CITY FOCUS: Aliso funding secured

Congress this week washed out a presidential veto of the $23 billion Water Resources Development Act of 2007 that includes the cleanup of Aliso Creek.

Aliso Creek is tabbed for $4.5 million, a down payment on the proposed “SUPER Project,” the stabilization, utility protection and environmental restoration of the creek, if the funds are approved by the Congressional Appropriations Committees.

“This is good news for Laguna,” Councilwoman Elizabeth Schneider said. “The head of the Senate Appropriations Committee is Dianne Feinstein and Toni [Mayor Iseman], and I met with her staff last winter in Washington, D.C., on this act, and they were very positive about our concept.”

Feinstein is revered in Laguna by Democrats and Republicans alike for lending her influence to loosen the federal purse strings to repair infrastructure damaged in the 2005 Bluebird Canyon landslide.

California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, who heads the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, had predicted the override in August when the veto was threatened. It is the first override for the Bush administration and a rarity for any president.

“It is very unusual for a Congress to override a presidential veto,” Boxer said after the vote. “This is only the 107th time it has been done in the history of our country.

“Mr. President, why do we have to fight over everything? We shouldn’t have to argue over making sure our infrastructure is strong.”

Bush said he vetoed the act because it was “not fiscally responsible.”

However, 34 of the 79 senate votes to override the veto were cast by Republicans, a revolt led by Sen James Imhofe of Oklahoma, a fiscal conservative and ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, which he formerly chaired.

“This has been quite an experience,” Boxer said. “As most of you know, Sen. Imhofe and I don’t exactly see eye to eye on everything, but on this we were very much a team.

“I say to communities all over the country, including my own, we know you have flood control issues. We know you need to keep up with imports and exports. To those who want to preserve their environment, have restoration of their environment, we do that here.”

However, of the 900 projects named in the act, the SUPER project is of most interest to Laguna and near the top for officials of Orange County, which is the lead agency.

“We have other projects in the [act], which authorizes Army Corps of Engineers projects, but this is one of the county’s top priorities,” said Marilyn Thoms, county manager of environmental engineering.

The $4.5 million authorized in the act for the SUPER project may be only a drop in the bucket of the $45 million estimated cost of the proposal, but it is a start, Schneider said. Getting the authorized federal funding appropriated is the next challenge.

As of Tuesday, no date had been set for the appropriations committees’ hearings, but Thoms said she thinks the funding for the SUPER project will come, even if it’s in drips.

“Once you get the money approved and your bank set up, you get funds every year — you just don’t know ahead how much,” Thoms said.

Thoms lauded the efforts of Schneider and Iseman on behalf of the project.

“They are a good team,” Thoms said. “We wouldn’t be where we are today, without them. I am a staff person, but I don’t have the connections that they have.”

Schneider’s connections include California Congressman John Campbell, who attended the press announcement of the $45 million “SUPER” Aliso Creek cleanup project in September 2006.

“I was interested in this project for years when I was in the state legislature, now I am in a position to do something about it,” Campbell said. “Right now the creek is polluted — it can be pristine. Right now there is non-native vegetation — it can be completely natural.”

The first phase of the proposal includes the construction of a series of low structures in the creek and the reconnection of it to the natural flood plan.

Creek sides will be shaved to reduce the steepness of the slopes and invasive species of plants will be removed and replaced with native vegetation. Infrastructure protection will include locking the low flow channel in place with rock at the toe, with soil wraps above the rock.

Diversion of the low flows of Aliso Creek at the South Orange County Water Agency treatment plant to make the water salable for irrigation is also a goal.

Funding will be divided between federal appropriations and county contributions, estimated to be $11.25 million in 2006.

“Right now, it is pretty much out of my hands, but I know Elizabeth and Toni are doing whatever they can, and I will continue to press for funds,” said Thoms, who has worked on the project for five years.

“I am in this for the long haul and I am going to get it done.”

For more information about the project, call (714) 834-2352.