$7.6 Million Is Sought for Water Projects : Congress: Valley lawmakers face tough competition for the federal funds. The money would be spent on Sepulveda Basin, L.A. River and Hansen Dam.

San Fernando Valley congressmen requested nearly $7.6 million in federal funds Wednesday for water and recreation projects in the Sepulveda Basin, Los Angeles River and Hansen Dam.

The lawmakers, who appeared before the House Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water development on its annual “California Day,” were told that they face tough competition for especially scarce funds.

“We’re in a heap of trouble,” said Rep. Vic Fazio (D-West Sacramento), the panel’s second-ranking Democrat. “The committee is $400 million short of what it needs” to fund President Bush’s proposed budget.

Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles) again went to bat for Mayor Tom Bradley’s plan to revitalize the Los Angeles River. The lawmaker asked for $300,000 next year to begin a study of the river’s recreational and environmental potential. The 18-month study is expected to cost $1.5 million--shared evenly by federal and city governments. The remaining money would be sought the following year.

The 58-mile concrete-lined channel begins in the southwest Valley and flows east and then south, past downtown Los Angeles to Long Beach. It has been used primarily for flood control for decades by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Congress last year appropriated $1 million for such a study, but the Army Corps, citing a conflict with its flood-control plans, reduced it to a $250,000 survey, which is still under way. The corps, however, has expressed pessimism about the potential for river restoration. Beilenson responded by asking the House panel Wednesday to include language in next year’s spending bill that would require the corps to survey the entire river.

He also requested $500,000 to identify opportunities for increasing water supply and conservation within the Los Angeles County Drainage Area, including such measures as widening the Los Angeles River and its tributaries upstream for flood control and ground-water recharging. Beilenson said this would “benefit the entire Los Angeles area.” The request comes six weeks after a series of storms produced heavy rainfall that could not be captured by the existing system and instead flowed to the ocean.

Also, Beilenson asked for $4.5 million to continue recreation improvements in the Sepulveda Basin and revitalize a two-mile stretch of the Los Angeles River in the basin. Congress has spent $13.5 million, which the city has matched, to develop 160 acres as a park and 60 acres as a wildlife preserve.

For the northeast Valley, Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) requested $2.3 million to continue restoration of the Hansen Dam Recreation Area. The funds would be used to complete construction of a 15-acre swimming lake and to plan and design a 70-acre boating lake. The lakes are a key part of an Army Corps’ master plan to return the long-neglected site to its former glory as a popular recreational facility.

“This project is of enormous importance to me and to the people of the San Fernando Valley,” Berman said. “We have been working for many years to provide recreational facilities to this extremely underserved area.”

Berman requested $2.2 million in direct funding and another $167,000 in revenues from a Hansen Dam dredging operation, which Congress has said should be spent on restoration.