Dannemeyer’s Feathers Ruffled at Hearing : Environment: The congressman attacked a decision to save an endangered bird while endorsing $78.2 million for Santa Ana River flood-control work.

WASHINGTON — A congressional hearing on the Bush Administration’s request for $78.2 million to continue work on the massive Santa Ana River flood-control project took on the cast of an environmental debate Wednesday as a combative Rep. William E. Dannemeyer used the session to launch an attack on the Endangered Species Act.

The Fullerton Republican was one of four Orange County congressmen who testified in support of the $1.5-billion flood-control project, which is intended to protect 3 million residents and 500,000 homes in the sweeping Santa Ana River basin in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

But the conservative Dannemeyer spent most of his time telling members of a House Appropriations subcommittee of his pique at last month’s decision by the Army Corps of Engineers to release about 6 billion of gallons of storm water from the Prado Dam in Riverside County, in part because of fear that the rising reservoir would flood the nesting area of an endangered bird, the least Bell’s vireo.

Expanding the Prado Dam and the capacity of its reservoir is a key element of the flood-control project.

Dannemeyer complained that in the midst of a drought, federal flood-control officials in early March “released 15,000 acre-feet of water down the river that could have been utilized to recharge our underground (water-storage) basin.

“Why? Because of concern about the nesting of the least Bell’s vireo. I’ll tell you, that strains credulity on the part of people, that our political system has reached the point where we are evidencing more concern over critters and animals than people,” Dannemeyer said.

“Next year, when we look at the Endangered Species Act . . . we’re going to have to amend that act to put a little balance into it,” he added.

Rep. Vic Fazio (D-West Sacramento), the ranking Californian on the Appropriations Committee’s energy and water development subcommittee, told Dannemeyer, facetiously: “Thank you, Bill, for injecting some new issues into our discussion here.”

After the March incident, officials of the Orange County Water District agreed to set aside and enhance 122 acres near the Prado reservoir as a new nesting area for the vireos, and contribute $450,000 to a fund to pay for management and monitoring of the birds. In return, the Corps of Engineers agreed to raise the level of the reservoir and then release the water slowly, to replenish the district’s vast underground storage basin.

Although others in Congress have expressed frustration with the Endangered Species Act, which dates to 1973, there appears to be little support for seriously diluting the law, which expires next year and must be re-enacted.

Environmentalists have vowed to fight any effort to gut the act, which is the cornerstone of conservation efforts throughout the nation.

“Weaken the act? No way,” said Jeff Widen, associate representative of the Southern California office of the Sierra Club.

“This act was created for good reasons. I would like to ask Mr. Dannemeyer: ‘Are you going to be satisfied if we have only one-half the species we have today? Or one-quarter? Where do we draw the line?’ We think we drew the line when Congress passed the Endangered Species Act.”

Many California biologists have warned that hundreds of animal and plant species will become extinct in the state over the next couple of decades, especially in Southern California, unless state and federal laws are strengthened to protect rapidly disappearing habitat, such as the coastal canyons of Orange County.

“Opponents to protecting species make this out as one bird versus a whole economy or one bird versus people,” Widen said. “But these animals are indicators of our overall environmental health and the soundness of our environmental policy. I don’t know one human being that has been sacrificed for the sake of an endangered species. It’s not an either-or.”

Some top members of the Bush Administration’s Interior Department also have been talking lately about weakening the act.

“We take it seriously, although Dannemeyer can’t be taken too seriously,” Widen said. “He is anti-environmental from the word go. It’s worrisome when these kinds of statements are said, but in the long run, laws like this will remain intact.”

Dannemeyer, who has often mounted strident attacks on what he describes as overzealous environmentalists, has sounded the theme of exalting beasts over humans before.

In a June, 1990, letter to Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr., whose department administers the Endangered Species Act, Dannemeyer complained that federal officials banned malathion spraying over parts of Riverside County in an effort to protect the endangered Stephens kangaroo rat. At the same time, Dannemeyer said, the pesticide was being sprayed on hundreds of thousands of Orange County residents in a campaign to eradicate the Mediterranean Fruit Fly.

“Under existing law, does your department have any intention to list humans as an endangered species, and if so, when do you plan to do it,” Dannemeyer asked in a subsequent letter to Lujan.

In addition to Dannemeyer, Reps. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), Dana Rohrabacher (R-Long Beach) and Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad) endorsed the Administration’s request for the third annual appropriation for the Santa Ana River project. Rohrabacher represents northwestern Orange County, and Packard’s district includes southern Orange County. Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), who is in California recuperating from hip-replacement surgery, submitted written testimony.

Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, who traveled to Washington for the hearing, told subcommittee members: “We feel that Orange County has demonstrated its commitment, and most of all its willingness to commit substantial monies and efforts to the successful completion of this project.”

So far, she said, the county has spent about $37 million to acquire property, undertake road and bridge projects and pay for surveys required for the flood-control project. The county’s ultimate share of the cost is expected to reach $427 million.

Wieder was accompanied by George Osborne, executive director of the Santa Ana River Flood Control Agency, and William Zaun, director of public works for the Orange County Environmental Management Agency.

In the last two years, Congress has appropriated a total of $85 million--the full amount requested by the Bush Administration--to pay for planning and start-up work on the project, which will include construction of a new dam in San Bernardino County, enlarging Prado Dam, and expanding and rebuilding channels along the 100-mile path of the river.

If Congress follows suit this year, the next $78.2 million will finance further work on the new Seven Oaks Dam, at the foot of the San Bernardino Mountains, and channel work in the lower Santa Ana River in Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa.

Times staff writer Marla Cone contributed to this report.

Santa Ana River Flood-Control Project Many will benefit, but few will suffer After years of debate, the $1.5-billion public works project begins this summer. Without it, more than 3 million people are at risk from a devastating flood.

A-Prado Dam

The dam, completed in 1941, could not contain a major flood, revised estimates now indicate. The dam will raised 28.4 feet, and about 2,000 acres will be added to accommodate the reservoir behind it. That will probably mean displacing several hundred property owners. Riverside and San Bernardino counties are above the dam, while below it lie some of the most densely populated urban and suburban real estate in the country.

B-Lower Santa Ana River

Improvements to 23 miles of channel from Weir Canyon to the Pacific Ocean.

C- Seven Oaks Dam

A 550-foot-high, 3,000-foot-long dam in the Upper Santa River Canyon, inside San Bernardino National Forest.

Santa Ana River drainage basin: This area covers 2,450 square miles and is the largest basin in Southern California.-

In the event of a major, 200-year flood such as the one that hit Orange County in 1862, both of these shaded areas would be covered by an average of three feet of water. Thousands of people would be left homeless, 3,000 would probably die and property damage could top $18 billion.

Source: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Orange County flood control district supervisors for the project.