O.C. Officials Urge Flood Control Funds, Hear That ‘Budget Is Tight’

Orange County officials who descended on Capitol Hill Wednesday to lobby for more money for the massive Santa Ana River flood control project got this message: Times are tough, the budget is tight, but Congress will do what it can.

“We’re in a heap of trouble,” said Rep. Vic Fazio (D-West Sacramento), the second-ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water development. “The committee is $400 million short of what it needs to fund the President’s (budget) package.”

Nevertheless, three Orange County congressmen and two local officials told subcommittee members that California’s February floods demonstrate that Congress must continue to set aside hundreds of millions of dollars to complete the Santa Ana River project.

Had the February storms that hit Los Angeles and Ventura counties struck farther south, “we would have had . . . thousands of bodies floating down the Santa Ana River,” said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach).

“By providing the necessary funding to continue the construction of the Santa Ana project, this committee is saving thousands of lives and preventing as well an economic catastrophe,” Rohrabacher said.

First funded in 1989, the $1.5-billion Santa Ana River project is intended to reduce dramatically what the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has called the greatest flood risk to an urban area in the western United States.

The planned dam and flood channel improvements along the 100-mile river, which sweeps from the San Bernardino Mountains to the sea at Huntington Beach, could save up to 3,000 lives and prevent up to $14 billion in property damage in the event of a catastrophic flood, the Corps of Engineers has estimated.

In his proposed budget for the 1993 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, President Bush has asked Congress to spend $90.8 million to continue work on the flood control project. Orange County’s share of the total construction cost ultimately will reach an estimated $425 million, according to local officials.

In each of the last three years, Congress has fully funded the President’s request for the project, which will serve Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

But Fazio warned that 1993 is shaping up as a particularly tough year for budget makers, largely because of a House vote Tuesday that bars the transfer of money saved by cutting the defense budget to domestic spending accounts. Fazio said, however, that lawmakers recognize the importance of the Santa Ana River project, and will make whatever accommodations they can.

In addition to Rohrabacher, Reps. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), Ron Packard (R-Oceanside) and Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) spoke in favor of the Santa Ana River project. Packard represents southern Orange County, and Lewis’ district, based in San Bernardino County, would be a major beneficiary of the flood control program.

Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) submitted written testimony. Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) was in California campaigning for the U.S. Senate.

“The Santa Ana project is crucial to the future of Southern California’s development on the one hand,” Lewis said, “but more importantly, it remains the most significant flood plain that has not been adequately protected.”

Also addressing House appropriators were George Osborne, executive director of the Santa Ana River Flood Protection Agency, and William Zaun, director of public works for the Orange County Environmental Management Agency.

Osborne suggested that continued funding for the project would not only save lives but would stimulate the Southern California economy by “providing direct employment and the use of a wide array of services, materials and supplies.”

The Santa Ana River project is to include construction of a new 550-foot flood control dam in San Bernardino County, to be called the Seven Oaks Dam, improvement and enlargement of the Prado Dam in Riverside County, and new flood channel construction along the entire length of the river.

The energy and water development subcommittee has not yet scheduled its vote on the 1993 water project bill. After the subcommittee vote, the appropriations legislation must be approved by the full committee, then the full House, the Senate, and finally by a House-Senate conference committee, before it is sent to the President for his signature.