Countywide : Flood Control Project Passes 1 Budget Test

Orange County’s plans to expand highways, streets and flood control channels have emerged from the first stages of the federal budget process with mixed results.

Among the winners: The Santa Ana River Flood Control Project, the nation’s largest-ever flood control plan, which survived the budget-cutting mood of the House Appropriations Committee Wednesday, receiving $70.2 million.

One loser: The plan to widen Bristol Street from four to six lanes along a 3.9-mile stretch between Edinger and McFadden Avenues in Santa Ana. The $25.7 million requested for the expansion was included in a large package of highway demonstration projects rejected by the transportation appropriations subcommittee.

The city of Santa Ana has invested $28 million in planning, design and partial construction, and was seeking federal funds to complete the project.

“The [Bristol Street] project is eventually going to get done, but now it will take 13 years rather than 10,” said Santa Ana City Councilman Ted R. Moreno, who vowed to ask for federal money again next year, in addition to state and Measure M transportation funds.

The $1.3-billion Santa Ana River project is designed to protect against a 100-year flood that experts say could wipe out thousands of acres from Anaheim to the Pacific Ocean.

Once the projects pass muster at the committee level, they must survive debate on the House floor and in the Senate. Other Orange County water projects approved Wednesday by the full Appropriations Committee included:

* $600,000 for environmental studies and preliminary design of the Orange County Regional Water Reclamation Project, which would pump waste water upstream from Fountain Valley to a recharge facility in Anaheim.

* $100,000 for the Army Corps of Engineers and the Orange County Water District to conduct a flood forecasting study and improve water conservation.