O.C. Wins Big, Loses Small in Funding Votes : Public works: Congressional committees approve $65 million for Santa Ana River flood-control project but drop a promised $1 million in monorail start-up money.

WASHINGTON —  Congressional conference committees handed Orange County a $65-million victory and a $1-million defeat this week, approving massive new spending for the Santa Ana River flood-control project while turning down seed money for a county monorail system.

The money for the Santa Ana River project, eventually expected to cost nearly $1.5 billion, would advance the long-delayed public works program into the full construction phase.

“There are still hurdles,” said James F. McConnell, Orange County’s lobbyist in Washington. Even so, he said, “it’s very good that the conferees agreed on a bill with the full $65 million.” That was the amount requested by the Bush Administration for the 1991 fiscal year that began Oct. 1.

Authorized three years ago but funded for the first time only last year, the Santa Ana River project is designed to reduce what the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has identified as 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 could save up to 3,000 lives and prevent up to $11 billion in property damage in the event of a major flood, the corps has estimated.

“It’s been a long struggle,” said Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad), who represents southern Orange County. “Now we’re getting into the actual construction money, and that’s where we have to be if this is going to be an ongoing project.” Packard and Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) serve on the House Public Works and Transportation Committee, which authorized the Santa Ana River program.

Construction plans call for a new 550-foot flood control dam in San Bernardino County, improvement of the Prado Dam in Riverside County and new channel work along the river’s sweep from the San Bernardino Mountains to its mouth between Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. All but $364 million of the cost will be paid by the federal government. The rest will come from Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, with Orange County paying the biggest share.

The $65 million for the project was included in a $20.3-billion energy and water development spending bill approved late Tuesday by a conference committee made up of members of the House and Senate appropriations committees. The Santa Ana River appropriation must survive the ongoing federal budget reconciliation process and again win approval from both the House and Senate before becoming law.

Meanwhile, another House-Senate conference committee on Tuesday eliminated $1 million that the House had set aside last July as planning money for a proposed Orange County monorail system. The appropriation had been contained in a $30-billion transportation spending bill.

One congressional source said members of the transportation subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee axed the monorail money to retaliate against Rep. William E. Dannemeyer’s vote against the transportation appropriation bill last summer. Orange County’s other four congressmen voted for the measure.

However, a subcommittee staff member, who asked not to be named, disputed the claim. “I wouldn’t characterize it as being stripped out. It didn’t make the final cut. But I was there in the conference . . . and I didn’t hear anyone say they were deliberately out to get him.”

Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) said he was not sure why the panel rejected the funding. “I can only say that if this million-dollar appropriation was deleted . . . because of my voting for the benefit of the taxpayers of this country and against a loaded appropriations bill,” he said, “that’s another example of the arrogance” of the Democratic majority in Congress.

The monorail system, which backers hope one day will link at least five Orange County cities and span as many as 21 miles, would be built largely with private and state funds. Although no cost estimate is yet available for the overall system, proponents expect it to run into hundreds of millions of dollars.

The $1 million in federal money was intended to jump-start the planning process for a countywide system. A statewide initiative approved by voters last June specifically set aside $125 million to build about 4.5 miles of monorail line within the city of Irvine. Another $250 million in grants could come from a separate rail bond initiative, also approved in June, officials have said.

Cox said he does not believe that the action represents a serious setback “because the federal effort was infinitesimal.”

The subcommittee action was “typical of everything that’s happening up here,” said an aide to Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), who lobbied hard for the monorail money. “We have a deficit problem, we have a budget problem, and this is how Congress funds projects,” the aide said. “The whole system is beginning to stink.”