Alaska’s Hickel Wants to Open His Water Taps for Parched Southland : Drought: The governor and Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, both of whom back the project, discuss the proposed 1,700-mile pipeline.

A man who has plenty of water met a man who wants it Thursday.

Alaska Gov. Walter Hickel came to Los Angeles to meet with County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who has enthusiastically endorsed a plan to build a 1,700-mile pipeline to bring water from the 49th state to drought-stricken Southern California.

Hickel has pushed for an Alaska-to-California water pipeline since the 1960s.

Hahn, famous for pursuing the same cause for a decade, or longer, has campaigned unsuccessfully for construction of aqueducts that would carry water to California from the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest and the Snake River in Idaho.

“But the governors of all those states wrote me nasty letters,” Hahn said. “So I thought, forget the Columbia River, I’ll go higher.”

After their private meeting, Hahn and Hickel insisted that their plan is sound.

Proposals such as the Alaska-to-California pipeline “sound a little bit far out, to start out,” Hickel said at a packed Los Angeles news conference that was covered by a reporter from the governor’s home state. “But necessity will cause people to think.

“I think civilizations need big projects,” the governor said. “When (President) Kennedy said let’s go to the moon, he didn’t say, well, this is how you design a rocket.”

“You said it in a nutshell,” Hahn said.

The newfound political soul mates were joined by representatives of the Department of Water and Power, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and Fluor Daniel Inc., an engineering firm.

J. Robert Fluor II, vice president of corporate relations for Fluor Daniel Inc., said a preliminary feasibility study, including a cost estimate, on the project should be completed by the end of May.

Despite the enthusiasm shown here Thursday, back in the Alaska Capitol in Juneau, House Speaker Ben Grussendorf said of the proposed pipeline: “Believe me, we have a lot more important things to think about than the problems of Los Angeles and California.”

Rep. Edward R. Roybal (D-Los Angeles) has introduced legislation in Washington that would require a feasibility study on the project. His daughter, Assemblywoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles), has introduced a similar resolution in the state Legislature.