Wilson Relents on Firefighting Plane : Blazes: Governor vetoed proposal for ‘super scoopers’ last year, citing cheaper plan to update state’s fleet. But the work was never done.

When Gov. Pete Wilson rejected a proposal last year to test a water-scooping plane that could have been used to fight Southern California’s wildfires, he said the state had a more economical alternative.

But the Administration never was able to implement that plan, which called for modernizing air tankers that are part of the state’s firefighting fleet, Administration officials acknowledged Thursday.

A Wilson aide said the governor now favors testing the new plane--if it can be done at no cost to the state.

The plane, known as the CL-215 but nicknamed the “super scooper,” can swoop over an ocean, lake or reservoir, pick up 1,600 gallons of water in 12 seconds, and deliver it quickly to the scene of a spreading fire.

A year ago, Wilson vetoed legislation that would have required the state to test the aircraft in several California areas, including Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

At the time, the governor cited the high cost of the Canadian-made aircraft and said he preferred to use limited resources to update the state’s fleet of retrofitted military planes and helicopters. An Administration spokesman reiterated that strategy Thursday.

Andrew H. McLeod, assistant secretary for resources, said each super scooper would cost $17 million. For the same amount, McLeod said, the state could get 10 or 15 conventional air tankers.

“That would be an unacceptable trade-off for the very marginal benefit represented by the CL-215,” he said.

But a California Department of Forestry official said the modernization plan Wilson cited when he vetoed the super-scooper bill has not been implemented.

Bill Harrington, assistant deputy director of the forestry department, said the state had planned to buy or contract for 14 planes, half with a capacity of 2,000 gallons of fire retardant and half with a capacity of 3,000 gallons. The state would have scrapped its fleet of 17 planes, 13 of which can carry only 800 gallons.

But the private contractors who were going to supply the state with the larger-capacity airplanes can no longer get the hulls for free from the federal government, which would have reduced the cost to the state.

“Our plan was really predicated on a set of situations that changed considerably,” Harrington said.

As a result, he said, the state has improved its 10 water-dropping helicopters but has been stymied on the more ambitious plans to update its airplane fleet. A private consultant is reviewing the operation.

The bill Wilson vetoed would have allocated $1.8 million to lease two super-scooper planes for several months during this year’s fire season. One plane would have been based in Northern California and one in Southern California.

Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Brentwood) said he introduced the bill after seeing the destruction caused by the 1991 Oakland Hills fire.

“It was obvious to me that the same sort of urban wilderness fire threatened the Santa Monica Mountains and other urban wilderness areas across the state that are close to an available water supply,” said Friedman, who represents the area devastated by the Topanga Canyon fire.

McLeod said the Administration is willing to test the Canadian aircraft but only if it can do so without a cost to taxpayers. He said the Administration still believes the planes are not cost-effective.

But Friedman faulted the governor’s logic, saying that Wilson is focusing only on the firefighting budget rather than also considering the disaster aid that might be saved by stopping major fires.

The state paid $16 million this year to reimburse Alameda County for property tax lost when burned-out properties were reassessed downward, Friedman said.

“He’s looking at one agency’s budget in a sort of myopic bean-counting way rather than being a leader and looking at the overall good of the state,” Friedman said.