Defense and Parks May Gain Funds : Budget: Locally, Stealth bombers, Santa Monica Mountains land and money to clean up Rockwell’s Santa Susana laboratory are on President Bush’s 1992 list.
President Bush’s proposed 1992 budget would send money to the San Fernando Valley area for parkland, defense systems and decontamination at Rockwell International’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory.
The $1.4-trillion spending proposal includes $11.5 million to buy land in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, the same amount that Bush included in his 1991 budget. Congress appropriated $12 million last year--more than any other national park received but less than the more than $30 million sought by park proponents.
A spokeswoman for Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles), a leading park advocate, said Beilenson believes that the $11.5 million “is quite insufficient given the need to acquire land. He’ll be asking for a higher number . . . probably somewhere in the $25-million to $30-million range.”
The budget contains proposals certain to encourage defense contractors in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys.
It called for $4.8 billion to build four more of Northrop Corp.’s controversial and costly B-2 Stealth bombers as well as $4.6 billion for the much-debated Strategic Defense Initiative components, many of which are manufactured in the northern Los Angeles County valleys. Both items are expected to be challenged by the Democrat-led Congress.
The budget contains money for cleanup of the Rockwell facility west of Chatsworth, but does not list a specific amount. A spokesman for Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) said the cleanup will probably receive close to the $12.5 million proposed for 1992 in a Department of Energy five-year plan because the budget calls for an 18% increase in DOE anti-pollution funds nationwide.
“At this point, it looks good based on the fact there is so much money in there,” said John Frith, a spokesman for Gallegly.
The department would use the $12.5 million to continue removing chemical and radioactive contamination, and to upgrade pollution controls on equipment.
Other budget items of interest in Los Angeles include $55 million to deal with ocean pollution and additional funds for housing, said Jim Seeley, the city of Los Angeles’ lobbyist in Washington.
The ocean pollution project, administered under an Environmental Protection Agency program, is part of $300 million in direct federal grants to five major coastal cities for waste-water treatment. The other municipalities are San Diego, Seattle, Boston and New York City.
Figures for other Los Angeles projects, such as the Metro Rail subway system, will become known later as federal officials spell out the budget plan in detail. Congress, which must pass all spending laws, generally makes substantial changes in the President’s budget.
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