Smith Offers Millions to Water Districts, UCI : Philanthropy: Irvine Co. heiress reveals ‘wish list’ of water projects, university endowments that she’ll fund.

Multimillionaire Joan Irvine Smith, whose fierce legal battle with the Irvine Co. may net her $252.6 million, is making plans to finance a “wish list” of projects to improve Orange County’s water supply and to give millions to UC Irvine.

Smith said she wants Orange County to become a national if not international leader in research into desalination, toxic waste management and water reclamation.

The heiress revealed her intentions at public board meetings of three water districts this month where she asked board members to suggest projects that they would like to undertake but could not otherwise afford.

In an interview Tuesday night, Smith said she also plans to donate millions of dollars to UC Irvine, and to do all of this before the end of the calendar year.

“We are not interested in appealing the case. I’m tired of it. The money has been tied up seven years, and I want to use it,” she said.

She added: “I want to put a large amount of this money back into the county. This is where it was made.”

In addition to funding water projects, Smith said she plans to donate $1 million for an endowed chair for a law school at UC Irvine, although she realizes the creation of a law school would require approval by the UC Board of Regents.

“They have no law school and they need a law school. They could be the Harvard of the West.”

She also plans to endow a $1-million chair within UCI’s School of Engineering which would focus on water reclamation, toxic waste management and desalination. The chair would form the basis for a new department within the School of Engineering, she said.

Smith said she would also provide substantial funding for the university’s widely acclaimed program studying the Earth’s ozone layer.

Finally, she said, she plans to donate considerably more than those amounts to develop clinical research facilities on campus related to the medical school.

Officials at UC Irvine confirmed discussions with Smith about financing water research at the university.

Smith’s latest pledge came at Monday night’s public meeting of the Irvine Ranch Water District. She told the district’s board that she would like to see proposals such as desalination projects or a toxic-waste management program--projects aimed at increasing the supply of drinking water in Orange County.

“You certainly have our attention and our interest,” Irvine Ranch Water District Board President Peer A. Swan told Smith after she made her announcement Monday night.

“I certainly hope so,” Smith replied.

Smith, a popcorn-munching observer at public meetings of the three water agencies on and off for years, said that she would not yet provide details of her proposed gifts to the water districts or how much she was planning to donate.

“When I get a check, that’s when I’ll talk to you,” she said as she left Monday’s meeting.

Smith has been battling the Irvine Co. and its chairman, Donald L. Bren, in court for almost eight years over the value of her 11% share of the company, which she agreed to sell to Bren in 1983.

The ruling by a court referee awarding Smith $252.6 million still requires a judge’s approval, after which both sides would have 45 days to appeal.

Smith said Tuesday that she understands “that I can donate approximately 40% of the amount of tax” that she would have to pay this calendar year on the court award “to public agencies which will qualify for charitable deductions.” The water agencies and the university, she said, should qualify.

As Smith’s dispute with the Irvine Co. draws to a close in Michigan courts, she has openly discussed making donations to several public agencies. The three water districts approached by Smith are the Irvine Ranch Water District, the Orange County Water District and the Municipal Water District of Orange County.

Officials from the three water agencies said this week that they will be drafting proposals to submit to Smith in the coming weeks. She has not provided specific guidelines or even suggested dollar limits for the projects, agency spokesmen said.

“What I think she’s saying is, ‘Hey, I’ve been sitting in on your water meetings for the last 10 years. I’ve learned a lot about water and understand a lot of the problems associated with water supply, and here’s my opportunity to provide some support for some of those programs and help you overcome some of the obstacles you have,’ ” said Stan Sprague, general manager of the Municipal Water District of Orange County.

Swan of the Irvine Ranch district said Smith’s donation to the water districts is tied in with a plan to fund water research at UCI. Smith apparently is offering to fund local projects to make Orange County more water-independent and to back up the projects with hard research from the university, Swan said.

UCI has had discussions with Smith on an offer to support water research, but the talks are still preliminary, university spokeswoman Karen Newell Young said Tuesday. “I don’t think anything has been nailed down yet,” she said.

In the meantime, the three water districts plan to draft individual and cooperative projects to submit to Smith for consideration.

Officials of the Irvine Ranch district, which serves Irvine, parts of Newport Beach and Tustin and some nearby unincorporated areas, said its “wish list” could include projects such as extracting salts and toxic chemicals from ground water to make it drinkable, Swan said.

The Municipal Water District of Orange County, which supplies water to 28 county water agencies, is “actively working on several different ideas” to submit to Smith, Sprague said.

Smith’s offer is to fund “projects that we might call back-burner projects,” Sprague said.

Sprague would not discuss specific projects that MWD officials have in mind, but he said that their proposals could cost in the million-dollar range.

“I’m sure she wants to get the maximum bang out of her buck, and we want to get the maximum bang from her buck,” Sprague said.

Smith’s proposal to fund “wish-list” projects caught the Orange County Water District by surprise, spokesman Jim Van Haun said Tuesday. “We’re at the point of getting our heads together and going from there.”

Smith said, “I’m a workaholic and this is the kind of thing that has a great deal of satisfaction for me.” She said she plans to forgo travel to watch her donations at work.

“I want to sit here and see how the money is spent and make sure that it is made useful. The idea is to start these projects right, and to get these districts to work together toward these goals.”