Not quite flush with cash

Deirdre Newman

Members of the Santa Ana River Flood Protection Agency today will be

brainstorming strategies to secure a significant amount of funds to

complete the Prado Dam project.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started working about six months

ago on improving the dam -- where the counties of Orange, Riverside

and San Bernardino converge -- to withstand a 200-year flood.

The corps requested $24 million from Congress for the fiscal year

that started Oct. 1 but has only received $15 million so far, said

Don Martinson, executive director of the flood protection agency.

If it doesn’t get the rest, the project could stall. But getting

funds from the federal government for projects such as these isn’t as

easy as it used to be, Martinson said.

“Things have changed so much in regards to finance of the projects

at the federal level that it’s a whole different ballgame now,”

Martinson said. “We’re going to have to develop some new strategies.”

The Prado Dam was built after a flood in 1938. Since then, the

Santa Ana River watershed has experienced a lot of development,

creating a need to improve the dam.

The flood protection agency is composed of 22 members, who

represent the cities that would be affected if the river floods.

The first phase of the project, which is underway, includes

elevating the dam embankment and constructing a new outlet tower at a

cost of $68 million. The entire project is expected to take about

three and a half years to complete. But funding is only provided on a

yearly basis.

The funds the corps has obtained so far for the next fiscal year

will only last for about three to four months of work on the project,

said Girish Desai, project manger with the Army Corps.

Mortinson said that congressmen who represent the agency cities,

such as Reps. Chris Cox and Dana Rohrabacher, have been extremely

supportive of the project and are trying to get the remainder of the

funding. But even they have not been successful, Mortinson said.

The local office of the Army Corps of Engineers is also exploring

borrowing the rest of the funds, Mortinson said. But there’s no

guarantee it will be able to do that, he added.

Some agency members are concerned about getting sufficient funds

from the state for the final phase of the project, which involves

enlarging the storage capacity behind the dam.

The agency needs to acquire property in the Prado Basin before

construction on the final phase can start. The cost to acquire this

property is about two hundred million dollars, Mortinson said. And

the agency is looking for the state to kick in about one hundred

million of that over the next five years or so, he added.

But the agency was not allocated any money in this year’s budget

from the state’s general fund, said Jim Ferryman, a member of the

group’s board. However, some funds are still available from statewide

bonds, so lobbying efforts by the agency are key, Ferryman

emphasized.

“We’ve got to be diligent in our efforts to secure all of our

funding,” Ferryman said. “The Santa Ana River watershed is really the

most at-risk [watershed] west of the Mississippi. And if we should

have a big, 200-year flood, we would have billions and billions of

dollars in losses. It is very important that we get this final phase

of it done.”