be covered as part of the state’s portion of the program.

But the reimbursement hasn’t happened.

Bagley wrote to Deukmejian urging him to approve legislation to put a flood-control bond issue for projects statewide on the Nov. 6 ballot.

“Obviously, the loss of assured funding for this year is a major blow in our effort to construct the (project’s second phase) as scheduled in spring, 1991,” said Bagley.

Bagley got his wish Wednesday when legislation placing the bond measure on the ballot, Proposition 148, passed the deadline without being vetoed by the governor.

However, it didn’t get Deukmejian’s signature, indicating he is willing to put the measure on the ballot but might not personally support it. The governor has said he is concerned about the amount of bonded debt the state is creating.